Roald Dahl Biography and List of Works

British writer, famous for his ingenious short stories and irreverent children's books. Dahl's taste for cruelty, rudeness to adults, and the comic grotesque fascinated young readers, but upset many adult critics. Several of Dahl's has been made into screenplays for television.

'Aunt Glosspan,' the boy said, ' what do ordinary people eat that we don't?'
'Animals,' she answered, tossing her head in disgust.
'You mean live animals?'
'No,' she said. 'Dead ones.'
(from 'Pig' in Kiss, Kiss, 1959)

Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales of Norwegian parents. His father was a shopkeeper, who had been a farmer near Oslo before immigrating to Wales. He died when Dahl was three years old, and three weeks later died his elder sister. The family were still comfortably off, but had to sell jewellery to pay for Dahl's upkeep at Repton School in Derbyshire. His years at public schools in Wales and England Dahl later described without nostalgia: "I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely. I couldn't get over it. I never got over it..." (from Boy: Tales of Childhood, 1984). The harsh treatment he received later inspired him to write stories in which children fight against the controlling systems, cruel adults and authorities. Instead of entering the university Dahl joined in his at eighteen an expedition to Newfoundland. Returning to England he took a job with Shell, working in London (1933-37) and in Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania (1937-39).

During World War II he served in the Royal Air Forces in Greece and Syria. He was short down in Libya, wounded in Syria, and posted then to Washington as an assistant air attaché to British Security (1942-43). In 1943 he was a wing commander and until 1945 he worked for British Security Co-ordination in North America. While he was recovering from his wounds, he had strange dreams, which inspired his first short stories. Encouraged by C.S. Forester, Dahl wrote about his most exiting RAF adventures. The story, A Piece of Cake, was published by the Saturday Evening Post. The same story was later included in OVER TO YOU: THE STORIES OF FLYERS AND FLYING (1946).

Dahl's first children's book, THE GREMLINS (1943), was written for Walt Disney and became later a popular movie. His collection of short stories, SOMEONE LIKE YOU (1954), gained world success as its sequel KISS KISS (1959). The two books were serialized for television in America. A number of the stories had appeared in the New Yorker. Dahl's stories were seen in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-61) and in Tales of the Unexpected (1979) series.

In 1953 Dahl married the succesful and wealthy actress Patricia Neal; they had one son and four daughters (one deceased). The marriage ended after several family tragedies in 1983. Dahl married in 1983 Felicity Crossland.

The only stage play Dahl ever wrote, THE HONEYS, failed in New York in 1955. After showing little inclination towards children's literature, Dahl published JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961). It was followed by the highly popular tale CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1964), filmed in 1971. The story dealt with one small boy's search for the ultimate prize in fierce competition with other, highly unpleasant children, many of whom come to sticky ends as a result of their greediness. It presented the central theme in Dahl's fiction for young readers: virtue is rewarded, vice is rigorously punished. In the end the fabulous chocolate factory is given to the kind, impoverished boy. MY UNCLE OSWALD (1979) was Dahl's first full-length novel, characteristically bizarre story of a scheme for procuring and selling the sperm of the world's most powerful and brilliant men.

Dahl received three Edgar Allan Poe Awards (1954, 1959, 1980). In 1982 he won with THE BFG his first literary prize, proving that his popularity was also gaining acceptability among critics. In 1983 he received the Whitbread award and in the same year World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement award. Dahl died of infection on November 23, 1990, in Oxford. Dahl's autobiographical books, BOY: TALES OF CHILDHOOD and GOING SOLO appeared in 1984 and 1986 respectively.

In his stories Dahl respected above all the principle of fair play. Uncle Oswald, a seducer from 'The Visitor', gets seduced. In 'Parson's Pleasure' an antique dealer tastes his own medicine and in 'Lamb to the Slaughter' the evidence of a murder, a frozen leg of lamb, is eaten by the unwitting officers. Puns, word coinages, and neologism are more often used in the children's stories, whereas in adult fiction the emphasis is on imaginative, freewheeling plots. Dahl's stories have unexpected endings and strange, menacing atmospheres.

"Good ghost stories, like good children's books, are damnably difficult to write. I am a short story writer myself, and although I have been doing it for forty-five years and have always longed to write just one decent ghost story, I have never succeeded in bringing it off. Heaven knows, I have tried. Once I thought I had done it. It was with a story that is now called 'The Landlady'. But when it was finished and I examined it carefully, I knew it wasn't good enough. I hadn't brought it off. I simply hadn't got the secret. So finally I altered the ending and made it into a non-ghost story."
(from Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories, 1983)

For further reading: Roald Dahl by Chris Dowling (1983); Roald Dahl by Alan Warren (1988); St James Guide to Young Adult Writers, ed. by Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (1999)

THE GREMLINS, (1943)