Pau Menta 1rBatx B 11/06/18

Roald Dahl

Have you ever heard about Roald Dahl? Surely yes. The Britain writer had a crazy and
fascinating life, let me tell you a little bit about him:

Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandalf’s district, Cardiff. His parents, Harald
Dahl and Sofie Magdalene, were from Norway, and named him Roald because of the explorer
Roald Amundsen, a Norway national hero in those times.

His sister Astrid died from appendicitis when he was just three
years old, and a few weeks later his father died too of a
pneumonia. Even though his mother had become a widower she
preferred to stay in Gales rather than going back to Norway
because his father would have wanted to educate them in the
British schools, which considered the best in the world. It was precisely the strict English
education, which included strong punishments, what less pleased Roald. He wasn’t specially
good at his studies, although he stood out in sport activities like boxing.

Interested in action and adventure, he became an explorer at the age of eighteen instead of
going to the university, as his mother would have wanted. Then he worked as a salesman
until he enlisted as an aviator to fight in World War II and served in the Royal Air Force in
Libya, Greece and Syria at the age of 23. His first compilation of stories was about the horrors
experienced in the war with literary works like “Over to You” and “10 Stories of Flyers and
Flying”. Until 1945 he worked for British Security in the United States, and it was there that
he began to become famous as a writer, when he began to narrate his vision of war in
newspapers and magazines.

Dahl was known for his dark humor and unexpected endings, and
became famous thanks to his novels: The Gremlins (1943), his
first child’s novel, James and the giant peach (1961) and Charlie
and the chocolate factory (1964). Who hasn’t watched these
films?!
Most of his novels were inspired in stories he used to tell his
children, he had had four children after marrying his wife in 1953!
They made an ideal family.
Even though his daughter died and his son and wife had several health
problems, Dahl managed to go ahead and continued writing works that
made him more famous all over the world and with Matilda (1998) he broke
all sales records.

In all his career Roald sold more than a hundred million books and had
the honor to reunite different generations with his art. He is considered as
the best child novels writer of the XX century and won different prices like
being called one of the 50 best English writers or giving his name to an asteroid, yes, an
asteroid found by Antonín Mkros in 1996.

After a fascinating life, Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990. His death was the result of a
blood condition known as Myelodysplastic syndrome. He will always be remembered as one
of the best Britain writers ever.