Born 13 September 1916

Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales,

United Kingdom

Died 23 November 1990 (aged 74)

Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom

Occupation Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter

Nationality British

Genres Children's, adults' literature, horror, mystery, fantasy

Notable work(s)Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,James and the Giant Peach,Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda,
The Witches, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The BFG, The Gremlins, The Enormous
Crocodile, Esio Trot,George's Marvellous Medicine,Danny, the Champion of the World,The Giraffe and
the Pelly and Me,The Minpins, The Vicar of Nibbleswicke, The Magic Finger,The Wonderful Story of
Henry Sugar and Six More

Spouse(s) Patricia Neal (1953–1983; divorced; 5 children)

Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland (1983–1990; his death)

Children's stories

1. The Gremlins (1943)
2. James and the Giant Peach (1961) – Film: James and the Giant Peach (live-action/animated) (1996)
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)[nn 1] – Films: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory(1971) and Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
4. The Magic Finger (1 June 1966)
5. Fantastic Mr Fox (9 December 1970) – Film: Fantastic Mr. Fox (animated) (2009)
6. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (9 January 1972)[nn 1] A sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
7. Danny, the Champion of the World (30 October 1975) – Film: Danny the Champion of the World (TV movie)
(1989)
8. The Enormous Crocodile (24 August 1978)
9. The Twits (17 December 1980)
10. George's Marvellous Medicine (21 May 1981)
 11. The BFG (14 October 1982) – Film: The BFG (animated) (1989)
12. The Witches (27 October 1983) – Film: The Witches (1990)
13. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (26 September 1985)
14. Matilda (21 April 1988) – Film: Matilda (1996)
15. Esio Trot (19 April 1989)
16. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (9 May 1990)
17. The Minpins (8 August 1991)

Children's poetry

1. Revolting Rhymes (10 June 1982)

2. Dirty Beasts (25 October 1984)
3. Rhyme Stew (21 September 1989)

Non-fiction

1. The Mildenhall Treasure (1946, 1977, 1999)

2. Boy – Tales of Childhood (1984) Recollections up to the age of 20, looking particularly at schooling in Britain in
the early part of the 20th century.
3. Going Solo (1986) Continuation of his autobiography, in which he goes to work for Shell and spends some time
working in Tanzania before joining the war effort and becoming one of the last Allied pilots to withdraw from
Greece during the German invasion.
4. Measles, a Dangerous Illness (1986)[81]
5. Memories with Food at Gipsy House (1991)
6. Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (1991)
7. My Year (1993)
8. Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes by Felicity Dahl, et al. (1994), a collection of recipes based on and inspired by
food in Dahl's books, created by Roald & Felicity Dahl, and Josie Fison

9. Roald Dahl's Even More Revolting Recipes by Felicity Dahl, et al. (2001)

Plays

1. The Honeys (1955) Produced at the Longacre Theater on Broadway.

Adult fiction
Novels

1. Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948)

2. My Uncle Oswald (1979)
Short story collections

1. Over To You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)

2. Someone Like You (1953)
3. Lamb to the Slaughter (1953)
4. Kiss Kiss (1960)
5. Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969)
6. Switch Bitch (1974)
7. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977)
8. The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
9. Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
10. More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)
11. Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (1983). Edited with an introduction by Dahl.
12. The Roald Dahl Omnibus (Dorset Press, 1986)
13. Two Fables (1986). "Princess and the Poacher" and "Princess Mammalia".
14. Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
15. The Collected Short Stories of Dahl (1991)
16. The Roald Dahl Treasury (1997)
17. The Great Automatic Grammatizator (1997). (Known in the USA as The Umbrella Man and Other Stories).
18. Skin And Other Stories (2000)
19. Roald Dahl: Collected Stories (2006)
See the alphabetical List of Roald Dahl short stories. See also Roald Dahl: Collected Stories for a complete, chronological
listing.

