Roald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. His books continue to be bestsellers, despite his death in 1990, and total UK sales are 55 million worldwide! Quentin Blake is one of the best-known and best-loved children's illustrators and it's impossible now to think of Roald Dahl's writings without imagining Quentin Blake's illustrations.

PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH:
Cardiff, 13 September 1916

DIED:
1990

FAVOURITE BOOK:
Mr Midshipman Easy

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
A red, forty-year-old exercise book, which he wrote his ideas in.

FAVOURITE MUSIC:
Beethoven

FAVOURITE T.V. PROGRAMME:
The News

FAVOURITE SMELL:
Bacon frying

How could anyone create such fantastic and imaginative stories? Roald Dahl truly had an overflowing imagination. Roald Dahl's life was almost as fantastic as his books - here are just some amazing facts about Roald Dahl...

When he was at school Roald Dahl received terrible reports for his writing - with one teacher actually writing in his report, 'I have never met a boy who so persistently writes the exact opposite of what he means. He seems incapable of marshalling his thoughts on paper!'

After finishing school Roald Dahl, in sea...

PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH:
Cardiff, 13 September 1916

DIED:
1990

FAVOURITE BOOK:
Mr Midshipman Easy

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
A red, forty-year-old exercise book, which he wrote his ideas in.

FAVOURITE MUSIC:
Beethoven

FAVOURITE T.V. PROGRAMME:
The News

FAVOURITE SMELL:
Bacon frying

How could anyone create such fantastic and imaginative stories? Roald Dahl truly had an overflowing imagination. Roald Dahl's life was almost as fantastic as his books - here are just some amazing facts about Roald Dahl...

When he was at school Roald Dahl received terrible reports for his writing - with one teacher actually writing in his report, 'I have never met a boy who so persistently writes the exact opposite of what he means. He seems incapable of marshalling his thoughts on paper!'

After finishing school Roald Dahl, in search of adventure, travelled to East Africa to work for a company called Shell. In Africa he learnt to speak Swahili, drove from diamond mines to gold mines, and survived a bout of malaria where his temperature reached 105.5 degrees (that's very high!).

With the outbreak of the Second World War Roald Dahl joined the RAF. But being nearly two metres tall he found himself squashed into his fighter plane, knees around his ears and head jutting forward. Tragically of the 20 men in his squadron, Roald Dahl was one of only three to survive. Roald wrote about these experiences in his books Boy and Going Solo.

Later in the war Roald Dahl was sent to America. It was there that he met famous author C. S. Forester (author of the Captain Hornblower series) who asked the young pilot to write down his war experiences for a story he was writing. Forester was amazed by the result, telling Roald 'I'm bowled over. Your piece is marvellous. It is the work of a gifted writer. I didn't touch a word of it.' (an opinion which would have been news to Roald's early teachers!). Forester sent Roald Dahl's work straight to the Saturday Evening Post. Roald was now a published writer and set on the path that would lead him to great success.

Roald Dahl's growing success as an author led him to meet many famous people including Walt Disney, Franklin Roosevelt, and the movie star Patricia Neal. Patricia and Roald were married only one year after they met!

The couple bought a house in Great Missenden called Gipsy House. It was here that Roald Dahl began to tell his five children made-up bedtime stories and from those that he began to consider writing stories for children.

An old wooden shed in the back garden, with a wingbacked armchair, a sleeping bag to keep out the cold, an old suitcase to prop his feet on and always, always six yellow pencils at his hand, was where Roald created the worlds of The BFG, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and many, many more.

And if you'd like to find out how he wrote these great stories...

Where did Roald Dahl get his ideas for stories?
Roald Dahl didn't believe that stories just appeared, but that you had to work hard to think of them! 'You start with a germ of an idea,' he once said, '...a tiny germ... a chocolate factory? ... a peach, a peach that goes on growing...'

Roald Dahl would write all of these ideas in his beloved red exercise book. But if his exercise book wasn't handy he would scribble a note on anything to remind himself - even if he had to write in crayon or lipstick!

Roald Dahl's tips to becoming a good author.
These are just some of the hints Roald Dahl wrote down for anyone who would like to become a successful author.

1. You should have a lively imagination.
2. You should be able to write well. By this I mean you should be able to make a scene come alive in the reader's mind. Not everybody has this ability. It is a gift, and you either have it or you don't.
3. You must have stamina. In other words, you must be able to stick to what you are doing and never give up, for hour after hour, day after day, week after week and month after month.

If he hadn't been a writer what might Roald Dahl have been?
Roald Dahl once said that if he had been able to stay on at school 'I'd have studied and become a doctor'. Luckily for us he didn't! It would have been terrible if Roald Dahl had never started writing! Imagine a world without Charlie and his Chocolate Factory, without the BFG, or without the horrible Miss Trunchbull!

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