Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in South Wales, Britain, the son of Norwegian immigrants. He trained as a fighter pilot and during the Second World War he flew bomber planes in Libya, Greece and Spain. In 1940, Dahl’s plane crashlanded in the Libyan desert and Dahl suffered serious injuries. In 1942, Dahl began working at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., USA. There he met the writer C.S. Forester who suggested that Dahl should write about being shot down in the desert. Dahl immediately wrote his first short story; ten days later it was accepted for publication. This was the beginning of Dahl’s literary career. He soon became a highly successful short story writer - his most famous short story collection is entitled Kiss Kiss, published in 1959.
In 1953, Dahl married the actress Patricia Neal and the couple moved to England the next year. They had four children, the oldest of whom died at the age of seven, sending her father into deep grief. The couple divorced in 1983 and the author remarried. In 1960, Dahl started writing stories to amuse his children. Many of his books became international bestsellers and children from all over the world wrote to him. In addition, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and James and the Giant Peach, Danny the Champion of the World, and The BFG all became successful films. Roald Dahl died in 1990, at the age of 74.
Roald Dahl often said that the key to his success as a children’s writer was to conspire with children against adults. ‘It’s the path to their affections,’ he said, in an interview with a British newspaper in 1990. ‘It may be simplistic, but it is the way. Parents and schoolteachers are the enemy. The adult is the enemy of the child because of the awful process of civilizing this thing that when it is born is an animal with no manners, no moral sense at all.’
Matilda is a very good example of Dahl’s philosophy. Matilda’s parents and her headmistress are monsters who are in positions of power. They are adults seen from the child’s point of view; they want to threaten and hurt the children in their care. Dahl’s children’s books often put good against evil, - bad, bad adults against innocent, clever children who always win in the end. Dahl’s stories are very funny and children love them for this reason. The bad adults are outrageously, comically bad, satirizing real life in a way that children recognize and find highly amusing. The author turns normal behaviour upside down. Parents normally complain that their children watch too much television. Matilda’s father, however, insists that she watch it. ‘“And what’s wrong with watching the TV?” her father said. His voice was suddenly soft and dangerous.’ Things in Dahl’s stories are exaggerated. Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey, is so poor that her tiny sitting room has no real furniture, only three boxes. Miss Trunchbull, her aunt, has stolen Miss Honey’s house and forced her to work for £1 a week. Children recognize both the humour and absurdity of the situation and the injustice of it. Children, who are in the power of others, are deeply responsive to any kind of injustice, and it is this injustice that Dahl constantly plays on in his stories.

TRIVIA: The picture of Miss Honey's father, Magnus, is actually a portrait of Roald Dahl, the author of the book "Matilda," upon which the film is based.