Being World Book Day this week, why don’t we have a look into one of the most famous children's book writers, Roald Dahl.
Who is Roald Dahl?
Roald Dahl was best known as the author of children’s books Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG and Fantastic Mr Fox. His storytelling and dark humour made his books timeless for all ages.
The Beginning
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales. From the age of 7 he was sent to two boarding schools, both of which made him unhappy and later influenced the characters and stories he told.
Roald worked in an oil company after he graduated for 5 years. In 1939, he joined the RAF and learned to fly fighter planes in Kenya. During World War 2 he fought in the Battle of Athens however, his career as a fighter pilot is cut short due to an earlier injury, which now began to affect his ability to fly.
Dahl moves to America and becomes an assistant air attache* at the British Embassy. While Dahl was in America, he began writing his first published work, ‘Shot Down over Libya’ for The Saturday Evening Post, a recount of his crash.
Due to his growing popularity as a writer and the influential circles he was in, he was recruited as a spy in America with a mission to ensure America aids Britain and fights in the war. During this period, Roald created ‘The Gremlins’, which was his first published children's book, and by the end of the year, he had secured an agent to publish short stories in America.
Over the next 15 years, Roald Dahl would continue to create short stories for magazines and dark adult books. Dahl would then move back to the UK, meet and marry his wife, Patricia Neal and have three children.
In 1961, when Roald Dahl was 45 years old, he created ‘James and the Giant Peach’, his second children's story. This marked the beginning of a period of writing some of the most-loved children's books from the 20th century. This included Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.
Roald Dahl carried on writing up to his death in 1990 at the age of 74, with his last book to be released being ‘My Year’, a book illustrating his final year of life with a month by month documentation.
Roald Dahl is regarded as one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century, with sales of over 300 million and books being translated into 63 languages.
* Is a high ranking Air Force Officer assigned to diplomatic missions and embassies to act as representation of home nations air force
Other Media
Since Roald Dahl's death in 1990, his books have been made into films, TV shows and theatre productions.
Movies
10 of Dahl's books have been turned into movies, most recently Wonka and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar in 2023. There is also a new movie, The Twits, which was released on 17th October 2025.
Theatre Productions
There are many books of Dahl’s which have been turned into theatre productions, the most famous and successful being Matilda, which has been in the West End for 13 years. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Witches, The BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Enormous Crocodile, The Magic Finger and The Twits have all been made into play adaptations.
Museum
The Roald Dahl Museum and story centre is is an independent charity in Buckinghamshire and has been open since 2005. The museum is in the same town where Dahl used to reside and has his hut, which has been moved from his previous house, with many letters and notes.
Cameos
Sainsbury’s Christmas Advert
In 2024, Sainsbury’s Christmas advert welcomed the beloved BFG, who helps to find Christmas food for Christmas Dinner in the dream cave.
Roald Dahl Character Stamps
In 2012, stamps of Roald Dahl’s famous characters were put onto stamps, which not only celebrate their creation but also celebrate the creation of the BFG’s 30 years of publishing.
London 2012 Olympics
In the section ‘Second to the right, and straight on till morning’ in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, a section of celebrating British literature showed off villains from children's stories, one of them being the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Child Catcher wasn’t in the original book written by Ian Fleming and was added to the screenplay, which was written by Roald Dahl and is generally remembered as being one of the scariest children's villains of all time.
I hope you enjoyed our little deep dive into The History of Roald Dahl. If you enjoyed this blog, why not have a look at some of our previous dives into our licenced characters.