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Roald Dahl (born September 13, 1916, Llandaff , Wales—died November 23, 1990, Oxford , England) was a British writer who was a popular author of ingenious and irreverent children’s books . His best-known works include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and Matilda (1988), both of which were adapted into popular films.

Following his graduation from Repton, a renowned British public school, in 1934, Dahl avoided a university education and joined an expedition to Newfoundland. He worked from 1937 to 1939 in Dar es Salaam , Tanganyika (now in Tanzania), but he enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) when World War II broke out. Flying as a fighter pilot, he was seriously injured in a crash landing in Libya . He served with his squadron in Greece and then in Syria before doing a stint (1942–43) as assistant air attaché in Washington, D.C. (during which time he also served as a spy for the British government). There the novelist C.S. Forester encouraged him to write about his most exciting RAF adventures, which were published by the Saturday Evening Post .

Dahl’s first book, The Gremlins (1943), was written for Walt Disney but was largely unsuccessful. His service in the RAF influenced his first story collection, Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946), a series of military tales that was warmly received by critics but did not sell well. He achieved best-seller status with Someone like You (1953; rev. ed. 1961), a collection of macabre stories for adults, which was followed by Kiss, Kiss (1959), which focused on stormy romantic relationships.

Dahl then turned primarily to writing the children’s books that would give him lasting fame. Unlike most other books aimed at a young audience, Dahl’s works had a darkly comic nature, frequently including gruesome violence and death. His villains were often malevolent adults who imperiled precocious and noble child protagonists. James and the Giant Peach (1961; film 1996 ), written for his own children, was a popular success, as was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), which was made into the films Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). His other works for young readers include Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970; film 2009 ), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972), The Enormous Crocodile (1978), The BFG (1982; films 1989 and 2016 ), and The Witches (1983; film 1990 ). One of his last such books, Matilda (1988), was adapted for film (1996 and 2022) and the stage ( 2010).

While Dahl focused primarily on children’s literature late in his career, he continued to produce short stories for adult audiences during this time, which were published in collections such as Switch Bitch (1974), The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and Six More (1977), and Tales of the Unexpected (1979). Dahl also wrote several scripts for movies, among them You Only Live Twice (1967) and (with Ken Hughes and Richard Maibaum) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). His autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood , was published in 1984.

While his lasting reputation to many is that of a beloved children’s author, Dahl has also been a controversial figure both during his lifetime and after. Some of his works, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , were criticized at the time of their publication for their use of racial and sexual stereotypes , but his most notable transgressions came outside of his fiction. In several interviews and nonfiction writings during the 1980s and ’90s, Dahl expressed opinions that were widely viewed as anti-Semitic . While he defended himself as being “anti- Israel ” rather than anti-Semitic, that distinction was not accepted by a number of readers, and his estate published an apology for his statements in 2020. Three years later, Dahl’s publishers announced that they had revised hundreds of insensitive and outdated passages in his classic children’s books, a move that was met with both support for reflecting a changing culture and criticism for perceived editorial overreach.

Biography of Roald Dahl, British Novelist

The Memorable Author of Iconic Children's Novels

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Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916–November 23, 1990) was a British writer. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II , he became a world-famous author, particularly due to his best-selling books for children.

Fast Facts: Roald Dahl

• Known For:  English author of children's novels and adult short stories
• Born:  September 13, 1916 in Cardiff, Wales
• Parents:  Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née  Hesselberg)
• Died:  November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England
• Education:  Repton School
• Selected Works:   James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970), The BFG (1982), Matilda (1988)
• Spouses:  Patricia Neal (m. 1953-1983), Felicity Crosland (m. 1983)
• Children:  Olivia Twenty Dahl, Chantal Sophia "Tessa" Dahl, Theo Matthew Dahl, Ophelia Magdalena Dahl, Lucy Neal Dahl
• Notable Quote:  “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1916, in the district of Llandaff. His parents were Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg), both of whom were Norwegian immigrants. Harold had originally immigrated from Norway in the 1880s and lived in Cardiff with his French first wife, with whom he had two children (a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Louis) before her death in 1907. Sofie immigrated later and married Harold in 1911. They had five children, Roald and his four sisters Astri, Alfhild, Else, and Asta, all of whom they raised Lutheran. In 1920, Astri died suddenly of appendicitis, and Harold died of pneumonia only weeks later; Sofie was pregnant with Asta at the time. Instead of returning to her family in Norway, she stayed in the UK, wanting to follow her husband’s wishes to give their children an English education.

As a boy, Dahl was sent to an English public boarding school , St. Peter’s. He was intensely unhappy during his time there, but never let his mother know how he felt about it. In 1929, he moved to Repton School in Derbyshire, which he found equally unpleasant due to the culture of intense hazing and the cruelty with which older students dominated and bullied the younger ones; his hatred for corporal punishment stemmed from his school experiences. One of the cruel headmasters he loathed, Geoffrey Fisher, later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the association somewhat soured Dahl on religion.

Surprisingly, he was not noted as a particularly talented writer during his schoolboy days; in fact, many of his evaluations reflected precisely the opposite. He did enjoy literature, as well as sports and photography. Another of his iconic creations was sparked by his schooling experiences: the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent samples of new products to be tested by Repton students, and Dahl’s imagination of new chocolate creations would later turn into his famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . He graduated in 1934 and took a job with the Shell Petroleum Company; he was sent as an oil supplier to Kenya and Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania).

World War II Pilot

In 1939, Dahl was first commissioned by the army to lead a platoon of indigenous troops as World War II broke out . Soon after, however, he switched to the Royal Air Force , despite having very little experience as a pilot, and underwent months of training before he was deemed fit for combat in the fall of 1940. His first mission, however, went badly awry. After being given instructions that later proved to be inaccurate, he wound up crashing in the Egyptian desert and suffering serious injuries that took him out of combat for several months. He did manage to return to combat in 1941. During this time, he had five aerial victories, which qualified him as a flying ace, but by September 1941, severe headaches and blackouts led to him being invalided home.

Dahl attempted to qualify as an RAF training officer, but instead wound up accepting the post of assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Although unimpressed and uninterested with his diplomatic posting, he became acquainted with C.S. Forester, a British novelist who was tasked with producing Allied propaganda for American audiences. Forester asked Dahl to write down some of his war experiences to be turned into a story, but when he received Dahl’s manuscript, he instead published it as Dahl had written it. He wound up working with other authors, including David Ogilvy and Ian Fleming, to help promote British war interests, and worked in espionage as well, at one point passing information from Washington to Winston Churchill himself.

The knack for children’s stories that would make Dahl famous first appeared during the war as well. In 1943, he published The Gremlins , turning an inside joke in the RAF (“gremlins” were to blame for any aircraft problems) into a popular story that counted Eleanor Roosevelt and Walt Disney among its fans. When the war ended, Dahl had held the rank of wing commander and squadron leader. Several years after the end of the war, in 1953, he married Patricia Neal, an American actress. They had five children: four daughters and one son.

Short Stories (1942-1960)

• "A Piece of Cake" (published as "Shot Down Over Libya," 1942)
• The Gremlins (1943)
• Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
• Sometime Never: A Fable for Superman (1948)
• Someone Like You (1953)
• Kiss Kiss (1960)

Dahl’s writing career began in 1942 with his wartime story. Originally, he wrote it with the title “A Piece of Cake,” and it was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for the substantial sum of $1,000. In order to be more dramatic for war propaganda purposes, however, it was renamed “Shot Down Over Libya,” even though Dahl had not, in fact, been shot down, let alone over Libya. His other major contribution to the war effort was The Gremlins , his first work for children. Originally, it was optioned by Walt Disney for an animated film , but a variety of production obstacles (problems with ensuring the rights to the idea of “gremlins” were open, issues with creative control and RAF involvement) led to the project’s eventual abandonment.

As the war came to an end, he kicked off a career writing short stories, mostly for adults and mostly published originally in a variety of American magazines. In the waning years of the war, many of his short stories remained focused on the war, the war effort, and propaganda for the Allies. First published in 1944 in Harper’s Bazaar , “Beware of the Dog” became one of Dahl’s most successful war stories and eventually was loosely adapted into two different movies.

In 1946, Dahl published his first short story collection. Entitled Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying , the collection includes most of his war-era short stories . They’re notably different from the more famous works he’d later write; these stories were clearly rooted in the wartime setting and were more realistic and less quirky. He also tackled his first (of what would only be two) adult novels in 1948. Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen was a work of dark speculative fiction, combining the premise of his children’s story The Gremlins with a dystopian future imagining worldwide nuclear war. It was largely a failure and has never been reprinted in English. Dahl returned to short stories, publishing two consecutive short story collections: Someone Like You in 1953 and Kiss Kiss in 1960.

Family Struggles and Children’s Stories (1960-1980)

• James and the Giant Peach (1961)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
• The Magic Finger (1966)
• Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
• Switch Bitch (1974)
• Danny the Champion of the World (1975)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1978)
• The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
• The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
• My Uncle Oswald (1979)
• Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
• The Twits (1980)
• More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)

The beginning of the decade included some devastating events for Dahl and his family. In 1960, his son Theo’s baby carriage was hit by a car, and Theo nearly died. He suffered from hydrocephalus, so Dahl collaborated with engineer Stanley Wade and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till to invent a valve that could be used to improve treatment. Less than two years later, Dahl's daughter, Olivia, died at age seven from measles encephalitis. As a result, Dahl became a staunch proponent of vaccinations and he also began questioning his faith—a well-known anecdote explained that Dahl was dismayed at an archbishop’s remark that Olivia’s beloved dog could not join her in heaven and began questioning whether or not the Church really was so infallible. In 1965, his wife Patricia suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms during her fifth pregnancy, requiring her to relearn basic skills like walking and talking; she did recover and eventually returned to her acting career.

Meanwhile, Dahl was becoming more and more involved in writing novels for children. James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, became his first iconic children’s book, and the decade saw several more publications that would go on to endure for years. His 1964 novel, though, would be arguably his most famous: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . The book received two film adaptations, one in 1971 and one in 2005, and a sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator , in 1972. In 1970, Dahl published The Fantastic Mr. Fox , another of his more famous children’s stories.

During this time, Dahl continued to turn out short story collections for adults as well. Between 1960 and 1980, Dahl published eight short story collections, including two “best of” style collections. My Uncle Oswald , published in 1979, was a novel using the same character of the lecherous “Uncle Oswald” who featured in a few of his earlier short stories for adults. He also continuously published new novels for children, which soon surpassed the success of his adult works. In the 1960s, he also briefly worked as a screenwriter, most notably adapting two Ian Fleming novels into films: the James Bond caper You Only Live Twice and the children’s movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang .

Later Stories for Both Audiences (1980-1990)

• George's Marvelous Medicine (1981)
• The BFG (1982)
• The Witches (1983)
• The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
• Two Fables (1986)
• Matilda (1988)
• Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
• Esio Trot (1990)
• The Vicar of Nibbleswick (1991)
• The Minpins (1991)

By the early 1980s, Dahl’s marriage to Neal was falling apart. They divorced in 1983, and Dahl remarried that same year to Felicity d’Abreu Crosland, an ex-girlfriend. Around the same time, he caused some controversy with his remarks centered on Tony Clifton's picture book  God Cried , which depicted the siege of West Beirut by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War. His comments at the time were widely interpreted as antisemitic , although others in his circle interpreted his anti-Israel comments as non-malicious and more targeted at the conflicts with Israel.

Among his most famous later stories are 1982’s The BFG and 1988’s Matilda . The latter book was adapted into a much-beloved film in 1996, as well as an acclaimed stage musical in 2010 on the West End and 2013 on Broadway. The last book released while Dahl was still alive was Esio Trot , a surprisingly sweet children’s novel about a lonely old man trying to connect with a woman he has fallen in love with from afar.

Literary Styles and Themes

Dahl was far and away best known for his very particular and unique approach to children’s literature . Certain elements in his books are easily traced to his ugly experiences at boarding school during his youth: villainous, terrifying adults in positions of power who hate children, precocious and observant children as protagonists and narrators, school settings, and plenty of imagination. Although the boogeymen of Dahl’s childhood certainly made plenty of appearances—and, crucially, were always defeated by the children—he also tended to write token “good” adults as well.

Despite being famous for writing for children, Dahl’s sense of style is famously a unique hybrid of the whimsical and the gleefully macabre. It’s a distinctively child-centric approach, but one with a subversive undertone to its obvious warmth. The details of his antagonists’ villainy are often described in childlike but nightmarish detail, and the comic threads in stories such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are laced with dark or even violent moments. Gluttony is a particular target for Dahl’s sharply violent retribution, with several notably fat characters in his canon receiving disturbing or violent ends.

Dahl’s language is notable for its playful style and intentional malapropisms . His books are littered with new words of his own invention, often created by switching around letters or mix-and-matching existing sounds to make words that still made sense, even though they weren’t real words. In 2016, for the centenary of Dahl's birth, lexicographer Susan Rennie created  The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary , a guide to his invented words and their “translations” or meanings.

Near the end of his life, Dahl was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare cancer of the blood, typically affecting older patients, that occurs when blood cells do not “mature” into healthy blood cells. Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England. He was buried at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, England, in a fittingly unusual fashion: he was buried with some chocolates and wine, pencils, his favorite pool cues, and a power saw. To this day, his grave remains a popular site, where children and adults alike pay tribute by leaving flowers and toys.

