Roald Dahl - not just for kids (Roald Dahl in general)

Member Name: slackjack

Product:	Roald Dahl in general
Date:	04/07/00 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb to read for the first time, fun to read again and again.

Disadvantages: Absolutely none whatsoever.

Everyone reads Roald Dahl books when they’re a kid. Even now I still love to get hold of a copy of the Twits or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now and then. A lot of people I know though seem to think that Dahl was exclusively a children’s author. He was also though a prolific writer of short stories – many of which were famously adapted for but not really done justice by the television series Tales of the Unexpected. The stories are fantastic – renowned for their twists, and the dark atmosphere conjured up in most of them. I started reading his stories for grown ups when I was a kid, at which time they were very popular for their sometimes grisly story lines – a popular one at school was William and Mary, in which a dying man agrees to have is brain and a single eye removed and kept alive after his death. You’d think that stories famous for having a surprising twist in their tail wouldn’t stand up to more than one reading, but I find myself going back to them again and again – even when you know what is going to happen, you find yourself relishing reading it another time.

If you think Dahl is all about the Big Friendly Giant, think again. Second hand bookshops are a good place to look, and keep an eye out for ‘The Best of Roald Dahl’, ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’, or any of the ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ books. They’ll keep you entertained for the rest of your life.

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