Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916–November 23, 1990) was a British novelist and short story author of Norwegian descent, 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.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Writing 3 Books for children 4 Adult Fiction/Short Stories 5 Short Story Collections 6 External link |
Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan in 1916 to Norwegian parents. He was educated at Repton School. After finishing his schooling, he joined the Shell Oil Company, and was transferred to Tanzania. In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force. Although severely wounded in Libya, he later saw service in Greece and Syria. He ended the war as a Wing Commander.
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 (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Hud) 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.
Many of his children's books have illustrations by Quentin Blake.
Interestingly, he shared a birthday, September 13, with Milton S. Hershey, chocolate entrepreneur and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company.
Biography
Writing
Dahl came to write children's stories such as Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach; he also wrote macabre adult fiction, usually with a dark sense of humor and a surprise ending. One of his more famous adult stories, The Smoker, was filmed as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful eponymous TV series. For a brief period in the 1960s Dahl wrote screenplays to make money. Both of his screenplays—You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming.Books for children
Adult Fiction/Short Stories
Many of his short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.Short Story Collections
External link