The Complete Short Stories: Volume One

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And that he did. After Dahl graduated from Repton in 1932, he went on an expedition to Newfoundland. Afterward, he took a job with the Shell Oil Company in Tanzania, Africa, where he remained until 1939.

Noel Coward hit the nail on the head when he wrote in his diary, after reading Dahl’s second collection, Someone Like You, forty years ago: “The stories are brilliant and his imagination is fabulous. Unfortunately there is, in all of them, an underlying streak of cruelty and macabre unpleasantness, and a curiously adolescent emphasis on sex.” Regarded as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century", [5] Dahl was named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. [8] He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 300million, [3] [4] [7] [10] and his books have been published in 63 languages. [6] [172] In 2000 Dahl topped the list of Britain's favourite authors. [173] In 2003 four books by Dahl, led by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time. [174] In surveys of UK teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer. [175] [176] He won the first three Australian BILBY Younger Readers Award; for Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [177] In a 2006 list for the Royal Society of L Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was a British author and scriptwriter, [1] and "the most popular writer of children's books since Enid Blyton", according to Philip Howard, the literary editor of The Times. [2] He was raised by his Norwegian mother, who took him on annual trips to Norway, where she told him the stories of trolls and witches present in the dark Scandinavian fables. Dahl was influenced by the stories, and returned to many of the themes in his children's books. [3] His mother also nurtured a passion in the young Dahl for reading and literature. [4] Lusting for yet more adventure, in 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force. After training in Nairobi, Kenya, he became a World War II fighter pilot. While serving in the Mediterranean, Dahl crash-landed in Alexandria, Egypt. The plane crash left him with serious injuries to his skull, spine and hip. Following a recovery that included a hip replacement and two spinal surgeries, Dahl was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he became an assistant air attaché. Books

10. Lamb to the Slaughter

Of his early writing career, Dahl told New York Times book reviewer Willa Petschek, "As I went on the stories became less and less realistic and more fantastic." He went on to describe his foray into writing as a "pure fluke," saying, "Without being asked to, I doubt if I'd ever have thought to do it." Dahl was also influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The "Drink Me" episode in Alice inspired a scene in Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine where a tyrannical grandmother drinks a potion and is blown up to the size of a farmhouse. [139] Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poet Dylan Thomas had found a peaceful shed to write in close to home. Dahl travelled to visit Thomas's hut in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 1950s and, after taking a look inside, decided to make a replica of it to write in. [140] Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in October 1979, Dahl named Thomas "the greatest poet of our time", and as one of his eight chosen records selected Thomas's reading of his poem " Fern Hill". [141]

One common theme amongst many Roald Dahl’s stories is a young child seeking revenge on evil adults and wrongdoers. Dahl has invented more than 500 memorable words and character names across his work, such as Oompa-Loompa, scrumdiddlyumptious, snozzcumbers and frobscottle. Another interesting (lesser-known) fact about Roald Dahl is that he named his fantasy language Gobblefunk. The Oxford University Press even created a unique Roald Dahl Dictionary, which featured nearly 8000 words he used in his stories. I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get the same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did?" [90] This is definitely not your average tale of couples in conflict. Mrs. Foster has an almost phobic fear of being late, and yet her husband can’t help but vex her. However, when his mischief almost gets her late to meet her daughter, there are deadly consequences for him. squarespace 5. William and Mary

1. Man from the South

Walker, Richard (April 2002). "Roald Dahl: A Collector's Guide to his First Editions". The Book and Magazine Collector. No.217. Dahl liked ghost stories, and claimed that Trolls by Jonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, related traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: "She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten." [142] When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he included a grandmother character in The Witches, and later said that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute. [143] [144] Television A middle-aged New York widow, Anna Cooper, contemplates suicide after losing her dear husband, Ed, in a car accident. However, she starts to see a ray of light after helping at her friend’s adoption agency. After feeling vulnerable when visiting Dallas, Texas, on her own for agency business, she remembers that her high school sweetheart, Dr. Conrad Kreuger, lives in the city. The pair had been young lovers, before Anna left Conrad to marry Ed. Appearing happy to reconnect with Anna, Conrad suggests the pair meet in the hotel bar for a drink. After meeting, Anna discovers that Conrad is now a divorced gynaecologist. low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by the planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held our fire on that first pass over the flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on the ground. [64]

Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation. [118] The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout the UK. [156] In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home village Great Missenden was officially opened by Cherie Blair, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education. [157] Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year. [158] Matilda the Musical has been shown in the West End (pictured) since November 2011, and on Broadway between 2013 and 2017 Born to Norwegian parents in Wales in 1916, Roald first started his career as a spy, then worked as a fighter pilot, and even invented medical equipment. Initially, he was best known for his short stories and then in 1961 he shot to fame with James and the Giant Peach and many more brilliant children’s stories like The Twits and George’s Marvellous Medicine. Roald also wrote screenplays, including for classic movies like You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, both adapted from Ian Fleming novels. Roald Dahl was a British author who penned 19 children's books over his decades-long writing career. In 1953 he published the best-selling story collection Someone Like You and married actress Patricia Neal. He published the popular book James and the Giant Peach in 1961. In 1964 he released another highly successful work, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was later adapted for two films. Early Life and Education Danny DeVito directed this movie adaptation and also voiced the narrator. 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' (2009) Best Known For: Children's author Roald Dahl wrote the kids' classics 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda' and 'James and the Giant Peach,' among other famous works.Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent most of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits in Boy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half-sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings. [48] He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor. [49] His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood. [50] After school The dreaded headmaster who succeeded Fisher and who made the lives of so many Repton pupils a misery was J. T. Christie who, according to the philosopher, Richard Wollheim, “rejoiced in beating boys” (he moved on to Westminster in 1937). If Dahl mixed up these two men, then how many of the other ‘facts’ in his two volumes of memoirs can be trusted? Much is clarified in Treglown’s book. Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl (1863–1920) and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née Hesselberg) (1885–1967). [14] [15] Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker and self-made man, had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, Frenchwoman Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together (Ellen Marguerite and Louis) before her death in 1907. [16] Roald Dahl's mother belonged to a well-established Norwegian family of lawyers, priests in the state church and wealthy merchants and estate owners, and emigrated to the UK when she married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. [17] His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. The children were raised in Norway's Lutheran state church, the Church of Norway, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff. [18] His maternal grandmother Ellen Wallace was a granddaughter of the member of parliament Georg Wallace and a descendant of an early 18th-century Scottish immigrant to Norway. [19]

Despite this somewhat light-hearted account, Dahl also noted that, ultimately, Vichy forces killed four of the nine Hurricane pilots in his squadron. Describing the Vichy forces as "disgusting", he stated that "... thousands of lives were lost, and I for one have never forgiven the Vichy French for the unnecessary slaughter they caused." [65] Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories..." The Independent. 12 December 2010. Dahl wrote several television and movie scripts. Several film adaptations of his books have also been created (all of those made during his lifetime Dahl famously despised), most notably: 'Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' (1971) In a letter to the Times (28th February 1989), Dahl claimed that Rushdie had prompted his own downfall by deliberately courting notoriety in an attempt to boost sales of his books (had he never done the same himself?) and that same year he maintained, in a widely publicised speech, that the Booker Prize judges tended to choose ‘beautifully-crafted’ novels that were also “often beautifully boring”! (“Balls!” shouted Laurie Lee from the audience.) He always derived a great deal of satisfaction from being utterly opposed to the majority of his fellow writers. Roald Dahl is also well-regarded as a writer of macabre short stories for adults. Originally published in magazines including The New Yorker and Playboy, they’re best known from collections like Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You. Many were adapted for the classic TV series Tales of the Unexpected. They’re available in eight beautifully designed themed collections.Either way, the New Yorker rejected ‘William and Mary’ when it was sent to them in 1954, and again three years later. Between February 1957 and March 1959, six other stories suffered the same fate, including the repulsive ‘Pig’, in which an orphan brought up as a vegetarian is slaughtered in an abattoir; ‘Genesis and Catastrophe’, an ironical account of the birth of Hitler; and ‘Royal Jelly’, an excess of which causes a baby to turn into a bee!