Biography of Roald Dahl, British Novelist

The Memorable Author of Iconic Children's Novels

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a biography of roald dahl

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Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916–November 23, 1990) was a British writer. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II , he became a world-famous author, particularly due to his best-selling books for children.

Fast Facts: Roald Dahl

  • Known For:  English author of children's novels and adult short stories
  • Born:  September 13, 1916 in Cardiff, Wales
  • Parents:  Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née  Hesselberg)
  • Died:  November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England
  • Education:  Repton School
  • Selected Works:   James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970), The BFG (1982), Matilda (1988)
  • Spouses:  Patricia Neal (m. 1953-1983), Felicity Crosland (m. 1983)
  • Children:  Olivia Twenty Dahl, Chantal Sophia "Tessa" Dahl, Theo Matthew Dahl, Ophelia Magdalena Dahl, Lucy Neal Dahl
  • Notable Quote:  “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1916, in the district of Llandaff. His parents were Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg), both of whom were Norwegian immigrants. Harold had originally immigrated from Norway in the 1880s and lived in Cardiff with his French first wife, with whom he had two children (a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Louis) before her death in 1907. Sofie immigrated later and married Harold in 1911. They had five children, Roald and his four sisters Astri, Alfhild, Else, and Asta, all of whom they raised Lutheran. In 1920, Astri died suddenly of appendicitis, and Harold died of pneumonia only weeks later; Sofie was pregnant with Asta at the time. Instead of returning to her family in Norway, she stayed in the UK, wanting to follow her husband’s wishes to give their children an English education.

As a boy, Dahl was sent to an English public boarding school , St. Peter’s. He was intensely unhappy during his time there, but never let his mother know how he felt about it. In 1929, he moved to Repton School in Derbyshire, which he found equally unpleasant due to the culture of intense hazing and the cruelty with which older students dominated and bullied the younger ones; his hatred for corporal punishment stemmed from his school experiences. One of the cruel headmasters he loathed, Geoffrey Fisher, later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the association somewhat soured Dahl on religion.

Surprisingly, he was not noted as a particularly talented writer during his schoolboy days; in fact, many of his evaluations reflected precisely the opposite. He did enjoy literature, as well as sports and photography. Another of his iconic creations was sparked by his schooling experiences: the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent samples of new products to be tested by Repton students, and Dahl’s imagination of new chocolate creations would later turn into his famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . He graduated in 1934 and took a job with the Shell Petroleum Company; he was sent as an oil supplier to Kenya and Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania).

World War II Pilot

In 1939, Dahl was first commissioned by the army to lead a platoon of indigenous troops as World War II broke out . Soon after, however, he switched to the Royal Air Force , despite having very little experience as a pilot, and underwent months of training before he was deemed fit for combat in the fall of 1940. His first mission, however, went badly awry. After being given instructions that later proved to be inaccurate, he wound up crashing in the Egyptian desert and suffering serious injuries that took him out of combat for several months. He did manage to return to combat in 1941. During this time, he had five aerial victories, which qualified him as a flying ace, but by September 1941, severe headaches and blackouts led to him being invalided home.

Dahl attempted to qualify as an RAF training officer, but instead wound up accepting the post of assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Although unimpressed and uninterested with his diplomatic posting, he became acquainted with C.S. Forester, a British novelist who was tasked with producing Allied propaganda for American audiences. Forester asked Dahl to write down some of his war experiences to be turned into a story, but when he received Dahl’s manuscript, he instead published it as Dahl had written it. He wound up working with other authors, including David Ogilvy and Ian Fleming, to help promote British war interests, and worked in espionage as well, at one point passing information from Washington to Winston Churchill himself.

The knack for children’s stories that would make Dahl famous first appeared during the war as well. In 1943, he published The Gremlins , turning an inside joke in the RAF (“gremlins” were to blame for any aircraft problems) into a popular story that counted Eleanor Roosevelt and Walt Disney among its fans. When the war ended, Dahl had held the rank of wing commander and squadron leader. Several years after the end of the war, in 1953, he married Patricia Neal, an American actress. They had five children: four daughters and one son.

