Roald Dahl 1916-1990 By: Chelsi Hummert

Childhood Born in Wales on September 13th 1916 Loved stories & books Child of Harry and Sofie Dahl (Norwegian) Loved stories & books His mother told tales of mythical creatures His father died when he was only 3 Roald kept a diary starting at age 8

School Very unhappy at school Ages 7 to 9 he attended Llandaff Cathedral School At age 9 he went to St. Peter’s Prep School At age 13 he started at Repton- a famous public school in Derbyshire His childhood and school days are the subject of his autobiography BOY

Exploration and War At 18, instead of going to a University, he joined the Public Schools Exploring Society’s expedition to Newfoundland At 23, Roald signed up with the Royal Air Force when a war started He was a fighter pilot during World Warll His adventures at war are outlined in his autobiography GOING SOLO

Roald’s first Writing His 1st writing was accidental In 1942 in Washington, Roald met writer CS Forester (worked for the Saturday Evening Post) He was writing an article about the war & asked Roald to write about his experience Forester wrote Roald and said, “Did you know you were a writer- I haven’t changed a word.” Enclosed was a $900 check from the POST

Roald’s first Book THE GREMLINS A picture book published in 1943 About a group of mischievous creatures who tinkered with the planes of the RAF A picture book published in 1943 Movie rights were purchased by Disney, but no movie was ever made Career as a children’s book author began in 1960 Until then, he wrote many short stories for adults

Roald’s first Children’s Books Did not write children’s books until he had his own children Became interested when he started telling bedtime stories to his 2 daughters JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH Published in America in 1961 CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Published in America in 1964

Bestselling Books THE BFG THE TWITS THE WITCHES BOY GOING SOLO MATILDA GEORGE’S MARVELOUS MEDICINE DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD

Roald’s Characters BOY was written about himself The grandmother in THE WITCHES was inspired by his mother Miss Trunchball in MATILDA was based on the characteristics of the Headmaster at one of his schools Charlie in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is similar to Roald as a young boy Poor, loved chocolate, faced many obstacles

Fun Facts Wrote all of his stories in a small garden shed Stood at 6’6’’ (Nickname was Lofty) Wrote the screen play for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Loved chocolate, admits he ate too much of it Always wrote in pencil, on yellow paper Fluent in 3 languages: English, Norwegian, Swahili

Great Websites The Official Roald Dahl Website http://www.roalddahl.com/ Roald Dahl Fan Site (includes lesson plans) http://www.roalddahlfans.com/teachers.php#16