Roald Dahl
There were several facets to Roald Dahl throughout his extraordinary life. He was a spy, a fighter pilot, a chocolate historian, a medical inventor, and of course, one of Britain's best-loved children's authors. His whole life, experiences, and the people he met along the way heavily influenced his work from books and anthologies to play scripts and screenplays.
Born to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magadalene Hesselberg, in Llandaff, Wales, on 13th September 1916. He was named after the first man to reach the South Pole just four years earlier; Roald Amundsen. The family spent summer vacations visiting his grandparents in Oslo. In 1920 his sister died from infection after a burst appendix aged seven and his father died a few weeks later from pneumonia. This hit the family hard and left Sofie, Roald’s mother, alone to look after five children.
Roald attended an all-boys preparatory school called Llandaff Cathedral School. He was then sent to his first boarding school – St.Peter’s, in the English town of Weston-Super-Mare. At first, he was very homesick so a few weeks in he pretended to have appendicitis so he could be sent home for a few days. He finished his schooling days at Repton, a famous British Public School near Derby. A school visit to trial chocolate bars for a famous company stayed long in his memory throughout his life and partially inspired his children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
His desire to travel the world made him get a job with an oil company that took him to Canada and then to East Africa. When World War Two broke out he enlisted in the Royal Air Force. In 1940, he was posted in Libya where he was involved in a plane crash. He received severe injuries to his head, nose and back, he spent six months recovering in Egypt. He returned to Great Britain and live with his mother in Buckinghamshire. Unable to fly anymore, his first paid piece of writing came from when he was posted to Washington, D.C to join the British Embassy as assistant air attache. During this time, he supplied intelligence to MI6. His entry into a career as a writer happened when the British novelist C.S Forester encouraged him to write about his time in the desert. Based on his experiences flying gladiators in Libya, Shot Down Over Libya, later titled ‘A Piece of Cake’ was published in The Saturday Evening Post.
In 1951, at a dinner party given by playwright Lillian Hellman, Roald meet his future wife, the American actress Patricia Neal. In a small church in downtown New York, they married on 2nd July 1953. Olivia, his first child is born in 1955 at the same time as his only play, ‘The Honeys’, opens. In April 1957, the couple have their second daughter, Chantal also known as Tessa in Oxford, Uk. Roald negotiated the television rights for several of his short stories to American Tv series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Lamb to the Slaughter directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself went on to be nominated for an Emmy Award in 1958. In 1960, Roald’s third child and only son, Theo, while in his pram was hit by a taxi. After a serious injury, he developed a medical condition called hydrocephalus. Roald was heavily involved with Theo’s aftercare, this inspired him to help invent what became known as the Wade-Dahl-Till valve – a cerebral shunt used to drain excess fluid from the brain. A device that would be used by many thousands of subsequent operations. Roald’s ‘Kiss Kiss’, his third collection of short stories is published in 1960. The start of his most famous works started in 1961 with the ‘James and the Giant Peach’ which originally was a Cherry and the idea sprang from Roald thinking what if one of those cherries on that tree would one day just start to keep on growing bigger and bigger?
Tragically Dahl’s eldest daughter, Olivia, died from measles. A portrait was hung on the wall of his Writing Hut. The writing hut was where he wrote many of his famous stories. The BFG was a story that he first told to his daughters at bedtime and went on to be published in 1982 and was dedicated to Olivia. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory grew from his love of chocolate and his memories of visiting a well-known chocolate maker during his school days. Dahl’s Writing Hut was inspired by visiting the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas’ writing hut.
Roald had a wartime friend called Ian Fleming. Fleming’s book called You Only Live Twice was adapted by Dahl into a screenplay. The Film went on to be a Box Office Success. Further work in screenwriting came in the form of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is said that Roald was responsible for the creation of the infamous Child Catcher character. He co-wrote the film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
After a five-year break, he returned to children’s fiction with Fantastic Mr Fox in 1968. Partially inspired by the countryside around his Buckinghamshire home. Into the 70s other classics were brought to publication were Danny the Champion of the World and The Enormous Crocodile. The Enormous Crocodile brought the beginning of his legendary partnership with the illustrator Quentin Blake. Quentin went onto work on earlier stories of Roald’s work.
In the 80s he wrote The Twits, Revolting Rhymes, The BFG and The Witches. The BFG’s main character, Sophie was named after his first grandchild. He followed with two autobiographical books: Boy, in 1984 and Going Solo, 1986. The BFG and Esio Trot were examples of his play with words. He created 500 or so new words to entertain and make you laugh throughout his stories. With him being Dyslexia, that helped in this talent.
Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal divorced after 30 years of marriage, and he later married Felicity “Liccy” Crosland. Felicity furthered Roald’s Legacy through the foundation of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity and The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.
Roald Dahl died 23rd November 1990 at the age of 74. He is buried in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Missenden. There is a memorial bench with a stone slab that has the poem which is taken from his story, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. You can follow BFG footprints to Roald Dahl’s grave from the memorial bench.