Short Stories (1942-1960)

  • "A Piece of Cake" (published as "Shot Down Over Libya," 1942)
  • The Gremlins (1943)
  • Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
  • Sometime Never: A Fable for Superman (1948)
  • Someone Like You (1953)
  • Kiss Kiss (1960)

Dahl’s writing career began in 1942 with his wartime story. Originally, he wrote it with the title “A Piece of Cake,” and it was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for the substantial sum of $1,000. In order to be more dramatic for war propaganda purposes, however, it was renamed “Shot Down Over Libya,” even though Dahl had not, in fact, been shot down, let alone over Libya. His other major contribution to the war effort was The Gremlins , his first work for children. Originally, it was optioned by Walt Disney for an animated film , but a variety of production obstacles (problems with ensuring the rights to the idea of “gremlins” were open, issues with creative control and RAF involvement) led to the project’s eventual abandonment.

As the war came to an end, he kicked off a career writing short stories, mostly for adults and mostly published originally in a variety of American magazines. In the waning years of the war, many of his short stories remained focused on the war, the war effort, and propaganda for the Allies. First published in 1944 in Harper’s Bazaar , “Beware of the Dog” became one of Dahl’s most successful war stories and eventually was loosely adapted into two different movies.

In 1946, Dahl published his first short story collection. Entitled Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying , the collection includes most of his war-era short stories . They’re notably different from the more famous works he’d later write; these stories were clearly rooted in the wartime setting and were more realistic and less quirky. He also tackled his first (of what would only be two) adult novels in 1948. Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen was a work of dark speculative fiction, combining the premise of his children’s story The Gremlins with a dystopian future imagining worldwide nuclear war. It was largely a failure and has never been reprinted in English. Dahl returned to short stories, publishing two consecutive short story collections: Someone Like You in 1953 and Kiss Kiss in 1960.

Family Struggles and Children’s Stories (1960-1980)

  • James and the Giant Peach (1961)
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
  • The Magic Finger (1966)
  • Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969)
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)
  • Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
  • Switch Bitch (1974)
  • Danny the Champion of the World (1975)
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1978)
  • The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
  • The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
  • My Uncle Oswald (1979)
  • Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
  • The Twits (1980)
  • More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)

The beginning of the decade included some devastating events for Dahl and his family. In 1960, his son Theo’s baby carriage was hit by a car, and Theo nearly died. He suffered from hydrocephalus, so Dahl collaborated with engineer Stanley Wade and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till to invent a valve that could be used to improve treatment. Less than two years later, Dahl's daughter, Olivia, died at age seven from measles encephalitis. As a result, Dahl became a staunch proponent of vaccinations and he also began questioning his faith—a well-known anecdote explained that Dahl was dismayed at an archbishop’s remark that Olivia’s beloved dog could not join her in heaven and began questioning whether or not the Church really was so infallible. In 1965, his wife Patricia suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms during her fifth pregnancy, requiring her to relearn basic skills like walking and talking; she did recover and eventually returned to her acting career.

Meanwhile, Dahl was becoming more and more involved in writing novels for children. James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, became his first iconic children’s book, and the decade saw several more publications that would go on to endure for years. His 1964 novel, though, would be arguably his most famous: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . The book received two film adaptations, one in 1971 and one in 2005, and a sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator , in 1972. In 1970, Dahl published The Fantastic Mr. Fox , another of his more famous children’s stories.

During this time, Dahl continued to turn out short story collections for adults as well. Between 1960 and 1980, Dahl published eight short story collections, including two “best of” style collections. My Uncle Oswald , published in 1979, was a novel using the same character of the lecherous “Uncle Oswald” who featured in a few of his earlier short stories for adults. He also continuously published new novels for children, which soon surpassed the success of his adult works. In the 1960s, he also briefly worked as a screenwriter, most notably adapting two Ian Fleming novels into films: the James Bond caper You Only Live Twice and the children’s movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang .

