Roald Dahl

***Roald Dahl*** (September 13, 1916 – November 23, 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.

Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults and he became one of the world's best selling authors. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". 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. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Dahl'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 books champion the kind-hearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment. 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 adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.

### Children's Fiction

#### January 17, 1964 (US); November 23, 1964 (UK): Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Dahl's story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. ***Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*** was originally inspired by Roald Dahl's experience of chocolate companies during his schooldays. Cadbury would often send test packages to the schoolchildren in exchange for their opinions on the new products. At that time (around the 1920s), Cadbury and Rowntree's were England's two largest chocolate makers and they each often tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies, posing as employees, into the other's factory. Because of this, both companies became highly protective of their chocolate-making processes. It was a combination of this secrecy and the elaborate, often gigantic, machines in the factory that inspired Dahl to write the story.

11-year-old Charlie Bucket lives in poverty in a tiny house with his parents and four grandparents. Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about the legendary and eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka and his wonderful candy and how he closed his factory forever due to spies stealing his secret recipes. The next day, the newspaper announces that Mr Wonka is reopening the factory and has invited five children to come on a tour, after they find a golden ticket in a Wonka Bar. The first four golden tickets are found by the gluttonous Augustus Gloop, the spoiled and petulant Veruca Salt, the gum-addicted Violet Beauregarde, and the TV-obsessed Mike Teavee.

Finding a a fifty-pence coin (dollar bill in the US version) buried in the snow, Charlie buys himself a Wonka Bar and finds the fifth golden ticket.

After meeting Mr Wonka, the kids and their guardians go inside the factory. The other kids are ejected from the factory in comical, mysterious and painful ways - befitting their various greedy characters and personalities. With only Charlie remaining, Mr Wonka congratulates him for "winning" the factory and names Charlie his successor. They ride the Great Glass Elevator to Charlie's house while the other four children go home. Mr Wonka invites Charlie's family to come live with him in the factory, and they do.

### Adult Fiction

#### 1969: Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl

Compilation of stories from Someone Like You (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1960)

#### 1979: Tales of the Unexpected

Compilation of stories from various magazines, Someone Like You (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1960)

### Scripts (Stage)

#### 1958: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Lamb to the Slaughter"

From a short story published in Harper's Magazine in September, 1953, Dahl adapted it for an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" broadcast April 13, 1958, directed by Hitchcock himself. The story was included in the compilation Someone Like You (1953) and subsequently adapted for the TV series Tales of the Unexpected (April 14, 1979).

#### 1961: Way Out: "William and Mary"

A short story originally published in 1959 and included in Kiss Kiss (1960), Dahl adapted it for the TV series Way Out, an anthology series hosted by him in 1961. "William and Mary" was the first episode, broadcast March 31, 1961.

#### 1967: You Only Live Twice

Using elements of Jack Bloom's rejected script, Dahl adapted his friend Ian Fleming's book of the same name for the fifth of the James Bond movies. Dahl described the original novel as "Ian Fleming's worst book, with no plot in it which would even make a movie".

#### 1968: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Written with Ken Hughes, the script was loosely based on Dahl's friend Ian Fleming's original novel, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car.

#### 1971: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Dahl had begun to adapt his own book but failed to meet deadlines so the script was partially re-written by David Seltzer. Dahl said he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie". He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot Seltzer devised in his draft of the screenplay, including the conversion of Slugworth, a minor character in the book, into a spy (so that the movie could have a villain) and the "fizzy lifting drinks" scene along with music other than the original Oompa Loompa compositions (including "Pure Imagination" and "The Candy Man"), and the ending dialogue for the movie.

#### 1971: The Night Digger (US)/The Road Builder (UK)

Based on the novel Nest in a Fallen Tree by Joy Cowley, Dahl adapted the story for a film starring his then wife, Patricia Neal.

### Autobiography

#### 1988: Measles, a Dangerous Illness

About the death of his daughter Olivia from measles encephalitis

#### 1991: Memories with Food at Gipsy House

Cook book written with his second wife, Felicity Dahl; reissued in 1996 as Roald Dahl's Cookbook.

#### 1991: Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety

For young people, in conjunction with the British Railways Board

#### 1999: The Mildenhall Treasure

Telling the story of the discovery in 1946 near Mildenhall in Suffolk of the Mildenhall Treasure, now held in the British Museum it was first published in the American magazine Saturday Evening Post in 1946 and then, in book form, in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977).