Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (September,13 1916 – November,

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (September,13 1916 – November, 23 1990) was a British novelist and short story author, famous both as a writer of children's fiction as well as adult and horror fiction. Among his most popular books are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Kiss Kiss.

Childhood Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales in 1916 to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl. His father, who died in 1920, was adamant that his children be educated in English schools, but because the family still lived in Wales his first school was Llandaff Cathedral School.

Нe was sent to several boarding schools, which was an unpleasant experience for him. His dislike for boarding schools due to the intimidation that children experienced and the bullying by co-students, is reflected in his book Matilda.

When Roald Dahl was 9, he was sent to St Peter's Preparatory school in Weston-super-Mare, and from 13 he was educated at Repton School. During his childhood he spent his summer holidays in his parents' native Norway. His childhood is the subject of his autobiographical work, Boy: Tales of Childhood

Adult life After finishing his schooling, he spent three weeks hiking through Newfoundland with a group called the Public Schools' Exploring Society. In July 1934 he joined the Shell Oil Company. Following two years of training in the UK he was transferred to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika

He began writing when in 1942 he was transferred to Washington as Assistant Air Attache. His first published short story was A Piece of Cake, describing his accident in Libya (when his aircraft crashed over no-man's-land).

He was married to Hollywood actress Patricia Neal from 1953 to 1983. They had five children. He died at home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire and is buried in the St Peter and St Paul Cemetery there. In his honour, the Roald Dahl Children's Museum was opened in nearby Aylesbury.

His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach.

The Gremlins is a children's book, written by Roald Dahl and published in 1943. It was Dahl's first children's book, and was written for Walt Disney Productions, as a promotional device for a feature-length animated film that was never made

His books are mostly fantasy, and full of imagination. They are always a little cruel, but never without humour - a thrilling mixture of the grotesque and comic. A frequent motif is, that people are not what they appear to be. Mary Maloney in Lamb to the Slaughter, for example, is not a friendly widow, but a clever murderess. In his stories, the background is perfectly worked out: details are very close to reality.

Screenplays For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. The James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming, though both were rewritten and completed by other writers. Dahl created the Child Catcher, the supporting antagonist in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; in a 2005 poll, it was voted the scariest villain in children's literature

Influences A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. Amongst his favourite authors were Rudyard Kipling, William Makepeace Thackeray, Frederick Marryat and Charles Dickens, and their works went on to make a lasting mark on his life and writing.

Children's stories The Gremlins Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Fantastic Mr Fox Danny, the Champion of the World The Enormous Crocodile The Twits George's Marvellous Medicine The BFG The Witches The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Matilda Esio Trot

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. The story was originally inspired by Roald Dahl's experience of chocolate companies during his schooldays. Cadbury would often send test packages to the schoolchildren in exchange for their opinions on the new products.

Matilda Matilda is a children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. The story is about Matilda Wormwood, an extraordinary child with ordinary and rather unpleasant parents, who are contemptuous of their daughter's prodigious talents, and her discovery of her telekinetic abilities

Short story collections Short story collections Over To You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying Someone Like You Lamb to the Slaughter Kiss Kiss Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl Switch Bitch The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More The Best of Roald Dahl Tales of the Unexpected More Tales of the Unexpected Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories Edited with an introduction by Dahl. The Roald Dahl Omnibus Two Fables. "Princess and the Poacher" and "Princess Mammalia". Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl