Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. [6] [7] His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". [8] In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity. [9] Roald Dahl to be posthumously honoured with a Gold Blue Peter badge". BBC. Archived from the original on 17 September 2019 . Retrieved 17 May 2019. Eleanor Cameron vs. Roald Dahl". Roald Dahl Fans. Archived from the original on 16 October 2020 . Retrieved 14 October 2020.

Repton School 'helped inspire Dahl' to write Charlie". BBC. 14 July 2015. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018 . Retrieved 20 June 2018. Conant, Jennet (2008). The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-8032-4. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023 . Retrieved 23 September 2020. a b "South East Wales | Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop". BBC News. 14 September 2009. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021 . Retrieved 25 October 2011. An animated adaptation was released in 1989 with David Jason providing the voice of the BFG and Amanda Root as the voice of Sophie. It has also been adapted as a theatre performance. [2] A theatrical Disney live-action adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg was released in 2016. While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they are often juxtaposed with grotesque, darkly comic and sometimes harshly violent scenarios. [10] [12] The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda are examples of this formula. The BFG follows, with the good giant (the BFG or "Big Friendly Giant") representing the "good adult" archetype and the other giants being the "bad adults". This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted. [76] [125]In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamed Roald Dahl Plass. Plass is Norwegian for "place" or "square", alluding to the writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected in Cardiff. [155] In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth in Llandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, including National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and Literature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy. [6] Way Out (TV Series 1961)". IMDb. 8 January 2005. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015 . Retrieved 16 September 2014. Roald Dahl". www.roalddahl.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019 . Retrieved 23 April 2020. White, Bethany (18 November 2016). "We've all been pronouncing Roald Dahl's name wrong for years". walesonline. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020 . Retrieved 11 January 2020.

Roald Dahl rewrites: edited language in books criticised as 'absurd censorship' ". The Guardian. 20 February 2023. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023 . Retrieved 25 February 2023. The BFG: A friendly 24-foot-tall giant who has superhuman hearing and immense speed. His primary occupation is the collection and distribution of good dreams to children. He also appears in another novel, Danny, the Champion of the World, in which he is introduced as a folkloric character. His name is an initialism of 'Big Friendly Giant'. Voiced by David Jason in the 1989 film and motion-captured by Mark Rylance in the 2016 film. a b Dirda, Michael (7 December 1990). "Opinion | Roald Dahl Also Left a Legacy of Bigotry (Published 1990)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020 . Retrieved 14 October 2020. The Maidmasher: One of the nine man-eating giants. The name suggests he likes to smash maidens, but it is never confirmed it could mean he smashes them with his teeth. Motion-captured by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson in the 2016 film.

BILBY Award Winners". Children's Book Council of Australia (Qld Branch) Inc. - BILBY AWARDS - Books I Love Best Yearly. Archived from the original on 9 February 2007 . Retrieved 25 September 2023. {{ cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link) Best Young-Adult Books". Time. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021 . Retrieved 29 October 2019. Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Danny the Champion of the World When is Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse on TV?, 30 November 2020". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020 . Retrieved 6 October 2022. Previous Winners of the BILBY Awards: 1990 – 96" (PDF). The Children's Book Council of Australia Queensland Branch. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2015 . Retrieved 4 November 2015. Some of Dahl's short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories. [117] In his novel My Uncle Oswald, the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly, London. [117] Memories with Food at Gipsy House, written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret. [118] [119]

Sheinman, Anna (15 September 2011). "Roald Dahl: Proudly antisemitic". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021 . Retrieved 9 December 2020. Gonzalez, Robbie (31 January 2015). "Read Roald Dahl's Powerful Pro-Vaccination Letter". Archived from the original on 4 May 2015 . Retrieved 1 February 2015. Nunis, Vivienne (18 August 2016). "Roald Dahl: As popular - and profitable - as ever". BBC World Service. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020 . Retrieved 23 September 2020.

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Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. An RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead into the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces. [61] A Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece

Roald Dahl: The fighter pilot". Roald Dahl.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019 . Retrieved 21 January 2020. Boarding School Magic". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018 . Retrieved 6 July 2018. Bergeson, Samantha (15 June 2022). " 'Matilda' Trailer: Emma Thompson Is Unrecognizable as Monstrous Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl Musical". IndieWire. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022 . Retrieved 14 October 2022.

Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity". Marvellouschildrenscharity.org. Archived from the original on 1 April 2014 . Retrieved 28 January 2011. John Shirley (2001). "Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". LocusOnline. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022 . Retrieved 10 October 2022.