Roald Dahl Day is celebrated on September 13th to mark the birth of one of Britain’s most famous children’s writers. Dahl was born in Llandaff near Cardiff in 1916. The son of Norwegian parents, he was named after Roald Amunsden, a polar explorer from Norway.
It is humour and captivating characters that make Dahl one of the most popular British authors ever. Many of the characters and story lines in his books are based on his own life experiences. For example he was caned as a child for putting a mouse in a jar of gobstoppers in a sweet shop and later wrote Everlasting Gobstoppers.
Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory his third book stems from his days at Repton School where the boys were often asked to test new chocolates from the Cadbury factory. It is said he dreamed of inventing a chocolate that would impress Mr Cadbury.
When he left school Dahl worked for Shell until in 1939 he entered the RAF. He took part in several significant World War II air battles, and later worked for the British Embassy in Washington. Many of his stories have links to aviation. His first book The Gremlins which was published in 1942, is based on mischievous creatures who were part of RAF folklore. He left the service in 1946 having obtained the rank of Squadron Leader.
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Dahl’s children’s books are told from the child’s point of view and usually include an adult villain who hates or mistreats children. It is thought that this is a link back to his own unhappy days at boarding school. Frequently his books feature ‘fat’ characters too, black humour and grotesque scenarios. In addition to his children’s books Dahl also wrote children’s poetry, and it is often forgotten that he wrote adult fiction too. Some of his short stories were the base for the popular television series Tales of the Unexpected.
It will always be his children’s books that he is most famous for. Year after year children dress as his characters for world book day, and teachers plan lessons around his stories because of their popularity.
Reading remains so important for building children’s vocabulary, and for helping to stimulate their imagination and literacy skills. Dahl’s books are often the books adults recount as their favourites while growing-up, or the stories that really captivated them and got them into the reading habit.
A variety of awards and commemorations have been set up since Dahl’s death in 1990, and new readers continue to discover his books through new creations such as the Scratch ‘n’ Sniff version of The Twits which was released in June 2015.
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