Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children’s literature and short stories, as well as a poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace. Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, he lived for most of his life in England. His first language was Norwegian, spoken at home with his parents and sisters, and he was raised in the Church of Norway. Dahl belonged to the 20th century in a very full sense: shaped by old boarding-school systems, marked by the Second World War, and later read by children across the world.

During the Second World War, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force. He became a fighter pilot and later an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He came to public notice as a writer in the 1940s, writing for both children and adults, and went on to become one of the world’s best-selling authors. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, and he has been called “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century.” His awards included the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards’ Children’s Author of the Year in 1990.

Dahl is best known for children’s books that mix mischief, danger, comedy, and warmth. Among them are James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits, George’s Marvellous Medicine, and Danny, the Champion of the World. His writing for older readers included the short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. His short stories became known for unexpected endings, while his children’s books often set kindhearted children against villainous adults.

Many of the forces that shaped Dahl’s imagination came early. When he was three, his sister Astri died from appendicitis, and his father died of pneumonia only weeks later. His mother chose to remain in Wales rather than return to Norway, following his father’s wish that the children be educated in English schools. At age six, Dahl met Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. At The Cathedral School in Llandaff, he and four friends were caned after placing a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at a local sweet shop owned by Mrs Pratchett, whom he later connected to the cruel Miss Trunchbull in Matilda.

Boarding school left deeper marks. At St Peter’s in Weston-super-Mare, Dahl was homesick, writing to his mother every week without telling her how unhappy he was. At Repton School in Derbyshire, he disliked the hazing and later described an atmosphere of ritual cruelty, status, and beatings. In Boy: Tales of Childhood, he wrote of being appalled that masters and senior boys were allowed “literally to wound other boys,” adding, “I couldn’t get over it. I never have got over it.” His dislike of cruelty and corporal punishment appears again and again in his fiction.

Dahl’s work still draws readers because it refuses to make childhood neat or mild. His stories can be macabre and darkly comic, but they also side with the kindhearted and the brave. Children in his books face greed, meanness, and abuse, yet wit and courage often give them a way through. That plain moral energy, joined to surprise, danger, and play, helps explain why his words continue to be read, quoted, and passed on.