Books I Love: By Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is a favourite author of my daughters and I. We started reading his books since the late 1980s when I first gave a few titles to B for her 7th birthday. Since then we have read most of his children's books, including James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), The Magic Finger (1966), Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1973), Danny the Champion of the World (1975), The Enormous Crocodile (1978),  The Twits (1980), George's Marvelous Medicine (1981), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983), The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985), Matilda (1988), Esio Trot (1989), The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1990), and The Minpins (1991). His books are always full of wit and humor, mostly gloriously illustrated by Quentin Blake. And Roald Dahl can come up with the most preposterous stories and some interesting sounding words, not found in the English dictionary. Or any other language dictionary!

And who can forget his poetry for older children - Dirty Beasts (1982), Revolting Rhymes (1982), and Rhyme Stew (1989) - full of humorous and very wickedly funny interpretations of popular nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Like this one:

                               Mary, Mary quite contrary
                               How does your garden grow?
                               'I live with my brat in a high-rise flat
                               so how in the world would I know.'           (from Rhyme Stew)

I also enjoyed reading his autobiographies Boy:Tales of Childhood (1984) and Going Solo (1986), (about his exploits in war as a Royal Air Force pilot). The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977) and The Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories (1997) are his collection of short stories for teens/young adults, while his collections of very spooky and macabre short stories for adults can be found in Over to You (1946), Someone Like You (1953), Switch Bitch (1974), and Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (1989). His short stories were initially published in newspapers and magazines, before being published in book form. They were also made into a television series. I remember watching the series Tales of the Unexpected on English television in 1979/80. Dahl wrote only two novels of which I have only read My Uncle Oswald, which the Evening Standard reviewed as 'rollicking, raunchy, outrageous'. Needless to say, I enjoy his children's books far better.

Although Dahl left the world in 1990 (at the age of 74), the world still cannot get enough of his books. They are constantly being published/republished/reprinted or even 'repackaged' and still enjoyed by many. In fact his writings have been translated into nearly 50 languages, and he is undoubtedly the best-selling children's author. Many of his books have also been made into films, some animated - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  (twice; starring Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005), The Witches (my favourite), Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The BFG, Danny the Champion of the World and James and the Giant Peach.

A parting quote from the writings of an unforgettable author and human:

                                  'We may even be lost or get frozen by frost.
                                  We may die in an earthquake or tremor.
                                  Or nastier still, we may even be tossed
                                  On the horns of a furious Dilemma.'

Our shelf of some Roald Dahl books (CNB 2012)