Roald Dahl, born in Wales in 1916 to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, was a British author, poet and screenwriter – and, before any of that, a wartime fighter ace. He served in the RAF during the Second World War, first as a fighter pilot and later as an intelligence officer, rising to acting wing commander. He came to prominence as a writer in the 1940s, and by his death in 1990 he had become one of the best-selling authors in the world, with sales now past 300 million copies. He has been called one of the greatest storytellers for children of the twentieth century, and in 2008 The Times ranked him sixteenth among the greatest British writers since 1945.
The books earned that standing honestly. His children’s stories – James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Witches, Matilda – are unsentimental, macabre and darkly comic, stocked with villainous adults set against child heroes, yet warm-hearted underneath. His work for adults, gathered in collections such as Tales of the Unexpected, deals in endings you do not see coming. His honours included the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1983 and the British Book Awards’ Children’s Author of the Year in 1990.
4 hours and 18 minutes
