Delightful and Intriguing (Roald Dahl in general)

Member Name: NikkiH

Product:	Roald Dahl in general
Date:	06/06/01 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining

Disadvantages: -

Roald Dahl... a literary genius. Another fine example of someone who is as appealing to adults as they are to children.

Dahl was born in Llandaff in Wales in 1916 to Norwegian parents. Tragically aged 3, his father Harald and sister Astri died leaving his mother to bring six children up alone, Roald being the only boy.

As a young child he loved reading, and aged 8 he started to keep a diary.

In his autobiographical book "Boy" he decribes his childhood and schooldays. He also reminisces of his time in high school and forbidden trips to the sweet shop, and it was on these trips while staring into the window that the seeds were sown for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", as they wondered if rats could be turned into licquorice.

Aged 23, Dahl signed up for The Air Force, and again in the autobiographical book "Going Solo", he tells of escapades during the war, including crashing in no mans land. In 1942 after being seriously injured, he was sent to Washington DC to work as an attache, where he met the author C S Forrester, who wrote Captain Hornblower, and this was a meeting that would change the course of Dahl's life. He persuaded Dahl to write a piece about his experiences in wartime, and it was such a good piece that it was submitted to The Saturday Evening Post without any changes being made. It was then Dahl decided he wanted to be a writer.

"The Gremlins" was the first childrens book he released, and it was an adaptation of a Disney script about spirits which mysteriously stopped fighter plane engines.

Unknown to a lot of people, Dahl spent most of the 1950's writing adult books, especially short stories which were famously put together for a television series called "Tales Of The Unexpected", however Dahl never enjoyed writing these books as much as he did childrens fiction. These books were entertaining, humourous and wildly imaginative. Gene Wilder
starred in the film version of "Charlie" and it is still a family favourite of mine.

After becoming a husband and father, Dahl returned to his career in the 1960's

Dahl's daughters Olivia and Tessa always demanded new bedtime stories, so he started to make them up, and in one of these bedtime stories, the foundations were laid for what we now know as "James and The Giant Peach", which was quickly followed by "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory".

While at school I was introduced to the stories of Roald Dahl, and the first story I read was BFG (Big Friendly Giant), and I was quickly hooked so followed it up with "Danny, Champion Of The World". It seemed nobosy could stop the remarkable success of Dahl, and he continued with "The Witches", "The Twits", and then the two autobiographical books "Boy" and "Going Solo".

The best selling book Dahl wrote was "Matilda", and again this has been transferred to the big screen very well starring Danny De Vito.

Dahl's books are naughty, mischevious, but most importantly entertaining to such a wide audience. He died in 1990, but his name and memory live on in the words of his books.

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