Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales on September 13th 1916. He was son of second marriage. His father and elder sister died when Roald was three. His mother was left to raise two stepchildren and four of her own. He remembered his mother as a rock, a real rock, always on your side whatever you’d done. He said that with his mom he felt tremendous security. He had a diary about the age of eight just like his father did. He would write entries on the top of a conker tree in their garden everyday because that’s where he would hide his diary from his sisters. That was how his childhood was.

 Roald had an unhappy time at school. From the age seven to nine he attended Llandaff Cathedral School. When he was thirteen he started at Repton, a famous public school in Derbyshire. He was a boxer and was deemed by his English master. His unhappy time in school was to greatly influence his writing. Roalds childhood and schooldays is the subject of his life.

He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War two. It was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG.

In 1942 is when he got inspired to write by C S Forester, author of Captain Horriblower took Roald to lunch. Roald talked to him about his version of the war which Forester would write up for the Saturday Evening Post. Roald decided to write down his experiences. His career as a writer was underway. His first book for children was not as many suppose, James and the Giant Peach. Roald’s career as a children’s book author did not begin in earnest until the 19602 after he had become a father himself. In the meantime he devoted himself to writing short stories for adults with devilish twists in the tale.

Roald Dahl was more pleased with my children’s books than with my adult short stories. Children’s books are harder to write. It’s tougher to keep a child interested because a child doesn’t have the concentration of an adult. It’s tough to hold a child but it’s a lovely thing to try to do. He first became interested in writing children’s books by making up bedtime stories for his daughters Olivia and Tessa. That was how James and the Giant Peach came into being. His second book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

His passions, he had many.  Orchids, he liked to watch them flower and then breed them, crossing one with another, selecting the best and producing finer hybrids. Some people like tomatoes but he liked orchids.  Painting was another passion.  He loved them. He had his walls covered in paintings. Chocolate was another passion he had.  Conkers was his other passion he had. Sense a kid he liked them.

His oldest daughter Olivia died after a bout of measles developed into encephalitis. His four month old son Theo was brain damaged after a road accident. His like from there was full of tragedies. Two months before his death his stepdaughter Lorina died of a brain tumour. Roald Dahl suffered from a blood disorder for many years and became very interested in this particular field of medicine. In the end Roald Dahl died in November 1990.