Inside the Mind of…

Presented By: Victoria Neese and Heather Stanford

Roald Dahl

"I make my points by exaggerating wildly. That's the only way to get through

to children."

A Little about the Man Himself• Born in 1916 in Wales to Norwegian Parents, Harald and Sofie. • Attended Boarding School in Britain.• In 1929, he attended Repton School where Cadbury, the chocolate

company, would send boxes of chocolates to the school to be tested by the students. Dahl used to dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr. Cadbury himself. This would later inspire his book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (1964).

• In 1939, he joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraft man during WWII. This inspired his first published article, “Shot Down Over Libya”, in the Saturday Evening Post.

• While serving in the Royal Air Force, Dahl was assigned to flight training with 16 other men– only himself and one other man survived during their service.

• In 1953, he married Patricia Neal, an American actress, and had five children: Olivia, Tessa, Ophelia, and Lucy.

• In 1983, he remarried Felicity Crosland.• His daughter, Tessa Dahl, is an author best known for children’s books and

the novel “Working for Love”. • Roald Dahl died in November of 1990 at the age of 74 of a blood disease.

Becoming a Writer• While in Boarding School, he wrote home to his mother weekly. After he death in

1967, he learned hat she saved every single letter he had written her. Dahl wrote about his time spent at St. Peter’s in his autobiography: “Boy: Tales of Childhood.”

• Dahl was never seen as an especially talented writer in school. One of his teachers

said: “ I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.”

• In the first 15 years as a writer, Dahl concentrated on adults. • Followed advice from Ernest Hemingway: “Never use a colon or a

semi-colon” and “when it’s going well, quit.” • Dahl rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for children and adults. He

became one of the world’s best-selling authors. • Roald Dahl Interviewed on how he became a writer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDbHEGEtiOc

Notable Accomplishments

• “One of the greatest storytellers for children of the 21st century” • In 2008, The Times named Dahl as #16 on its list of “The 50 greatest

British Writers since 1945” • Sales estimated over 100 million• His books have been published in almost 50 languages

Dahl also wrote poetry, and screenplays

Inspirations• Dahl’s unhappy time at school as a child greatly influenced

his writing.• His mother’s stories and story-telling abilities inspired him• There were many tragedies in Dahl’s life– which had an impact on what he

wrote and how he chose to write it. • Some of Dahl’s favorite authors:

• Charles Dickens• Frederick Marryat• William Makepeace Thackeray• Rudyard Kipling

“Since I could write, that’s what I do.” -Dahl

“What’s horrible is basically funny. In

Fiction.”- Roald Dahl

Tragedies• In 1920, when Dahl was only 3, his sister and father died.• In 1960, his son, Theo (four months old) was severely injured when his baby carriage was hit by

a taxicab in NYC. Theo was brain damaged. • Dahl and his friends devised a valve used to drain fluid from Theo’s brain to alleviate the

pain and allowed him to live independent of machines. • In 1962, his daughter, Olivia, died of measles. She was 7 years old.

• Dahl became a proponent of immunization and dedicated his 1982 book to her. • In 1965, his wife had three strokes while pregnant with their daughter, Lucy. Dahl took control

of her rehabilitation and she eventually re-learned to talk and to walk.

“It cannot be said that the series of misfortunes and tragedies Dahl was to suffer made him more bitter. Loss and physical adversity seemed to stimulate his enormous energies to positive action. He fought misfortune as if it was a dragon to be slain.” –Peter Lennon

Patterns and Trends• Unexpected endings (short stories)

• Unsentimental and dark humor (children’s books)• Told in the POV of a child• Typically involve adult villians who hate and/or mistreat children; they feature

at least one “good adult” to counteract the evil/darkness. • Grotesque Scenarios• Gruesome Violence• Keys into the psychological life of a child very well • Brings fears to the surface • His books have “big” endings; the reader is never left in suspense as the

stories always come to a closure. • Reader is never left in suspense of wondering what happened at the end of a

Dahl book.• Child-like humor, strives to attain some level of humor in every book • Books have a balanced mixture of tragedy and humor—“There’s a fine line” • Exaggerates good and bad qualities in characters to make them interesting. • Very fat characters (children) that are usually punished in some manner

• Augustus Gloop (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)• Bruce Bogtrotter (Matilda)• Bruno Jenkins (The Witches)

Interesting Findings…• Most famous story was “Lamb to Slaughter “ in which a woman

beats her husband to death with a frozen leg of lamb and then roasts the murder weapon and serves it to the policemen who question her.

• At age 8, Dahl and his friends were caned by the headmaster of their school for putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop– which was owned by a mean old woman, Mrs. Pratchett.

• Named after a polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway at the time.

• Father of Tessa Dahl, author, and grandfather of Sophie Dahl, a cookbook writer and model.

• The “Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery” was opened in 1996 in England. • Very tall– 6ft 6in as an adult• Considered himself to be a slow writer• Excelled at sports– boxing, squash, and football (soccer)• Married to Patricia neal for 30 years before divorcing in 1983. • Dahl is buried in Buckinghamshire, England. He was buried with his

snooker cues, some burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils, and a power saw.

“The business of remembering what it was like to be young” is what really distinguished him from other writers.

The Books• James and the Giant peach• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory• Matilda• The Witches• Fantastic Mr. Fox• The Twits• George’s Marvelous Medicine• The BFG• The Magic Finger• The Enormous Crocodile • My Uncle Oswald• Esio Trot • The Minpins• Umbrella Man

And many, many more…

“It’s tough to write for children because they don’t have the concentration that adults do.” -Dahl

Screenplays• James Bond film– You Only Live Once• The film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, was taken

over and re-written by David Seltzer because Dahl failed to meet deadlines. Dahl disowned the film and refused to let any other versions to be made in his lifetime.

• Assisted in the writing of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang• Dahl created the character of the child catcher– which was

voted the scariest villain in Children’s Literature (2005)

“Dahl will lead a child out onto a windy limb and suddenly he’ll place a ladder underneath and the child will be able to get safely to the ground.”

- Danny DeVito