Roald+Dahl

**Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter ace and screenwriter. **
Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. His short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark humour.

**Childhood**
Roald Dahl was born at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, Llandaff, Glamorgan, in 1916, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl. Dahl's father had moved from Sarpsborg in Norway and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s. His mother came over to marry his father in 1911. Dahl was named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway at the time. He spoke Norwegian at home with his parents and sisters, Astri, Alfhild, and Else. Dahl and his sisters were christened at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped. In 1920, when Dahl was still only three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57. Dahl's mother, however, decided not to return to Norway to live with her relatives, but to remain in Wales since it had been her husband's wish to have their children educated in British schools, as he felt they were the best in the world. Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead rat in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman called Mrs Pratchett. This was known amongst the five boys as the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924". This was Roald's own idea. Thereafter, he transferred to a boarding school in England; Saint Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted Roald to be educated at a British public school and, at the time, because of a then regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. His time at Saint Peter's was an unpleasant experience for him. He was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week, but never revealed to her his unhappiness, being under the pressure of school censorship. Only after her death in 1967 did he find out that she had saved every single one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape. Dahl wrote about his time at St. Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood. From 1929, he attended Repton School in Derbyshire, where, according to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher, the man who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned the Queen in 1953. (However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown, the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton. The headmaster concerned was in fact J.T. Christie, Fisher's successor.) This caused Dahl to "have doubts about religion and even about God". He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended," Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) in adult life. He excelled at sports, being made captain of the school fives and squash teams, and also playing for the football team. He developed an interest in photography. During his years at Repton, Cadbury, the chocolate company, would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils. Dahl apparently used to dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr. Cadbury himself, and this proved the inspiration for him to write his third book for children, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1963) and include references to chocolate in other books for children. Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent his summer holidays with his mother's family in their native Norway. His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood. The main child character in his 1983 book The Witches is British-born but of Norwegian origin; his grandmother is still living in Norway.

Children's stories
Children's poetry
 * 1) The Gremlins (1943)[[image:http://www.windoweb.it/guida/letteratura/letteratura_foto/roald_dahl1.jpg width="266" height="373" align="right"]]
 * 2) James and the Giant Peach (1961) — Film: James and the Giant Peach (live-action/animated) (1996)
 * 3) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) — Films: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
 * 4) The Magic Finger (1 June 1966)
 * 5) Fantastic Mr Fox (9 December 1970) — Film: Fantastic Mr. Fox (animated) (2009)
 * 6) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (9 January 1972) A sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Danny, the Champion of the World (30 October 1975) — Film: Danny the Champion of the World (TV movie) (1989)
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Enormous Crocodile (24 August 1978)
 * 9) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Twits (9 October 1980)
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">George's Marvellous Medicine (21 May 1981)
 * 11) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The BFG (14 October 1982) — Film: The BFG (animated) (1989)
 * 12) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Witches (27 October 1983) — Film: The Witches (1990)
 * 13) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (26 September 1985)
 * 14) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Matilda (21 April 1988) — Film: Matilda (1996)
 * 15) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Esio Trot (19 April 1990)
 * 16) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (9 May 1991)
 * 17) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Minpins (8 August 1991)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Minpins (8 August 1991)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Revolting Rhymes (10 June 1982)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Dirty Beasts (25 October 1984)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Rhyme Stew (21 September 1989)