The Life and Work of Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl, known for his acclaimed children's books, led a fascinating life filled with varied experiences. From being a boxing champion to a fighter pilot in World War II, and even inventing a life-saving machine, his journey was nothing short of extraordinary. Born in 1916 in Cardiff, Wales, Dahl's childhood was filled with stories and inspiration. Despite facing challenges, he went on to explore different paths including working for Shell Oil in Africa. His time as a fighter pilot during the war tested his resilience, leading to remarkable tales of survival and recovery.
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Today Roald Dahl is known as a famous children s author. But during his life he was also a: Boxing champion A fighter pilot And the inventor of a machine that saved thousands of children s lives.
Childhood Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Cardiff, Wales. He lived with his parents, one brother and four sisters in a large house with farmland. Every summer the family went to Norway to see Roald s grandparents. Roald loved to listen to his grandmother s stories of witches, giants and magic.
School As Roald grew up, he liked to play funny tricks on others. Roald and his friends thought the owner of the sweet shop was a mean witch as she had long, dirty fingernails and a cross, squeaky voice. So while his naughty friends kept her busy, Roald put a cold, dead mouse in a sweet jar. Somehow, the scary lady knew Roald had done it and told his strict headteacher. The headteacher beat Roald with a hard, wooden cane. When Roald s mother saw the black and blue bruises she said he would not go back to that horrible school so he went to a different boarding school.
Roald did not have a great time at school. There was a lot of bullying at his school which Roald thought was very unfair. Luckily, not everything was bad at school. Every term, Cadburys would send every pupil a box of chocolate bars as they wanted to know which the children liked best. He remembered this later when he was writing...which book? Another part of school that Roald loved was sport. Roald found he was very good at boxing and he won an entire championship.
Work Life When Roald was 18 he left school. Instead of going to university, he wanted to travel. He decided to work for Shell Oil in Africa. His job was to deliver oil to keep the machines in the diamond mines working. He loved driving through Africa and seeing the animals, but he was very afraid of the deadly poisonous Mamba snake.
Fighter Pilot In 1939, the Second World War began and Roald joined the Royal Air Force. One day, Roald was flying his plane to collect some soldiers. As he tried to land, his plane hit a rock and the plane exploded. Roald s clothes caught fire and his skin started to burn. Some British soldiers found Roald on the ground and rushed him to hospital. When he awoke, his whole body was covered in bandages.
His legs were broken, his back and hips were damaged and his nose was totally smashed. His face was so bruised that he could not open his eyes. Fortunately he made a full recovery. When Roald was better he fought more battles in the war. He was known as a real war hero. But Roald suffered with painful headaches when he flew. Roald s flying days were over but...a new adventure was just beginning.
Family Life In America Roald met lots of famous people. He met a famous actress called Patricia Neal. They fell in love and got married. After they were married, Pat and Roald moved to a house just outside London. At the bottom of the garden was a small hut. Roald knew this would be a perfect place to write. This is the actual hut in the garden. You can visit Roald Dahl s house. The hut is still there today.
Roald and his wife had 3 children: Olivia, Tessa and Theo. Roald s children loved bedtimes when he would tell them his made-up stories. One was about a little boy called James. Which book would this become?
Accidents and inventions One day when the happy family were staying in New York, a terrible accident happened. Roald s small baby son, Theo, was in his blue pram. He was with his nanny when suddenly a fast, yellow taxi hurtled round the corner and smashed into Theo s little , metal pram. Theo suffered a damaged skull.
Roald was determined to make Theo better. He worked with the doctor and an engineer and made a machine which removed the fluid building up in Theo s head. Theo recovered and the machine saved the lives of thousands of other children too.
Writing Roald wrote many of his books in his little shed at the end of the garden because it was peaceful. He wanted his stories to be perfect so he would work hard choosing just the right words for his books. This is an actual piece of Roald s writing. He wrote using a pencil and kept his stories in exercise books. Publishers said Roald s stories were too rude and too scary but eventually someone decided to turn the stories into books.
So many people bought Roalds books that he became a millionaire. When his book The Witches was made into a film, he was very angry because the film makers changed the ending without asking him. Did you know Roald made his characters realistic by basing them on people he knew?
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