Film scripts

1. The Gremlins (1943)
2. 36 Hours (1965)
3. You Only Live Twice (1967)
4. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
5. The Night Digger (1971)
 6. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Television

1. Way Out (1961) Horror series hosted by Roald Dahl and produced by David Susskind
2. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1958)
3. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Dip in the Pool" (1958)
4. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Poison" (1958)
5. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Man from the South" (1960) with Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Landlady" (1961)
Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1988), episodes written and introduced by Dahl

Roald(Roo-aal) Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales, to Norwegian
parents, Harald and Sofie (Hesselberg) Dahl. After graduating from Repton School in 1933, he
went to work for the Shell Oil Company of East Africa until World War II started in 1939. He
then served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot and he became a Wing Commander. In 1940
Dahl's plane was hit by a machine gun fire, and he was severely injured. He was rescued by a
fellow pilot and took him six months to recover. Although Dahl rejoined his squadron in Greece
in the spring of 1941, the pain from his head and back injuries grew worse so that he had to be
sent back to England on the disabled list.
Dahl was then reassigned to Washington, D.C., as an assistant air attache'. It was there that he
accidently began his career as a writer. One day while Dahl was working in his office, C.S.
Forester Came to ask if he could interview him for a piece he was writing for The Saturday
Evening Post because he had "seen action" in the war. Forester took Dahl to lunch with the
intentions of taking notes about his most exciting war experience. However, Forester was
having difficulty taking notes while eating, so Dahl offered to write down some notes and send
them to him. The notes ended up being a story which he called "A Piece of Cake." Forester sent
the story to The Saturday Evening Post under Dahl's name. The Post liked the story so much,
they paid Dahl $1,000 and then signed him to write others. Soon his stories were being
published in several other magazines, and his writing career had started.
In 1943 Dahl wrote his first children's book, The Gremlins. Eleanor Roosevelt read it to her
grandchildren and liked it so much that she invited him to have dinner with her and the
President at the White House. They had such a good time that he was invited again, and then
the visits extended to weekends at their country house. During those visits, Dahl had the
unique opportunity to talk with President Franlin Roosevelt about world events as casually as
one might have a conversation with an very old friend. It was a very exciting experience for him.
In 1945, Dahl returned to England and moved into his mother's cottage in Buckinghamshire. In
addition to his writing, he spent time on his interests in wines, antiques, paintings, and breeding
and racing some greyhounds.
Seven years later he met the actress Patricia Neal, and they married on July 2, 1953. They
moved to New York because Patricia was working in a play, but they spent their summers in
England. They had five children: Olivia (dead), Tessa, Theo, Ophelia, and Lucy.
James and the Giant Peach was written in 1961. It was the first children's book he wrote since
The Gremlins. Until that time, Dahl had written only some short stories and plays for adults. But
when Olivia was born, he began making up stories to tell her each night at bedtime. He said, "If
I didn't have any children of my own, I would have never written books for children, nor would I
have been capable of doing so." Dahl had some very definite ideas about what children liked to
read which were supported by the success of his books. However, some critics considered his
work too violent for use in libraries and schools.
Dahl's life was not always an easy one. He had to deal with much serious and tragic illness in his
family. Theo had hydrocephalus as a young boy due to multiple head injures he suffered in an
accident as an infant. Olivia died at age seven from measles encephalitis. His wife suffered three
cerebral hemorrhages. Then he had to undergo two spinal operations for crippling back pains.
In fact, throughout his life, Dahl had eight major operations and a few countless smaller ones.
Trough it all, he always kept a wonderful perspective on his life which shines through in his
writing.
On November 23, 1990, Roald Dahl had died of an infection in Oxford, England. He was an
author and screenwriter whose awards include: Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery
Writers of America in 1954, 1959, and 1980 for being a " master of the macabre and the suprise
denouement"; Federation of Children's Book Groups Award, 1983; Whitbread Award, 1983; and
World Fantasy Convention Award, 1983. He had quite a distinguished career for a person who
started out having no thoughts of being a writer or author.