Dahl’s legacy largely dwells in the enduring power of his children’s books. Several of his most famous works have been adapted into several different media, from film and television to radio to stage. It’s not just his literary contributions that have continued to have an impact, though. After his death, his widow Felicity continued his charitable work through the Roald Dahl Marvellous Children’s Charity, which supports children with various illnesses throughout the UK. In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen joined forces to create The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, awarded annually to authors of humorous children's fiction. Dahl’s particular brand of humor and his sophisticated yet approachable voice for children’s fiction have left an indelible mark.

• Boothroyd, Jennifer.  Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination . Lerner Publications, 2008.
• Shavick, Andrea.  Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller . Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Sturrock, Donald.  Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl , Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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Author Interviews

Roald dahl: the story of the 'storyteller'.

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl By Donald Sturrock Hardcover, 672 pages Simon & Schuster List price: $30

Read An Excerpt

Roald Dahl is best known for his children's stories.  His first -- and arguably his most famous -- was James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, when Dahl was already in his mid-40s.

But prior to finding his calling as a children's author, Dahl tried out several other careers -- as an oilman for Shell, a pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and a member of the British diplomatic corps.

Perhaps one of the most interesting periods in Dahl's life -- and one that demonstrates his considerable charm -- was during World War II. Early in the war, Dahl spent several years living in the United States, trying to raise awareness for the British war cause. Donald Sturrock, author of Storyteller , a new biography of Dahl, tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer just how successful Dahl was in this endeavor.

"It was a dizzying ride to the top of Washington, New York and L.A. society," he says. "Dahl's mission was to conquer American society, which he did with a series of speeches about what it was like to be a RAF man."

Dahl's writing career took off here, too.  While in America, he wrote a short piece of fiction about gremlins -- the mythical creatures that cause problems with RAF airplanes.  The story became very popular and received a tremendous amount of attention.  A copy sent to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt charmed her enough that she invited Dahl to the White House.  Walt Disney also fell under the gremlins' spell and flew Dahl to Hollywood to discuss making a movie.

Dahl's gremlins never made it into a movie, but they did make it into a book, which Sturrock says may have helped in promoting a positive image of Britain and the RAF to wartime America.

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953.

Dahl would capture America's attention again in 1952, when he married actress Patricia Neal, who later won an Oscar for her performance with Paul Newman in Hud . Although the marriage almost failed in the first few months, Sturrock says it eventually became one of great strength.

"Pat and Roald were bound together by these two tragedies that happened quite early on with their children," he explains. "Their son Theo was knocked over and crushed against the side of a bus by a cab in New York, and secondly when their eldest daughter, Olivia, died, aged only 7, from complications resulting from measles."

Neal would also suffer an aneurysm and a series of strokes, which caused her to lose the use of one side of her body and made speech very difficult. Dahl worked out an intensely rigorous rehabilitation therapy for her that, to many, seemed almost cruel.

But, Sturrock says, what Dahl did was very pioneering at that time.

"It's almost become standard practice, his idea that you must stimulate a stroke victim quite early on and quite extremely in order to get them back to health," he explains.

Dahl worked hard to help Neal recover and, although it was a very painful process for her, she was extremely grateful to him, especially given that she was able to return to her acting career within only a few years.

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children.

Neal's acting career, and then her illness, meant that Dahl assumed many of the domestic responsibilities -- taking care of the house and the children.  But to focus on his writing, Dahl needed a more private place.   He would often retire to a small work hut -- his writing hut -- where he could indulge his love of fantasy and escape from reality.

Dahl himself told Sturrock that the hut helped him think like a child.

"I can cut myself off there," Dahl said, "...and within minutes become six and seven and eight again."

That, says Sturrock, was Dahl's most special gift -- he truly understood children.  "He had an extraordinary confidence about his ability to see into a child's mind and to see the world the way a child saw it."

Excerpt: 'Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl'

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A Rosier View of Roald Dahl

“Teller of the Unexpected,” an elegant new biography, sidesteps the ugly side of the children’s book author while capturing his grandiose, tragedy-specked life.

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By Alexandra Jacobs

ROALD DAHL, TELLER OF THE UNEXPECTED: A Biography, by Matthew Dennison

Many young readers who love the prodigious oeuvre of Roald Dahl can nonetheless cite at least one thing within it that gives them the ick. For me it was Mr. Twit’s beard in “ The Twits ” (1980), so ungroomed it might contain “a piece of maggoty green cheese or a mouldy old cornflake or even the slimy tail of a tinned sardine .” When millennial men in Brooklyn started growing big, bushy beards, my inner child dived under the table in horror.

The ickiest thing about the life of Dahl, who died in 1990 , was his well-documented antisemitism, capped by a 1983 comment about Jews to The New Statesman, in which he declared that “even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” (That it’s custom for observant Jewish men to wear beards makes me even more uneasy about the demonized Mr. Twit.) The Dahl estate has posted an apology for his behavior on its website — linked discreetly under a Quentin Blake illustration of the author in a pink cardigan, looking beneficent and cuddly.

Looking back, there were plenty of other oh-no-he-didn’t moments in the literature. The Oompa-Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” were originally African pygmies — Dahl called the actors who played them wearing orange makeup and green wigs in the 1971 movie “dirty old dwarfs.” And a rapey 1965 story for Playboy, “Bitch,” transformed its adult male protagonist into a “ gigantic perpendicular penis, seven feet tall and as handsome as they come ,” as if James and his famous peach had grown up and gone horribly wrong.

But none of this is lingered on in Matthew Dennison’s elegant but somewhat glancing new biography of Dahl, subtitled “Teller of the Unexpected.” His subject has sold more books around the world than is possible to count. Netflix bought The Roald Dahl Story Co. in 2021 for a reported $1 billion ; “Matilda” alone is movie, musical and multiple memes. Roald Dahl — not mere author but high-yielding content farm — may simply be too big to cancel.

His own story has already inspired two major biographies, from which Dennison draws: one authorized, by Donald Sturrock , who also edited Dahl’s letters to his beloved mother , Sofie Magdalene; one not, by Jeremy Treglown . All of these accounts stand as necessary supplements to Dahl’s lyrical but selectively truthful autobiographical writing ; Dennison notes his tendency toward “mythomania.” He figured unfavorably in “As I Am,” the memoir by his first wife, the actress Patricia Neal, whom he nursed aggressively (some would say sadistically) back to health after a stroke and then left for their friend, Felicity “Liccy” Crosland; and in a roman à clef by their daughter, Tessa. The first Mr. and Mrs. Dahl were rendered in softer focus mourning the death from measles encephalitis of Tessa’s older sister, at only 7, in the recent movie “To Olivia.”

