Roald Dahl was a British author known for writing books for both children and adults. He was born in Wales to Norwegian parents, and after his father and sister died, his mother moved to England for his education. Dahl worked for Shell Oil in Africa before joining the Royal Air Force during WWII. He later married twice and had five children, one of whom died. Dahl’s writing includes macabre tales for adults and famous children’s books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which often feature children teaming up against evil adults.
Roald Dahl is a British author best known for writing books and stories for children and adults. He was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1916 to Norwegian parents and named after Roald Amundsen, a popular Norwegian polar explorer of the time. When he was four years old, his sister Astri and his father both died within a month. His mother decided to stay in England, because Dahl’s father had specified that the children be educated in British schools, which he firmly believed to be the best in the world. It was an unusual decision for the time, when women were generally not encouraged to strike out on their own.
Dahl started out at Llandaff Cathedral School and later attended a series of boarding schools, an experience he deeply disliked. He often wrote about his experiences in boarding schools, describing them at length in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood. After he graduated, he went to work for Shell Oil Company, which sent him to Africa. There he lived in relative luxury with a handful of other Shell employees in company housing until the outbreak of war.
As one of the British citizens in Dar-es-Salaam, Roald Dahl was put to work rounding up the Germans living there at the outbreak of war. This surreal experience is described in Going Solo, a continuation of Dahl’s autobiography. Dahl quickly realized the war would drag on and he ended his employment with Shell to join the Royal Air Force, to fly aircraft during the war.
Roald Dahl ended up crashing in Libya, and in 1942 the Saturday Evening Post published Shot Down Over Libya, his first published work. After his recovery, he joined the rest of the squadron in Greece, where most of his men were subsequently shot down. He began to suffer from blinding headaches related to his crash injuries and was sent back to England.
From 1953 to 1983, Dahl was married to Patricia O’Neal and they had five children, one of whom later died. Many of the children, as well as O’Neal herself, experienced health problems, prompting Dahl to donate to various health-related causes, a legacy his widow has carried on since his death through the Roald Dahl Foundation , which also supports literacy efforts. Dahl married Felicity Crosland after her divorce from O’Neal, and they remained together until her 1990 death from leukemia.
Roald Dahl’s writing is well known and some of his work has won awards. His writing for adults includes many macabre tales that have been published in a variety of magazines and collected in anthologies. He has also written for television and adapted several film scripts, including the screenplay for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).
Dahl also wrote a number of children’s books, including the famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Danny the Champion of the World (1975), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983) and Matilda (1988) . All of his children’s books feature children teaming up against evil adults, with a good adult figure assisting. Many of them also include the themes of class and social status, themes that he is passionate about.
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