Have you ever read the story of George and his marvellous medicine or the adventures of Charlie Bucket

and his golden ticket? What about The BFG or The Enormous Crocodile? These are just some of the stories

written by the popular children’s author Roald Dahl. If you’d like to know more about the life of Roald

Dahl, read on.

Roald Dahl was born on September 13th 1916 in a place called Llandaff in Wales. His parents Sofia and

Harald were Norwegian and because of this Roald was able to speak both Norwegian and English

fluently. When he was 9, Roald went to a boarding school in Weston-Super-Mare and then, at the age

of 13, he attended another boarding school called Repton, near to Derby. During his time here, Roald

and other pupils were invited to trial chocolate bars for a famous company! This was a memory that

remained with him throughout his whole life. Although Roald had some

happy memories such as this, school was not an enjoyable time for

him because he was treated badly and even beaten by some of

the pupils.

With his school days happily behind him, at the age of 18,

Roald’s desire to travel took him to Canada and then to East

Africa where he worked for Shell Oil. This was until World War

II began and at the age of 23, Roald joined the Royal Air Force

(RAF). Dahl had many opportunities in the RAF

but he also suffered a serious injury which

took him around six months to recover

from!

Early life

Work life

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At the age of 26, no longer able to fly, Roald Dahl was posted to Washington DC (capital city of the United

States of America) where he completed his first paid piece of writing after a story writer encouraged him to

write about his experiences. Four years later, Roald returned to the United Kingdom during which time he

married and had children.

In 1962, perhaps inspired by the birth of his children, Roald’s first famous book for children, James and the

Giant Peach, was published. The writing of this book had been such a positive experience for Roald that he

quickly began work on Charlie and the Chocolate factory- the story inspired by his childhood chocolate

tasting!

You may now be imagining Roald Dahl writing these stories in a large , comfortable studio typing at a

computer but actually he spent his time (4 hours every single day) in a little shed known simply as his

‘writing hut’ at the bottom of his garden. He would sit in a worn-out armchair writing in an old, red book

using pencil.

The years that followed saw the release of both books and films including The Magic Finger, Chitty Chitty

Bang Bang, Fantastic Mr Fox and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Enormous Crocodile and

many more. Interestingly, many of Dahl’s characters were based on people he’d met in real life, for example

the little girl in The BFG was named after his granddaughter, Sophie.

Not only did Roald Dahl write books, he produced poems and invented over 250 new words! There’s even

an official dictionary to help you to tell your snozzcumbers from your snozzberries!

Author life

Dahlicious facts

Roald Dahl was named after the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

Writing wasn’t his strong point at school- according to his teachers, anyway!

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At the age of 74, on November 23rd 1990, Roald Dahl died. Carved into slabs around the base of his

memorial bench, in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul (Buckinghamshire), is this poem taken from

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me:

From the bench, you can follow The BFG’s footprints to Roald Dahl’s grave.

On September 13th 2006, the day that would have been Roald’s 90th

birthday, the first-ever Roald Dahl Day took place across the world.

There were celebrations in the UK, USA and Holland. Roald Dahl

Day, with Dahlicious ‘Dress ups’, continues to be a famous

annual event which is held in September. Many people raise

money in aid of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity.

If your school is remembering the phizz-whizzing,

scrumdiddlyumptious and whizzpopping creations of

Roald Dahl this year, which character will inspire

your costume?

Remembering Dahl

“We have tears in our eyes

As we wave our goodbyes

We so loved being with you, we three.

So please now and then

Come and see us again,

The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.”

Dahlicious fact

A real man named Willy Wonka

once wrote to Roald Dahl.

He was a postman!

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