Later Stories for Both Audiences (1980-1990)

  • George's Marvelous Medicine (1981)
  • The BFG (1982)
  • The Witches (1983)
  • The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
  • Two Fables (1986)
  • Matilda (1988)
  • Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
  • Esio Trot (1990)
  • The Vicar of Nibbleswick (1991)
  • The Minpins (1991)

By the early 1980s, Dahl’s marriage to Neal was falling apart. They divorced in 1983, and Dahl remarried that same year to Felicity d’Abreu Crosland, an ex-girlfriend. Around the same time, he caused some controversy with his remarks centered on Tony Clifton's picture book  God Cried , which depicted the siege of West Beirut by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War. His comments at the time were widely interpreted as antisemitic , although others in his circle interpreted his anti-Israel comments as non-malicious and more targeted at the conflicts with Israel.

Among his most famous later stories are 1982’s The BFG and 1988’s Matilda . The latter book was adapted into a much-beloved film in 1996, as well as an acclaimed stage musical in 2010 on the West End and 2013 on Broadway. The last book released while Dahl was still alive was Esio Trot , a surprisingly sweet children’s novel about a lonely old man trying to connect with a woman he has fallen in love with from afar.

Literary Styles and Themes

Dahl was far and away best known for his very particular and unique approach to children’s literature . Certain elements in his books are easily traced to his ugly experiences at boarding school during his youth: villainous, terrifying adults in positions of power who hate children, precocious and observant children as protagonists and narrators, school settings, and plenty of imagination. Although the boogeymen of Dahl’s childhood certainly made plenty of appearances—and, crucially, were always defeated by the children—he also tended to write token “good” adults as well.

Despite being famous for writing for children, Dahl’s sense of style is famously a unique hybrid of the whimsical and the gleefully macabre. It’s a distinctively child-centric approach, but one with a subversive undertone to its obvious warmth. The details of his antagonists’ villainy are often described in childlike but nightmarish detail, and the comic threads in stories such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are laced with dark or even violent moments. Gluttony is a particular target for Dahl’s sharply violent retribution, with several notably fat characters in his canon receiving disturbing or violent ends.

Dahl’s language is notable for its playful style and intentional malapropisms . His books are littered with new words of his own invention, often created by switching around letters or mix-and-matching existing sounds to make words that still made sense, even though they weren’t real words. In 2016, for the centenary of Dahl's birth, lexicographer Susan Rennie created  The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary , a guide to his invented words and their “translations” or meanings.

Near the end of his life, Dahl was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare cancer of the blood, typically affecting older patients, that occurs when blood cells do not “mature” into healthy blood cells. Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England. He was buried at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, England, in a fittingly unusual fashion: he was buried with some chocolates and wine, pencils, his favorite pool cues, and a power saw. To this day, his grave remains a popular site, where children and adults alike pay tribute by leaving flowers and toys.

Dahl’s legacy largely dwells in the enduring power of his children’s books. Several of his most famous works have been adapted into several different media, from film and television to radio to stage. It’s not just his literary contributions that have continued to have an impact, though. After his death, his widow Felicity continued his charitable work through the Roald Dahl Marvellous Children’s Charity, which supports children with various illnesses throughout the UK. In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen joined forces to create The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, awarded annually to authors of humorous children's fiction. Dahl’s particular brand of humor and his sophisticated yet approachable voice for children’s fiction have left an indelible mark.

  • Boothroyd, Jennifer.  Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination . Lerner Publications, 2008.
  • Shavick, Andrea.  Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller . Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Sturrock, Donald.  Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl , Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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Biography Online

Biography

Roald Dahl Biography

Roald Dahl – (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a best selling British children’s author and a flying ace in the Second World War.

Short Bio Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in 1916, Cardiff to Norwegian parents. At a young age, his father passed away, and Roald was sent to boarding schools in England. His childhood years left a lasting impression on Roald, and he later serialised these in his autobiography – Boy .

