Roald Dahl Biography
Welsh Children's and Short Story Writer
Roald Dahl was a 20th-century British writer of short stories and children's books. He wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl's best-known children's book and successfully filmed. He is also known for James and the Giant Peach, and many other favourite children's stories.
Early Life of Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandaff, Glamorgan (Wales), although his parents came from Norway. When Dahl was only four years old, his father died, and Dahl was sent away to boarding school. The harsh treatment he received there later inspired him to write stories in which children take revenge on cruel adults in authority.
World War II
After leaving school, Dahl gave up an opportunity to go to university and went to work in Africa for an oil company instead. When World War II began in 1939, he joined the Royal Air force with the same spirit of adventure that had taken him to Africa. Dahl became a fighter pilot but was seriously injured in a plane crash and spent the rest of the war as a spy. While he was recovering from his injuries, he had strange dreams, and it was these that inspired his first short stories.
Dahl Began to Write after the War
After the war Dahl began to publish collections of his short stories for adults. His first short stories, collected as Over to You in 1946, based on his wartime experiences in the Royal Air Force, influenced by Ernest Hemingway. His stories have unexpected endings and strange atmospheres.
Dahl's Writings
Dahl became a regular writer of books for children when he was married and had children of his own. His first big success was with James and the Giant Peach, published when he was 44. Children love his books because they are full of outrageous fun and rudeness to adults. Parents and teachers often disapprove of them for exactly the same reasons.
A number of his stories were adapted for television. His last major collection of adult stories was Switch Bitch (1974), something that explored erotic themes. His tribute to his mother was the character of the grandmother in The Witches. Dahl died at the age of 74, on November 23, 1990.
Works by Roald Dahl
- Someone Like You, 1953
- Kiss, Kiss, 1959
- James and the Giant Peach, 1961
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 1964
- Fantastic Mr Fox, 1970
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
- Danny: The Champion of the World, 1975
- The BFG, 1982
- The Witches, 1983
- Matilda, 1988
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002
Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994
The Cambridge Literature in English, New Edition, edited by Ian Ousby,Cambridge, 1993
Roald Dahl
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