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Roald Dahl Best Books 📚

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Roald Dahl is one of the most well-known writers of children's literature of all time. With classics such as 'Matilda' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', his works are timeless and beloved across the world.

Article written by Neesha Thunga K

B.A. in English Literature, and M.A. in English Language and Literature.

Having sold 300 million copies of his books worldwide, Roald Dahl is often hailed as one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century for children.

Matilda  (1988) 

‘ Matilda’  is a children’s novel about a genius 5-year-old girl who is neglected and abused by her parents. She also has a superpower: the power to move objects with her mind. Matilda develops her own brand of justice to get back at her parents for their wrongdoings. At school, she is far above her age in terms of mental ability and is recognized by her class teacher, Miss Honey, as an extraordinary child. However, Miss Honey harbors a secret about her tragic past, which involves the terrorizing Principal of Matilda’s school, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda sets out once again to deliver justice and restore the status quo within her and Miss Honey’s world.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)

‘ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ‘ revolves around a young boy named Charlie Bucket who lives on the outskirts of town with his destitute and poverty-stricken family. His father loses his job just as the town’s eccentric chocolate maker, Willy Wonka, announces five hidden golden tickets that would allow its finders to visit his famous chocolate factory. Fortunately, Charlie finds the last and final golden ticket in his chocolate bar and is invited to the Chocolate Factory with 4 other children (Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee), who are all rich and spoiled. As Willy Wonka gives the children a tour of his factory, the children, one by one, show their self-centered and entitled behaviors, for which they begin to suffer bizarre consequences.

The BFG  (1982)

  ‘The BFG’  begins with a young girl named Sophie who lives in an orphanage. One day, she is suddenly whisked away by the BFG or the Big Friendly Giant. The Big Friendly Giant narrates to Sophie about his job, which involves blowing dreams into children’s rooms. Sophie is fascinated with the world of the giants until she learns of the BFG’s neighbors. The neighbors are wicked giants who snatch children away and eat them. Although the BFG himself is a pacifist, Sophie takes action against the injustices of his neighbors, teaching everyone about the importance of standing up to one’s bullies.

The Witches  (1983)

This dark fantasy novel reinforces the classic proverb, “Appearances can be deceptive.”  ‘The Witches’  revolves around an unnamed protagonist who has lost his parents and is now living with his grandmother in Norway. He goes to the coast of England, where he and his grandmother stay at a hotel that is crawling with witches. The witches all have one thing in common: they hate children and wish to turn them all into mice. The boy is caught overhearing this plan and is turned into a mouse himself. Along with his friend Bruno and with the wisdom of his grandmother, the boy sets out to stop the witches from executing their plan. 

Fantastic Mr. Fox  (1970) 

‘Fantastic Mr Fox’  is a comedic children’s story that begins with 3 gluttonous farmers, Bean, Bunce, and Boggis, who are incredibly frustrated with a fox that keeps stealing their life stock. The fox is none other than Mr. Fox, who is trying to feed his family, which consists of his wife and four baby foxes. However, the farmers hatch a plan to catch Mr. Fox and put an end to his thieving activities. Mr. Fox and his family somehow manage to escape, but the farmers are intent on catching him and stringing him up. They enlist the help of all of the farm workers and trap Mr. Fox and his family underground. However, Mr. Fox comes up with a clever plan to outwit the farmers.

James and the Giant Peach (1961) 

‘James and the Giant Peach’  is one of Roald Dahl’s most famous novels. In it, James, an orphan, is living with his two cruel aunts when an old man gives him a set of magical green objects. The green objects cause a giant peach to grow in James’ backyard. Inside the peach are various insects whom James befriends. He and his friends set on a journey across the world, going on various adventures, with James often taking the lead and saving the day.

The Twits  (1980) 

‘ The Twits’  is the story of a horrible couple, Mr. and Mrs. Twit, who enjoy playing cruel pranks on each other. The couple continuously tries to hunt the birds in the Big Dead tree to make a bird pie. Muggle-wump, a monkey, and his African family warn the birds to stay away from the tree. However, Muggle-wump himself is caught by the Twits and made to undergo training for hours on end for the Twit’s upside-down circus. Muggle-wump must escape, and he hatches a plan with an African bird Roly-Poly, to not only escape but also to turn the Twits’ house upside down.

Boy: Tales of Childhood  (1984) 

This is an autobiographical novel that focuses on Roald Dahl’s childhood. The memoir captures his boyhood experiences as a British schoolboy all the way up till his teenage years. The memoir is written with short sentences and villainous characters, much like Roald Dahl’s other books. In it, Dahl recounts various tales of family events, harsh punishments received at school, numerous entertaining adventures with his friends, and his rambunctious activities.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator  (1972) 

In this novel, Dahl continues the story of Charlie Bucket and the chocolatier, Willy Wonka. Wonka has now transferred ownership of the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and his family are all set to take possession of it. They board the flying Great Glass Elevator, which will take them to the factory. However, things go amiss when the elevator is accidentally thrown into orbit in outer space. Charlie and his family end up going on various space adventures with the eccentric Mr. Wonka encountering dangerous aliens on the way. The group escapes narrowly and reaches the Chocolate Factory, where they face several misadventures once again. Charlie and Wonka must ride the Great Glass Elevator once again to set right all that has gone wrong.

Danny, the Champion of the World  (1975)

This is a children’s novel about Danny, a young boy who learns the basics of mechanics as well as poaching from his loving father. One day, Danny’s father does not return from one of his poaching adventures. Danny discovers him on Mr. Hazell’s farm with a broken ankle. Danny and his father then hatch a plan to get back at Mr. Hazell in the upcoming annual pheasant shoot. The two of them come up with an ingenious plan that leaves Mr. Hazell pheasant-less while Danny and his father enjoy roast pheasant in their new electric oven.

George’s Marvelous Medicine  (1981)

This children’s story follows George’s misadventure with his mean and selfish grandmother. Instructed by his mother to feed his grandmother her medicine, George sets out to create his own medicine to make his grandmother a nice person. His medicine causes his grandmother and a chicken to grow unbelievably large, and George’s father is delighted because this means that they will never go hungry ever again. However, the next few batches of George’s medicine all turn out to have different effects. One batch even makes his grandmother entirely disappear.

Notable Mentions

Roald Dahl has written several other children’s novels including  ‘The Gremlins’  (1943),  ‘The Magic Finger’  (1966),  ‘The Enormous Crocodile’  (1978), ‘ The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me’  (1985),  ‘Esio Trot’  (1990),  ‘The Vicar of Nibbleswicke’  (Posthumously in 1991),  ‘The Minpins’  (Posthumously in 1991) and finally, Roald Dahl’s  ‘Incredible Chocolate Box’  (Posthumously in 2005). Many of his books have reached best-selling status and are critically acclaimed as some of the best children’s literature of all time.