Roald Dahl

These times were generally unhappy for Roald; he recounts the excessive strictness, corporal punishment and fear amongst the boys. The brutal canning meted out to boys by both staff, and ‘prefects’ particularly stuck in the mind of the young Dahl.

“All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.” Roald Dahl

He recounted the fear and pain in great detail. He also mentioned a friend who was flogged – by the then headmaster of Repton, leaving a trail of blood. Roald wrote this headmaster went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury and this is one incident that turned him away from religion and God.

Roald Dahl never really fitted in with the public school ethos of discipline and fags. Fags were young boys who would serve elder prefects – for example, Roald wryly wrote how he was chosen to be the favoured ‘bog warmer’ of his prefect. – His job was to sit on an outside toilet to warm it up for his prefect. Despite excelling at sports, Roald later turned down the opportunity to be a prefect as he admitted he could not agree with the general principles.

The only glimpses of happiness were in the school holidays when he visited the beautiful Norwegian Fjords of his parents’ homeland and also towards the end of his school career when he got his first motorbike.

On leaving school, Roald got a job with Shell Petroleum company and in 1934 he was transferred to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He enjoyed his job and made good progress. However, on the outbreak of war in August 1939, he soon joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter ace. He gained little training in an old Tiger Moth before being flung into brutal dogfights.

On an early flying mission, Roald Dahl crashed on route to Egypt. He was badly injured and was blinded for several weeks. By February 1941, he was discharged from hospital and was transferred to the Greek Campaign. This was a fight against overwhelming odds as the British forces were outnumbered with only a few aircraft to defend against the German invasion. Roald Dahl was one of the few airmen to survive the bitter dog fighting and was evacuated to Egypt before the fall of Athens. During that time he shot down numerous enemy aircraft, though the exact number was difficult to ascertain. His official figure was confirmed as 5, though this was likely to be more.

After a medical condition, Dahl was invalided back to Britain. For the remainder of the war, he was given a job writing propaganda for the allies. He also supplied intelligence to the British Security Coordination which was part of MI6.

After the war, Dahl began to concentrate more on writing as a career. His first successful story was an account of his crash in Egypt – “A Piece of Cake” – initially published as “Shot down over Libya”. This led to his first children’s book – Gremlins, commissioned by Walt Disney.

He went on to create some of the most memorable children’s books. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda . They set a new tone for children’s books. They often featured a dark sense of humour, grave injustice and grotesque figures (often fat e.g. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter).

“Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children – as long as you make them laugh as well.” – Roald Dahl

Using elements of semi-autobiography his stories often featured a divide between one or two good people against people who were abusing their positions of power. In books such as Danny The Champion of the World , he introduces elements of class conflict and the triumph of the underdog. His books often had unexpected endings.

In the 1960s, Dahl acquired an old-fashioned gypsy caravan which he parked in his garden where he lived in Great Missenden, Oxfordshire. He used this caravan to write some of his children’s books.

He also wrote short adult short stories, and in the 1960s he also wrote two successful screenplays – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film – You Only Live Twice. But, it is primarily for his best selling children’s books that he is remembered. In a poll commissioned by Canon UK, Canon was considered Britain’s greatest storyteller – above both Dickens and J.K.Rowling.

He married Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 in New York. They had five children during their 30-year marriage.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Roald Dahl “, Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net , 22nd Jan. 2010. Last updated 18 February 2018.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl

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Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, writer of short stories, screen writer and fighter pilot. He was born in Wales in 13th September 1916. Before writing he also served in the Air Force and fought in the World War two. He was a flying ace and also an intelligence agent. Known as one of the greatest storytellers for children, he was in the list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’.

Dahl went to The Cathedral School where corporal punishment was common. He also became victim to it several times for his mischievousness. As his father had considered English schools to be the best even after his death his mother abided by his wishes. He was then put into boarding school in England named Saint Peters. His time in Saint Peters is mentioned in his autobiography ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’. In 1929 Dahl was shifted to Repton School in Derbyshire. This was where his writing skills first became noticed by his English teacher who said:

“I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.”

