Roald Dahl

Parents were Norwegian

Grandfather of British model Sophie Dahl and Chloe Dahl.

Credited with coining the term "Gremlin" during the Second World War. These were little "creatures who lived inside fighter plane engines, causing them to stall at the worst possible time.

The Helga (Lukes grandmother) character in "The Witches" was based on his own Norwegian grandmother, who he said was a tough and fearless woman.

Nearly lost his nose in a car accident.

Father died of pneumonia when Roald was 3.

Daughter, Olivia, died of the measles at age 7.

Wrote his novels in his garden shed.

He allegedly declined to receive an O.B.E. (Officer of the order of the British Empire) in 1986.

He replaced Richard Maibaum as screenwriter for You Only Live Twice at the last minute. Maibaum returned to the chair in 1969.

Wrote two screenplays based on books by Ian Fleming : You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . Coincidentally, Flemings cousin, Christopher Lee , appears in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , based on Dahls book. He also appears in Gremlins 2: The New Batch , which is named after a word Dahl coined.

In one of Dahls short stories, "Beware of the Dog," a fighter pilot is shot down during wartime and loses one of his legs. He recovers in a hospital only to discover that he is in Nazi-occupied France. Although the story is based on Dahls WWII experiences, it is not entirely autobiographical; Dahl did crash his plane, but did not lose a leg or become a prisoner of war.

Flew Hawker Hurricanes in 80 Squadron in WWII.

He strongly disliked Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory , which was based upon his childrens classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". He felt it made the story world, which he had created, too peaceful, to his personality.

His only son, Theo Dahl , suffered a brain injury when his baby carriage was struck by a taxi when the boy was just four months old. The most serious of his injuries was hydrocephalus (commonly known as water on the brain). Dahl got together with a pair of friends--a neurosurgeon and an engineer--and created a device called the Wade-Dahl-Till valve to alleviate cranial pressure. Theo recovered before the device was perfected, but it allowed thousands of others suffering from hydrocephalus to recover from their injuries. His book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is dedicated to Theo, who almost died.

When his first wife, Patricia Neal , suffered a series of devastating strokes in 1965, he was appalled at the lack of effective rehabilitation. He subsequently designed techniques that restored her to full functionality after doctors had told him she would never recover. His techniques are now standard procedure throughout the world in the treatment of stroke victims.

He fathered five children, four daughters and one son with first wife, Patricia Neal : Olivia Twenty Dahl was born on Wednesday, April 20, 1955, and she died from measles on Saturday, November 17, 1962. His second daughter was born on Thursday, April 11, 1957, named Tessa Dahl. His only son was the third of five, Theo Matthew Roald Dahl was born on Saturday, July 30, 1960, aka Theo Dahl. Third daughter, Ophelia Magdalena Dahl, was born on Tuesday, May 12, 1964, aka Ophelia Dahl , and Lucy Neal Dahl was born on Wednesday, August 4, 1965, aka Lucy Dahl.

Enjoyed drinking both whiskey and wine in the evenings.

In the company of adults, he became bored quite quickly.

Loved to eat chocolate, and admitted that he ate too much of it.

Had a bad back, which caused him to become ill-tempered.

Enjoyed betting on horse races, even though he usually lost.

Honored by a set of British commemorative postage stamps issued 10 January 2012. The stamps feature illustrations by Quentin Blake , which were originally used in the following childrens books by Dahl: "Fantastic Mr. Fox", "The Twits", "The Witches", "James and the Giant Peach", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Matilda", and "The BFG".

His short story "Beware Of The Dog" is officially the basis for the film 36 Hours , although the plot is much altered and extended. According to one of the biographies of Dahl, the film was written without reference to him or his story, and it was only after the leading female role in the film was offered to his then wife Patricia Neal that he learned of the film at all. The similarity between the script and his original plot was obvious, and, with a great deal of money already invested, MGM was in no mood to be sued by Dahl for plagiarism. It quickly agreed to pay him a large sum of money for the film rights to his short story and gave him appropriate credit (Eva Marie Saint took the female lead in the film).

Died three months after The Witches , based on his book, was released.

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".

Had an interest in photography and often carried a camera around with him.

Was portrayed by Dirk Bogarde in the made-for-TV movie The Patricia Neal Story .

His parents were Norwegian, but he was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan, in 1916 and educated at Repton School.

Fellow author Neil Gaiman has been likened to a Dahl for his generation, because they both wrote dark fantasies as if they were true, and they shared the ability to remind a reader of what it was like to be a child.

His WWII novel "Over to You" was published in a magazine in 1946 and then as a book in 1973. The stories in "Over to You" were published in "The Saturday Evening Post", "Tomorrow", "Harpers Magazine", "Ladies Home Journal" and "Town and Country". "Over to You" doesnt refer to anyone in particular, the pilots are not the names of people he knew, and when Dahl says "I" that doesnt mean hes talking about himself. The book was based on his wartime experiences, and he speaks with some respect for the German pilots in the book.

At the start of World War II, Dahl enlisted in the RAF at Nairobi. Kenya. He was severely wounded after joining a fighter squadron in Libya, but later saw service as a fighter pilot in Greece and Syria. In 1942 he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attach, where he started to write, and then transferred to Intelligence, ending the war as a wing commander. His first 12 short stories, based on his wartime experiences, were originally published in leading American magazines and then as a book, "Over to You", which draws on those experiences and friends and colleagues to convey the bizarre reality of a pilots existence and the daily possibility of death.

His novel "My Uncle Oswald" was much praised and edited his Book of Ghost Stories.