What are Roald Dahl’s top 5 best-selling books?

The top 5 best-selling books by Roald Dahl are  ‘Matilda,’ ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘The BFG,’ ‘James and the Giant Peach ‘, and  ‘The Witches .’ Over the last few years, sales of  ‘Matilda’  have surpassed the combined sales of Roald Dahl’s every other book.

What Roald Dahl book should I read?

Although Roald Dahl is a children’s writer, his children’s books are universally appealing to both kids and adults. As such, one can begin their journey into the world of Roald Dahl through classics such as  ‘Matilda’  and  ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’  or even explore some of Roald Dahl’s adult stories,  ‘Kiss Kiss’  and  ‘Over to You.’

What is Roald Dahl’s favorite book, and why?

Roald Dahl’s favorite book is ‘ The BFG’ . He has mentioned that this book is one of his most personal works, and he has dedicated it to his daughter Olivia, who passed away more than 25 years ago.  ‘The BFG’  is one of Roald Dahl’s best-selling books as well.

What is the best Roald Dahl book to read first?

Most of Roald Dahl’s books have a similar charm to them, and as such, it does not matter which is the first book by Roald Dahl to read. However, most people recommend beginning with books such as ‘Matilda’ or ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’

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Neesha, born to a family of avid readers, has devoted several years to teaching English and writing for various organizations, making an impact on the literary community.

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Dahl Biography

Children of all ages have read and enjoyed books by Roald Dahl. Many of his stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach , have become classics in their own time.

As recounted in Boy , Roald Dahl’s father, Harald Dahl, immigrated to England from Norway around the turn of the century (1900). Not long after the death of his first wife, he took a trip back to Norway in hopes of finding a wife to help him raise his young son and daughter. He married Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg in 1911 and the couple moved to Dahl’s home in Llandaff, Wales. Over the next six years they had five children: Astri, Alfhild, Roald, Else, Asta. Roald was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandaff. Unfortunately Astri, the eldest, died of appendicitis in 1920. Harald Dahl quickly deteriorated after his daughter’s death and he died of pneumonia a few months later. Sofie Dahl, pregnant at the time with Asta, was left with three of her own children, two step-children, a sizeable estate, and her husband’s dying wish that his children would be educated in English schools, which he thought the best in the world.

A less determined woman would have packed up and moved back home to Norway, but Sofie decided to stay in Wales and carry out Harald’s wish. But she wasn’t ready to move to England yet. First she moved the family into a smaller, more manageable home in Llandaff and then one-by-one sent each of her children to Elmtree House, a local school, for kindergarten. When Roald was seven Sofie decided it was time for him to go to a proper boy’s school, so she sent him to nearby Llandaff Cathedral School. He spent two years there and his only memories of it are described in Boy – one involves an older boy whizzing by on a bicycle, and the other involves The Great Mouse Plot that earned him and his friends a savage caning by the school’s headmaster. This violent incident was what prompted Sofie to withdraw Roald from the Llandaff school and finally send him off to an English boarding school: St. Peter’s.

Roald Dahl Was a WW II Spy and Fighter Pilot Before Becoming a Beloved Children's Book Author

Prior to writing 'James and the Giant Peach,' 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda,' and more, Dahl was a member of the Air Force and involved in a covert spy operation.

It all started during World War II when Dahl left his oil industry job in Tanzania to enlist in the Royal Air Force in 1939. Despite measuring well over six feet, which made it difficult for him to fit into a cockpit, he became a fighter pilot. But on his first excursion he crashed in the Libyan desert (Dahl would later write that he'd been shot down, but it was an accidental crash).

The crash fractured his skull, injured his spine and destroyed his nose. Swelling left him temporarily unable to see, and it took several months for Dahl to recover. But he turned down a chance to go back home to convalesce in the hopes of flying again, and in the spring of 1941, he was cleared to join the battle against the German invasion of Greece.

In this fight, the small number of British planes were vastly outnumbered by German ones, and aerial combat was often deadly for the British pilots. Dahl survived the dangerous flights and took down some of the enemy before it was necessary to retreat. Yet after this, he only flew for a few more weeks. Suffering from increasingly painful headaches and occasional blackouts linked to his earlier injuries, he was deemed unfit to fly.

Dahl became a spy in Washington, D.C.

In 1942, America was a recent ally in World War II. But the country still had many isolationists who were unhappy about joining the fight — some even felt President Franklin D. Roosevelt had conspired to let Pearl Harbor happen in order to push America toward war. As a dashing, wounded fighter pilot, Dahl was sent to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to help make the case for U.S. involvement in the war.

Dahl could be charming, which won him invitations to dinners and cocktail parties. And he was helped along in society by the friendship of Charles Marsh, a newspaper owner and oil magnate (whose other mentees included Lyndon Johnson ). Eventually, Dahl became involved in the covert spy operation British Security Coordination.

BSC's agents were keeping an eye on U.S. involvement in the war, as well as scoping out any post-war plans the United States might be making. His work as a spy still called for Dahl to attend a lot of dinners and cocktail parties — but now he was reporting the tidbits and gossip he heard to BSC.

He was tight with major political players

When Dahl was invited to visit Hyde Park with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , he took notes to pass along to BSC. Among Dahl's other notable friends and acquaintances were Vice President Henry Wallace (the two regularly played tennis) and then-Senator Harry Truman (who Dahl joined for poker games). Dahl also had numerous affairs, including with Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce. The congresswoman wasn't an avid supporter of British interests; Dahl may have been directed to encourage her to change these views.

Dahl's friend Marsh inadvertently aided the younger man's espionage when he showed Dahl some papers from Wallace regarding America's plans for the aviation industry once the war was over. Dahl was so intrigued by what he'd read that he arranged for someone to come and take the papers to be copied. While this was happening he lingered by the lavatory to establish an alibi should anyone wonder why it had taken him so long to read the document.

Dahl was valued enough that even when his higher-ups at the embassy didn't want him around any longer — he was a very undiplomatic diplomat who didn't care for office life — BSC arranged for his return to the States. And he had enough pull that he was able to help Ernest Hemingway travel to London, where Dahl served as Hemingway's minder, prior to D-Day.

Dahl nearly made a film with Walt Disney

Being an embassy attaché and spy would seem enough to occupy most people — but Dahl also found time to write while he was posted in the States during World War II. A piece about his crash in Libya impressed writer C.S. Forester so much that he helped Dahl get it published in the Saturday Evening Post .

