The King of Gobblefunk
SPLENDIFEROUS FACTS ON ROALD DAHL…
Born in Cardiff in 1916 to
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Norwegian immigrant parents, his elder sister and father died within weeks of each other and he was sent to boarding school aged nine. In his memoir Boy, he tells how the headmaster flogged pupils so hard he drew blood. But his school Repton did
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have its upsides – the boys were used as chocolate tasters by Cadbury’s. It inspired his novel Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Dahl was an
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RAF fighter pilot during World War Two but he was invalided out of the service after a near-death crash in Africa. He worked
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with James
WRITER Roald Dahl is returning to screens this week – played by Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville.
The film To Olivia focuses on his first marriage to Hollywood actress Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes).
Retreating to the English countryside to raise a family, they are shattered by the death of their young daughter.
Here NADINE LINGE reveals 12 facts about the best-selling children’s author.
Bond creator Ian Fleming in the British intelligence service during the war and the two became friends. In 1966, Dahl wrote the screenplay for 007 flick You Only Live Twice.
Dahl’s first novel was far from 5
a children’s story. Some Time Never: A Fable For Supermen is said to have been the first fiction to tackle the subject of nuclear war. He also penned dark erotic stories that were published in Playboy.
More than 250million copies
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of the author’s books have been sold around the world. He spent about four hours a day writing stories in pencil from his garden shed with a specially designed board on his lap.
Dahl invented more than 500
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words such as “splendiferous”, “frobscottle”, “snozzcumbers” and “scrumdiddlyumptious”.
He called his
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Gobblefunk and language Oxford
University Press even created special Roald Dahl dictionary.
The BFG, about a giant who
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makes friends with a little girl called Sophie, was his favourite book. The child was inspired by his grand-daughter, who is now famous for her modelling career.
The writer was not a fan of
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films of his books. He disliked The Witches due to the changed ending and Anjelica Huston’s performance – and said Gene Wilder was “bland” as Willy Wonka.
Dahl died aged 74 in 1990
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while he was writing a Charlie And The Chocolate Factory followup called Charlie Bucket And The White House.
He was bad-tempered and
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had a dark side, which included an 11-year affair while he was married to Neal. In December his family also apologised for his antisemitic comments. a