While he was studying at Repton, the chocolate company ‘Cadbury’ would send boxes of chocolate to there to get tasted. This is where Dahl took inspiration for his most notable work ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ which was published in 1963. Taking inspiration from his life incidence and people he met is very common in his writings. Another example of such inspiration is in his book ‘The Witches’ published in 1983 in which the main character is a Norwegian boy.

In 1934 he started working at the Shell Petroleum Company. After training two years in the UK he transferred to Kenya and then Daar-es-Salaam where he lived a very luxurious life due to his job. After serving in the Second World War, he married Patricia Neal in 1953. They remained married for thirty years and had five children after which they got divorced. His married life was filled with many unfortunate incidences such as the terrible accident of his four month old son and death of his seven years old daughter. His five had three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant for the fifth time. After his divorce Dahl married Felicity Crosland.

Dahl’s books involve imagination and fantasy and they were humorous too. His first book for children was ‘The Gremlins’. His book most loved by children is ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. This was made into two films; one was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ in 1971 and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ in 2005. Another famous work is ‘Matilda’ published in 1988 which was made into a movie in 1988. Some other books of Dahl are Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970) and the movie in 2009, ‘The Minpins’ (1991), ‘The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me’ (1985). Some short story collections are ‘Roald Book of Ghost Stories’ (1983), ‘Two Fables’ (1986), ‘The Roald Dahl Treasury’ (1997).

Roald Dahl died on 23rd November 1990 due to a blood disease in Oxford, England. There is a Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery opened in his honor.

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a biography of roald dahl

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Roald dahl: the story of the 'storyteller'.

a biography of roald dahl

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl By Donald Sturrock Hardcover, 672 pages Simon & Schuster List price: $30

Read An Excerpt

Roald Dahl is best known for his children's stories.  His first -- and arguably his most famous -- was James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, when Dahl was already in his mid-40s.

But prior to finding his calling as a children's author, Dahl tried out several other careers -- as an oilman for Shell, a pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and a member of the British diplomatic corps.

Perhaps one of the most interesting periods in Dahl's life -- and one that demonstrates his considerable charm -- was during World War II. Early in the war, Dahl spent several years living in the United States, trying to raise awareness for the British war cause. Donald Sturrock, author of Storyteller , a new biography of Dahl, tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer just how successful Dahl was in this endeavor.

"It was a dizzying ride to the top of Washington, New York and L.A. society," he says. "Dahl's mission was to conquer American society, which he did with a series of speeches about what it was like to be a RAF man."

Dahl's writing career took off here, too.  While in America, he wrote a short piece of fiction about gremlins -- the mythical creatures that cause problems with RAF airplanes.  The story became very popular and received a tremendous amount of attention.  A copy sent to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt charmed her enough that she invited Dahl to the White House.  Walt Disney also fell under the gremlins' spell and flew Dahl to Hollywood to discuss making a movie.

Dahl's gremlins never made it into a movie, but they did make it into a book, which Sturrock says may have helped in promoting a positive image of Britain and the RAF to wartime America.

a biography of roald dahl

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953.

Dahl would capture America's attention again in 1952, when he married actress Patricia Neal, who later won an Oscar for her performance with Paul Newman in Hud . Although the marriage almost failed in the first few months, Sturrock says it eventually became one of great strength.

"Pat and Roald were bound together by these two tragedies that happened quite early on with their children," he explains. "Their son Theo was knocked over and crushed against the side of a bus by a cab in New York, and secondly when their eldest daughter, Olivia, died, aged only 7, from complications resulting from measles."

Neal would also suffer an aneurysm and a series of strokes, which caused her to lose the use of one side of her body and made speech very difficult. Dahl worked out an intensely rigorous rehabilitation therapy for her that, to many, seemed almost cruel.

But, Sturrock says, what Dahl did was very pioneering at that time.

"It's almost become standard practice, his idea that you must stimulate a stroke victim quite early on and quite extremely in order to get them back to health," he explains.

Dahl worked hard to help Neal recover and, although it was a very painful process for her, she was extremely grateful to him, especially given that she was able to return to her acting career within only a few years.

a biography of roald dahl

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children.