Another Dahl project was about gremlins. These creatures had a long history within the RAF, often receiving the blame for mechanical failures. Dahl's work on a story about gremlins led to interest from Walt Disney , who began developing an animated feature. Dahl made trips to Hollywood to work on the film (on one occasion dining with Ginger Rogers). But he proved to be a difficult collaborator at times, arguing with Disney about how the gremlins should look. And as commercial prospects for the movie seemed to dim, Disney decided not to make it after all.

Dahl's gremlins did appear in an illustrated book published under the Disney aegis in 1943 (he sent a copy to Eleanor Roosevelt, which helped the two forge their friendship). But this book would be the only children's publication on Dahl's resume for many years to come. It wasn't until he wrote James and the Giant Peach , which was published in the United States in 1961, that he discovered his true calling: writing books for children.

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Roald Dahl is as troubling as he is beloved. Can’t he be both?

The author of children’s favorites like ‘Matilda’ was a complicated man. A new biography reminds us just how complicated.

In the brisk and concise “ Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected ,” Matthew Dennison notes that the author of “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ,” “ The BFG ,” “ Matilda ” and much, much else has, according to the British journal the Bookseller, sold at least 250 million books in 58 languages.

That’s a phenomenal number, but just start almost any of Dahl’s books, then try to stop reading. I can testify to the tractor-beam power of his storytelling. After finishing Dennison’s biography, I decided to glance briefly at the opening chapters of “ The Witches ,” which I had reviewed, ecstatically, when it first appeared in 1983. When I finally lifted my eyes from the page, I was a quarter of the way through the novel, having been caught up all over again in its delicious scariness. Admittedly, “The Witches” remains my favorite among Dahl’s classics, closely followed by his 1988 paean to books and girl power, the wonderful “Matilda.” I didn’t reread it only because I had watched the exuberant — if overly dark — new film version instead. Like nearly all of Dahl’s best work, these two novels celebrate kindness, independent thought, daring, loyalty and self-reliance.

The disturbing Mr. Dahl

Without supplanting either Jeremy Treglown’s pioneering “ Roald Dahl: A Biography ” (1993) or Donald Sturrock’s authorized biography, “ Storyteller ” (2010) — both of which I recommend, especially the latter — this succinct new biography provides just enough information for all but the most ardent Dahl devotee. As in his previous lives of Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, Dennison again reminds us that children’s authors are, to say the least, complicated people. Dahl, for instance, could face horrific life-or-death crises with heroic self-control, knowing precisely what needed to be done and doing it. In more ordinary circumstances, however, his need to dominate and take command wasn’t much different from that of his own villain, the controlling, paramilitary sadist Miss Trunchbull.

Yet Dahl remains a troubling, complicated figure. Waspishly opinionated, frequently offensive, a hard bargainer with publishers and swaggeringly obnoxious with his editors, he could also be irresistibly charming, outrageously funny and, in his younger days, a relentless Casanova. In later years, he transformed himself into a family man who was distinctly “sparky,” his own word from “ Danny the Champion of the World ” for what a father should be. Once, while his daughters Olivia and Tessa slept, Dahl wrote their names in weed killer on the lawn outside their bedroom window. “The following morning, he told them it was the work of fairies.” Throughout his life, the writer also practiced, without fanfare, what Dennison describes as “habitual generosity.” To this day, the Dahl estate continues to support specialist pediatric nurses and to underwrite research into neurological and blood diseases.

Born in 1916, Roald Dahl — named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen — was only 3 when his Norwegian-born father died, leaving a sizable fortune (from shipping and coal). At the prestigious Repton School, young Roald displayed no talent whatsoever for writing. One school report reads: “A persistent muddler. Vocabulary negligible, sentences malconstructed.” After graduation, rather than go on to university, he eagerly took up a job with Shell Oil in Africa, then later joined the Royal Air Force during World War II, flying combat missions over Greece.

Why read old books? A case for the classic, the unusual, the neglected.

Because of head injuries from a crash, the handsome 6-foot-6 flying ace was eventually redeployed to D.C. as a kind of British goodwill ambassador. There, besides doing a bit of intelligence work, he regularly bedded pretty girls and rich society matrons. But his “lucky break” — as he later titled an autobiographical essay — came about after meeting the novelist C.S. Forester. The creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower asked Dahl to write up his crash in the Libyan desert and was so impressed by the result that he sent the piece to the Saturday Evening Post, where it was published on Aug. 1, 1942. Other successful tales about wartime flying soon followed and were collected in 1946 as “ Over to You .” But Dahl’s first novel, 1948’s post-apocalyptic “ Some Time Never ,” proved a disaster, and his second never quite jelled, which isn’t surprising given its tentative title, “Fifty Thousand Frogskins.”

In his 30s, Dahl found his niche as a moderately successful author of sleek, unsettling suspense stories, which he later dubbed “ Tales of the Unexpected .” In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” a wife who has killed her husband ingeniously disposes of the highly original murder weapon. In “Taste,” a wine connoisseur stakes his 18-year-old daughter in a bet with a lecherous middle-aged rival over the identification of an obscure vintage of Bordeaux. Upon reading these elegant contes cruels, compiled in the 1953 collection “ Someone Like You ,” Noël Coward praised Dahl’s imagination as “fabulous” but also noted “an underlying streak of cruelty and macabre unpleasantness, and a curiously adolescent emphasis on sex.” These traits would characterize all his work for adults, including the stories of 1960’s “ Kiss, Kiss ” and the ribald exploits chronicled in 1979’s “ My Uncle Oswald .”

Until 1953, Dahl lived at home in England with his mother, to whom, as Dennison repeatedly emphasizes, he was close all his life. That year, though, he met and successfully wooed the American actress Patricia Neal. Their marriage, though rocky at first, lasted for 30 years, despite several terrible crises, including a traumatic brain injury to their infant son Theo and the death from measles of 7-year-old Olivia. When Neal suffered a debilitating stroke at just 39, Dahl personally oversaw an intense program of therapy and rehabilitation.

It was during these tumultuous years that he turned to writing for children. Dahl was 48 when his first masterpiece, “ James and the Giant Peach ,” appeared in 1961. Like his eerie adult stories of revenge and comeuppance, his children’s books required many drafts, scribbled longhand on yellow legal pads. He confessed that “when I first thought about writing the book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ I never originally meant to have children in it at all.” On a rejected draft, Charlie was Black.

Roald Dahl was anti-Semitic. Do we need his family’s apology now?

In his mid-50s, Dahl began an extended affair with the 20-years-younger Felicity Crosland, a friend of Neal. After much angst all around and a bitter divorce, Crosland became his second wife. The marriage proved a happy one, leading to the great works of the 1980s: “The BFG,” “The Witches,” “Matilda” and the delightful, highly embroidered memoirs “ Boy ” and “ Going Solo .” When Dahl died of a rare blood cancer in 1990 at age 74, reprints of his books described him as the world’s No. 1 storyteller.