The Times described Dahl as "one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation" and wrote in its obituary, "children loved his stories and made him their favorite... they will be classics of the future".

Dahl was badly wounded in Libya during World War II, but he served in the RAF in Greece and Syria. His book Over to You draws on those experiences and friends and colleagues to convey the bizarre reality of a pilots existence and the daily possibility of death.

He lost the use of his eyes during World War II but regained his sight in recovery.

He has written two autobiographies, "Boy" and "Going Solo".

His stories are highly acclaimed and widely translated and have become worldwide bestsellers. One of the most successful and well known of all childrens writers, his books are read by children everywhere.

"The Witches" won the 1983 Whitbread Award.

His TV series "Tales of the Unexpected" dramatized a selection of his short stories.

He wrote for adults, too.

His short story "Only This: may have inspired the climax of the Steven Spielberg film Always , in which Petes spirit guides Durinda to land a plane while in the cockpit with her.

"Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" has never been made into a film; he refused to sell the rights after his profound disappointment with Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory . "The Magic Finger" has never been made into a film either, or "Georges Marvellous Medicine", but a film of "The Twits" is, as of this writing, in production.

During the last year of his life he compiled a book of anecdotes and recipes with his wife Liccy Dahl under his regular publisher Penguin in 1996 as his Cookbook.

The unauthorized biography of Dahl by Jeremy Treglown was extremely unfavorable to him, claiming that he was a snob, very selfish and rude, a serial adulterer during his marriage to Patricia Neal , ungrateful and a virulent anti-Semite. His penchant for extra-marital affairs was confirmed by Neal in a television interview after his death, but his children defended him against the majority of Treglowns charges, and he had another champion (with reservations) in Dirk Bogarde , who played him in a TV movie and reviewed Treglowns book unfavorably in the London "Daily Telegraph" (concluding famously with the words, "He wasnt really such a shit, you know").

On a table near to his right hand, when he was sitting in his chair in his writing shed, he had collected all sorts of memorabilia; various things sent to him by fans or schoolchildren, a ball of silver paper from bars of chocolate which he had collected over the years since he was a young man and a part of his own hip bone that had been removed from him.

Educated at Repton Public School.

Used his experiences of his forced landing in North Africa during the war to write Shot Down Over Libya which was his first published work.

His story gremlin Lore about fictitious mischievous elves that were said to cause unexplained damage on RAF planes was commissioned by Walt Disney but was never made.

2nd wifes name is Felicity Crosland.

I find that the only way to make my characters really interesting to,children is to exaggerate all their good or bad qualities, and so if a,person is nasty or bad or cruel, you make them very nasty, very bad,very cruel. If they are ugly, you make them extremely ugly. That, I,think, is fun and makes an impact.

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute,freedom.

A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he,can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.

My faults and foibles are legion.

[his novel Over to You] Ten stories of flyers and flying.

Life is more fun if you play games.

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,Go throw your TV set away,And in its place you can installA lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.

If you are good life is good.

I is a dreamblowing giant,” the BFG said. “(. . . ) I is scuddling away to other places to blow dreams into the bedrooms of sleeping children. Nice dreams. Lovely golden dreams. Dreams that is giving the dreamers a happy time.

The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul and that I am sure is why he does it.

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.

You is getting nosier than a parker.

A dream is not needing anything. If it is a good one, it is waiting peaceably for ever until it is released and allowed to do its job. If it is a bad one, it is always fighting to get out.

I shall never have a bath again," I said. "Just dont have one too often," my grandmother said. "Once a month is quite enough for a sensible child. " It was at times like these that I loved my grandmother more than ever.

The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.

No one who is good can ever be ugly.

There are many things that make a man irritable when he arrives home from work in the evening and a sensible wife will usually notice the storm-signals and will leave him alone until he simmers down.

Men were foolish and were made only so that they should die, while mountains and rivers went on for ever and did not notice the passing of time.

Hey, my spaghetti’s moving!” cried Mr. Twit, poking around in it with his fork. “It’s a new kind,” Mrs. Twit said, taking a mouthful from her own plate which of course had no worms. “It’s called Squiggly Spaghetti. It’s delicious. Eat it up while it’s nice and hot.

. . . the more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. If you never let them take any risks, then I believe they become very prone to injury. Boys should be allowed to climb tall trees and walk along the tops of high walls and dive into the sea from high rocks. . . The same with girls. I like the type of child who takes risks. Better by far than the one who never does so.

You seemed so far away," Miss Honey whispered, awestruck. "Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings," Matilda said. "It was wonderful.

Never get out of bed, never go to the window, and never look behind the curtain.

It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible.

You must remember that there was virtually no air travel in the early 1930s. Africa was two weeks away from England by boat and it took you about five weeks to get to China. These were distant and magic lands and nobody went to them just for a holiday. You went there to work. Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours and nothing is fabulous anymore.

Some people when they have taken too much and have been driven beyond the point of endurance, simply crumble and give up. There are others, though they are not many, who will for some reason always be unconquerable. You meet them in time of war and also in time of peace. They have an indomitable spirit and nothing, neither pain nor torture nor threat of death, will cause them to give up.

I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. I think they do it deliberately, just to annoy me.

All grown-ups appear as giants to small children. But Headmasters (and policemen) are the biggest giants of all and acquire a marvellously exaggerated stature.

Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.

A bad girl is a far more dangerous thing than a bad boy.

We are all a great deal luckier that we realize, we usually get what we want - or near enough.

What sort of a book would you like to read next?" she asked.

Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything. Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that is what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it.

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. .