Let's celebrate Roald Dahl Day

Roald Dahl is one of the greatest storytellers the world has ever known. He’s sold well over 200 million books and you might also know stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG and Matilda from the film versions. Roald Dahl had a way of telling stories that makes them fun and easy to read. This, according to Roald himself, is because he found it very easy to remember what it was like to be a child.

His life

Roald was born in Llandaff in Wales on 13 September 1916. His parents were both from Norway but they moved to the UK before he was born. He went to several different boarding schools, living away from his parents for most of the year. Once, to play a trick on the owner of a sweet shop, he put a dead mouse in one of the jars of sweets! As punishment for that, he was caned (hit with a stick) at school. In fact, Roald hated violence and cruel behaviour, and in many of his stories the main characters are treated cruelly by their family, carers or teachers. However, they always come out on top.

Roald’s dream was to go to exciting foreign places, and he got the chance when he got a job with the Shell Company supplying oil in East Africa. When the Second World War broke out, he became a fighter pilot and he almost died when he crashed his plane in the desert. Although he flew again after that, he soon became too ill to continue and was sent home and given a new job in the British Embassy in Washington DC. There, he started writing speeches and war stories, and his first pieces of writing were published.

Have you heard of any of these stories?

1. The Gremlins (1943)
2. Over To You (1946)
3. Some Time Never (1948)
4. Someone Like You (1953)
5. Kiss Kiss (1960)
6. James and the Giant Peach(1961)
7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
8. The Magic Finger (1966)
9. Fantastic Mr Fox (1968)
10. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
11. Switch Bitch (1974)
12. Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
13. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977)
14. The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
15. My Uncle Oswald (1979)
16. The Twits (1980)
17. George's Marvellous Medicine(1981)
18. Revolting Rhymes (1982)
19. The BFG (1982)
20. Dirty Beasts (1983)
21. The Witches (1983)
22. Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories (1983)
23. Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)
24. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me(1985)
25. Two Fables (1985)
26. Going Solo (1986)
27. Matilda (1988)
28. Rhyme Stew (1989)
29. Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (1989)
30. Esio Trot (1990)
31. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991)
32. The Minpins (1991)
33. Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (1991)
34. My Year (1991)

Play scripts and film screenplays

1. The Honeys (stage play, 1955)
2. You Only Live Twice (film screenplay, 1967)
3. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (co-wrote film screenplay, 1968)
4. The Night Digger (film screenplay, 1971)
5. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (co-wrote film screenplay, 1971)