Reflecting on his work, Dahl once inventoried what children most enjoy in fiction: “They love being spooked. They love suspense. They love action. They love ghosts. They love the finding of treasure. They love chocolates and toys and money. They love magic.” Dahl’s books duly supply all these, as well as plenty of rowdy, Dickensian gusto and tall-tale exaggeration. What’s more, his stories don’t flinch from the rude body humor — flatulence, belching, smelly feet, mock vomiting — that children find so funny. Even the nastiness of Dahl’s villains is deliberately over the top so that the young hero or heroine’s ultimate triumph may be all the more satisfying to child readers. Above all, though, Dahl resolutely eschews overt moralizing: “There are very few messages in these books of mine. They are there simply to turn the child into a reader of books.”

Yet to adult eyes, Dahl frequently goes uncomfortably too far in depicting an anarchic Hobbesian world of savagery and violence. When “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” first appeared in 1964, the Oompa Loompas were racist caricatures of African pygmies (though later changed to hippie-ish, rosy-skinned dwarfs). The depiction of Veruca Salt’s father, in that same book, sails close to Jewish stereotypes. Not least, while Dahl defended his notorious “anti-Israeli” political views as justifiable anger over that nation’s treatment of the Palestinian people, many felt this argument was a cover for antisemitism.

Rudyard Kipling has been called the most controversial writer in modern English literature. Sometimes I suspect that Roald Dahl must run him a close second. Still, in the end, our dealings as readers aren’t with authors, all of whom are flawed human beings, but with their books. Our lives would certainly be poorer without Dahl’s tender portrait of the love between a father and his son in “Danny the Champion of the World” or the inspiring fairy tales of “The BFG” and “Matilda.” Even the critic Kathryn Hughes, who once called Dahl “an absolute sod,” concluded, quite rightly, that “despite so many reasons to dislike him,” he nonetheless remains “one of the greatest forces for good in children’s literature of the past 50 years.”

Teller of Unexpected Tales

By Matthew Dennison

Pegasus. 272 pp. $27.95

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Biography of Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a British author of novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays. He is most notable for his popular works of children's fiction, several of which have been adapted into major films, such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach .

Born in Llandaff, near the Welsh capital of Cardiff, to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl was raised by his mother after the death of his father and sister when he was three. Dahl attended boarding school throughout childhood and joined the Public Schools Exploring Society on an expedition to Newfoundland before becoming a salesman for Shell Oil in Dar es Salaam. Dahl enlisted in the Royal Air Force in Nairobi at the start of World War II. After a crash landing in the Libyan desert, Dahl wrote Shot Down Over Libya, an account of the crash. After the war, while raising five children, Dahl began writing children's stories. Over the course of his life, he worked as a novelist, short-story writer, poet, fighter pilot, screenwriter, inventor, spy, and chocolate historian.

Dahl's nineteen children's books include James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Whitbread Award-winner The Witches , Fantastic Mr. Fox , The Twits , George's Marvelous Medicine , and Matilda, a winner of the Children’s Book Award from the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. Dahl was also awarded the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award three times. Dahl's books are widely available in illustrated editions, and several—including James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , and Fantastic Mr. Fox— have been adapted for film. Dahl is also known for a large collection of adult short stories, including "The Landlady," "Beware of the Dog," "An African Story," and several others. Dahl has also written screenplays for film and television, including the television shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Tales of the Unexpected, and films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

Dahl died on November 23, 1990 of myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood disorder. He was 74.

Study Guides on Works by Roald Dahl

"the landlady" and other short stories roald dahl.

Though he is mostly known for his children's fiction, Roald Dahl was also a prolific writer of adult short stories, poetry, screenplays, and memoirs. In fact, Dahl first gained acclaim as an adult short-story writer, and "The Landlady" and Other...

• Study Guide
• Lesson Plan

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life Roald Dahl

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dah l is a collection of stories written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published in 1989, by publishing house, Jonathan Cape. Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of...

The BFG Roald Dahl

The BFG was written in 1982 by Roald Dahl. Dahl was a well-known author at this point, having already published popular books such as Fantastic Mr. Fox , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , and Danny, the Champion of the World . These books...

Boy: Tales of Childhood Roald Dahl

Boy: Tales of Childhood is an autobiographical book by children’s author Roald Dahl. Published in 1984, the book focuses on Dahl's memories from his childhood and adolescence in Wales, England, and Norway in the 1920s and 1930s. The story begins...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. At this point, Dahl had been writing for some time and his timeless work James and the Giant Peach had already been published. This novel, however, is Dahl’s most well known. It is...

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , one of the most famous and beloved works of children’s literature. It was published in 1972, eight years after the original. Elevator continues the story of...

Danny the Champion of the World Roald Dahl

Written by Roald Dahl, Danny, the Champion of the World is a 1975 children's book about an impoverished English boy who helps his father poach pheasants from a villainous wealthy landowner.

After his mother dies when he is four months old, Danny...

Dirty Beasts Roald Dahl

Although he is best-known for his novels, Roald Dahl wrote dozens of poems. Quite a few of his poems are collected in Dirty Beasts (published in 1983), and all of those poems deal with, as the publisher says, "unsuspecting animals."

In one poem...

The Enormous Crocodile Roald Dahl

The Enormous Crocodile (originally published in 1978) is one of famed British author Roald Dahl's many books for children. It tells the story of the eponymous Enormous Crocodile, who is almost always hungry. To satiate that desire, the enormous...

Esio Trot Roald Dahl

Esio Trot (originally published in 1990) is one of Roald Dahl's last books, but also one of his best. It tells the story of an old and lonely man called Mr. Hoppy who desperately tries to connect with a person whom he has admired for quite a long...

Fantastic Mr. Fox Roald Dahl

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a children’s book written in 1968 by famed author Roald Dahl. Its main characters are a number of personified animals, including the Mr. Fox of the title. The story follows his adventures as he tries to outwit the farmer who...

George's Marvelous Medicine Roald Dahl

In what is one of his many children's books, British writer Roald Dahl's George's Marvelous Medicine (1981) tells, as the book's title suggests, George's story. Specifically, the book follows George as he has to deal with his cantankerous and...

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Roald Dahl

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me is a children’s story written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published in 1985. Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of Dahl’s, did the illustrations for the book.The story revolves around...

Going Solo Roald Dahl

Going Solo is a story written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published in 1986, by publishing house, Jonathan Cape.The book is an autobiography of Dahl’s own life and adventures, and is a continuation of his previous books,...

The Gremlins Roald Dahl

The Gremlins is consideredby manyto be Roald Dahl's first piece of writing for children. He startedworking on it in 1942 after his first considerable writing "Shot Down Over Libya" was published in the Saturday Evening Post . He was employed by the...

