![]() I never have got over it.” The master was later selected as the Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: “All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely. According to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher. ![]() Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.ĭahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire from 1929 to 1934įrom 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. In 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahl's birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. ![]() His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl would refer to them in his creation, Everlasting Gobstopper, which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.ĭahl transferred to a boarding school in England: St Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. The five boys named their prank the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924". At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman called Mrs Pratchett. Her husband Harald had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered the world's best.ĭahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. With the option of returning to Norway to live with relatives, Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales. Later that year, his younger sister Asta was born. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57. In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Mrs Pratchett's former sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff, has a blue plaque commemorating the mischief played by young Roald Dahl and his friends, who were regular customers. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected. ![]() Dahl's works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine. His books champion the kindhearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".ĭahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. He became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.īorn in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Roald Dahl (/ˈroʊ.əld ˈdɑːl/ 13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.
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