Matilda

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Roald Dahl received terrible reports for his writing when he was at school – 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.  Later in the war he 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!). Patricia Neal and Roald were married and later he began to tell his five children made-up bedtime stories and 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, 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.

‘A true genius . . . Roald Dahl is my hero’  David Walliams