James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl

James and the Giant Peach was written in 1961 and was well received by the public. Originally titled James and the Giant Cherry , the book was given a new name because Dahl deemed a peach to be "prettier, bigger and squishier than a cherry." The...

Kiss Kiss Roald Dahl

Kiss Kiss is the third collection of short stories published by legendary children’s author Roald Dahl. Like his first two collections, however, these are not stories intended for children, but rather have come to represent the iconic and...

The Magic Finger Roald Dahl

The Magic Finger is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It follows the adventures of a young girl who possesses magical abilities.

An unnamed young girl, the story's narrator, is born on a small farm in the English...

Matilda Roald Dahl

Matilda is a novel written by the famed children’s author Roald Dahl. It was first published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London. The book was illustrated by Dahl’s frequent collaborator Quentin Blake. It has been made into an audiobook, a feature...

The Minpins Roald Dahl

The Minpins is a story written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published posthumously in 1991, by publishing house, Jonathan Cape. Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of Dahl’s, did the illustrations for the book, as well...

My Uncle Oswald Roald Dahl

One of acclaimed British author Roald Dahl's books written for adults, My Uncle Oswald (originally published in 1979), tells the story of the eponymous Uncle Oswald, who one day discovers that the so-called "Sudanese Blister Beetle" has tremendous...

My Year Roald Dahl

My Year is both a review of a life and a countdown to death; during the final year of his life, Roald Dahl kept a detailed journal, and month by month looked back on his journey, his experiences and the decisions that he made that led him to be...

Over to You Roald Dahl

Originally published in 1946 by Reynal & Hitchcock, Over to You is a collection of ten short stories written by British novelist Roald Dahl. Dahl joined the Royal Air Force after the Second World War broke out and stayed in active service...

Revolting Rhymes Roald Dahl

Everyone thinks that they know the plot of traditional fairy tales forwards, backwards and upside down; however, Roald Dahl intends to prove otherwise with the shortest book he ever wrote, Revolting Rhymes, which is a collection of poetic parodies...

Rhyme Stew Roald Dahl

Rhyme Stew is a story written by notable children’s author Roald Dahl. The book was published in 1989, by publishing house, Jonathan Cape in the UK, and Viking , in the US. Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of Dahl’s, did the illustrations for...

Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories Roald Dahl

Although British author is best-known for his novels, he wrote countless short stories. But Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (originally published in 1983) feature none of Dahl's short stories. Instead, Dahl collected 14 of what he considered to...

Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety Roald Dahl

It is safe to say that Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (originally published in 1991) is one of Roald Dahl's most unique and interesting books in his extensive bibliography. Nominally, it is a book which was written to assist younger children...

The Selected Poems of Roald Dahl Roald Dahl

British literary giant Roald Dahl had an interesting heritage; born in Wales to Norwegian parents, Dahl was raised by his mother after his father's death. Despite his obvious literary genius, Dahl did not attend college after graduating from high...

Some Time Never Roald Dahl

Some Time Never signals a major change for famed British author Roald Dahl. Well-known for his children's books (like The BFG) , Some Time Never marks Dahl's first foray into adult literature. It tells the story of a group called the Gremlins, who...

Someone Like You Roald Dahl

Originally published in 1953, Someone Like You is famed British author Roald Dahl's collection of short stories. Dahl opined that the collection is for adults, and adults alone. Someone Like You includes eighteen short stories ,some of which were...

The Sound Machine Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl's 1949 short story "The Sound Machine" is about Klausner, an obsessive man who invents a machine that allows him to hear high-pitched sounds otherwise inaudible to the human ear. While testing his sound machine, Klausner discovers that...

Switch Bitch Roald Dahl

The title Switch Bitch (originally published in 1974) is likely to surprise bibliophiles and general audiences alike, for British author Roald Dahl is best-known for his children's books like The BFG . To that end, Switch Bitch is a collection of...

The Twits Roald Dahl

Over the course of his long and illustrious career, British author Roald Dahl wrote approximately two dozen books. Among those books was The Twits (1979), which is one of Dahl's many children's books. It follows a couple called Mr. and Mrs Twit,...

Two Fables Roald Dahl

Over the course of his long and illustrious career, British author Roald Dahl wrote several dozen short stories. Two of his most famous are collected in Two Fables (originally published in 1986). They are called "Princess and the Poacher," which...

The Vicar of Nibbleswicke Roald Dahl

The Vicar of Nibbleswicke is a children’s story written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published posthumously in 1991, by publishing house, Century . Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of Dahl’s, did the illustrations for...

The Way Up to Heaven Roald Dahl

"The Way Up to Heaven" is a short story by Roald Dahl, penned in 1954 for The New Yorker magazine. It was later included in a volume of short stories published in 1960, entitled Kiss Kiss . While Dahl's work has a reputation for dark imagery and...

The Witches Roald Dahl

The Witches was written in 1983 by famed children’s author Roald Dahl. At this point, Dahl had written many of his most well known works, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach . The book was dedicated to Roald Dahl...

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More Roald Dahl

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is a collection of short stories written by notable children’s author, Roald Dahl. The book was published in 1977 by publishing house, Jonathan Cape. Quentin Blake, frequent collaborator of Dahl’s,...

Roald Dahl Stories

From Sophie's adventures with the BFG and James' journey on the Giant Peach, to Matilda's brilliant bravery and Charlie's first step into the world of Wonka - Roald Dahl stories celebrate the incredible potential of young people and the power of kindness.

(And they really are brilliantly entertaining!)

Latest News

Exciting news! Casting has been announced for the new film adaptation of The Twits is coming to Netflix in 2025, including Natalie Portman and Emilia Clarke.

Roald Dahl in the Classroom

Bring the magic of Roald Dahl stories to life in your classroom with our YPO-sponsored lesson plans, spanning the full curriculum!

Created to align with Key Stage 1 and 2 learning objectives, our free lesson plan are designed to add a touch of Roald Dahl magic to the curriculum, from English, Maths and STEM to Art, PSHE and Geography.

Roald Dahl Stories on Stage

You can see a number of your favourite Roald Dahl stories reimagined for the stage.

Our new Theatre Division has been hard at work with a host of playful and talented songwriters, circus artists and playwrights to create a series of mischievously brilliant new theatre shows.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is an independent charity, founded in 2001 by Roald Dahl’s widow, Liccy. Their founding objective as a charity is to further the education of the public in the art of literature and creativity, by running a museum and literature centre based on the works of Roald Dahl. Since the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened their doors in 2005, they have used the example of Roald Dahl’s creative craft to show that what he did, YOU can do too. More than a million people have visited the Museum to date, including an average of 10,000 school children every year.

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About the author

The son of Norwegian parents, Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 and educated at Repton. He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG. He died in November 1990.

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