Roald Dahl Day: Celebrating the writer, pilot, spy and inventor
Today is Roald Dahl Day!
Happy #RoaldDahlDay to human beans big and small! Join us for celebrations throughout the day @roald_dahl pic.twitter.com/SBGlnERfQs
— PuffinBooks (@PuffinBooks) September 13, 2017
Roald Dahl is one of the worlds most treasured writers. He is the author of beloved tales like 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Matilda', 'The BFG', 'The Twits' and many, many more. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.
Mr Dahl would have turned 101 today.
Happy 101st birthday to the man who invented a world of pure imagination, @Roald_Dahl! #RoaldDahlDay pic.twitter.com/HQ7NskIrAa
— Charlie on Broadway (@CharlieOnBway) September 13, 2017
Over his decades-long writing career, Dahl wrote 19 children's books.But Roald Dahl was not just a novelist; he was a spy, a fighter pilot, a screenwriter, and a medical inventor.
'Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow...These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.'#RoaldDahlDay pic.twitter.com/LJA52Rr8gl
— The Children's Literacy Charity (@childsliteracy) September 13, 2017
He was born in Llandaff, Wales, on September 13, 1916 to Norwegian parents. He was named after Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole.
His early years were filled with tragedy with the deaths of his older sister, Astri and his father. He then went to boarding school and some of the wonderful memories from this experience inspired his stories later in life.
"Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world" – Matilda. #RoaldDahlDay #BelieveInMe pic.twitter.com/ZlN6BKhefK
— Barnardo’s (@barnardos) September 13, 2017
While at school in Repton in Derbyshire, England, Roald and his classmates were invited to do taste tests of chocolate bars, a memory that inspired 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.
Roald travelled to Canada and east Africa after he finished school until the beginning of World War Two when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force aged 23.
I remember my mum reading this to me as child and it's been in my mind ever since. One of literature's finest universal truths #RoaldDahlDay pic.twitter.com/F1lk41Boxa
— Paris Lees (@parislees) September 13, 2017
Dahl was in a serious crash in September 1940 when his plane landed in the Western Desert of Egypt. He spent six months recovering in Alexandria then took part in The Battle of Athens. He later supplied intelligence to M16 after posting in Washington.
He married Patricia Neal, an American actress, in 1953 and they had five children. After 30 years, they divorced and he remarried Felicity “Liccy” Crosland.
Lukewarm is no good #RoaldDahlDay pic.twitter.com/m1anRMt2dp
— Aerogramme Writers' Studio (@A_WritersStudio) September 13, 2017
Dahl helped invent the Wade-Dahl-Till valve after his son was struck by a car in New York in 1960. The Wade-Dahl-Till valve is a cerebral shunt which drains excess fluid from the brain which Dahl came up with alongside hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till. By the time it was invented, his son Theo had recovered and did not need the shunt but it went on to be used by many people around the world. The inventors did not accept any profit from the invention.
Then, Dahl's literary genius emerged and 'James and the Giant Peach' was published in 1961 followed by 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.
Apart from his famous books, he wrote screenplays including the James Bond classic 'You Only Live Twice' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.
Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, aged 74 in Oxford.
Some of his wonderful letters have been shared on Twitter:
Always loved reading #RoaldDahl stories. My class wrote to him about The Witches and the great man replied! #RoaldDahlDay pic.twitter.com/dC1figbkKj
— Paul Broadbent (@Broadbentmaths) September 13, 2017
I don't know about adverbs, but here's Roald Dahl's letter to (schoolboy) me in which he savages adjectives ... pic.twitter.com/H3PapryG0c
— Jay Williams (@jaywilliamspr) September 4, 2017
The BBC have released a Roald Dahl interview with his great niece Emma Pearl.
He talks about writing, his love for chocolate and an accident he had as a child.
To listen to the interview click here.