Neal's acting career, and then her illness, meant that Dahl assumed many of the domestic responsibilities -- taking care of the house and the children.  But to focus on his writing, Dahl needed a more private place.   He would often retire to a small work hut -- his writing hut -- where he could indulge his love of fantasy and escape from reality.

Dahl himself told Sturrock that the hut helped him think like a child.

"I can cut myself off there," Dahl said, "...and within minutes become six and seven and eight again."

That, says Sturrock, was Dahl's most special gift -- he truly understood children.  "He had an extraordinary confidence about his ability to see into a child's mind and to see the world the way a child saw it."

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ROALD DAHL, TELLER OF THE UNEXPECTED: A Biography, by Matthew Dennison

Many young readers who love the prodigious oeuvre of Roald Dahl can nonetheless cite at least one thing within it that gives them the ick. For me it was Mr. Twit’s beard in “ The Twits ” (1980), so ungroomed it might contain “a piece of maggoty green cheese or a mouldy old cornflake or even the slimy tail of a tinned sardine .” When millennial men in Brooklyn started growing big, bushy beards, my inner child dived under the table in horror.

The ickiest thing about the life of Dahl, who died in 1990 , was his well-documented antisemitism, capped by a 1983 comment about Jews to The New Statesman, in which he declared that “even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” (That it’s custom for observant Jewish men to wear beards makes me even more uneasy about the demonized Mr. Twit.) The Dahl estate has posted an apology for his behavior on its website — linked discreetly under a Quentin Blake illustration of the author in a pink cardigan, looking beneficent and cuddly.

Looking back, there were plenty of other oh-no-he-didn’t moments in the literature. The Oompa-Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” were originally African pygmies — Dahl called the actors who played them wearing orange makeup and green wigs in the 1971 movie “dirty old dwarfs.” And a rapey 1965 story for Playboy, “Bitch,” transformed its adult male protagonist into a “ gigantic perpendicular penis, seven feet tall and as handsome as they come ,” as if James and his famous peach had grown up and gone horribly wrong.

But none of this is lingered on in Matthew Dennison’s elegant but somewhat glancing new biography of Dahl, subtitled “Teller of the Unexpected.” His subject has sold more books around the world than is possible to count. Netflix bought The Roald Dahl Story Co. in 2021 for a reported $1 billion ; “Matilda” alone is movie, musical and multiple memes. Roald Dahl — not mere author but high-yielding content farm — may simply be too big to cancel.

His own story has already inspired two major biographies, from which Dennison draws: one authorized, by Donald Sturrock , who also edited Dahl’s letters to his beloved mother , Sofie Magdalene; one not, by Jeremy Treglown . All of these accounts stand as necessary supplements to Dahl’s lyrical but selectively truthful autobiographical writing ; Dennison notes his tendency toward “mythomania.” He figured unfavorably in “As I Am,” the memoir by his first wife, the actress Patricia Neal, whom he nursed aggressively (some would say sadistically) back to health after a stroke and then left for their friend, Felicity “Liccy” Crosland; and in a roman à clef by their daughter, Tessa. The first Mr. and Mrs. Dahl were rendered in softer focus mourning the death from measles encephalitis of Tessa’s older sister, at only 7, in the recent movie “To Olivia.”

As Dennison reminds us, Roald — born in Wales, of Norwegian parentage — also lost a sister when she was 7, to appendicitis, and his father soon after. Backing into writing after a stint at the Asiatic Petroleum Company, his macabre voice and flights into fantasy were clearly engendered by brushes with death and violence.

He had been caned at boarding school and, enlisting in the Royal Air Force, was burned and maimed when his Gloster Gladiator plane crashed in the Egyptian desert. After his baby son Theo’s skull was crushed after a taxi hit his pram, Dahl developed a cerebral shunt with a pediatric neurosurgeon and toymaker, like the Wonka figure he was simultaneously creating on the page. Then came Neal’s medical crisis, while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy, and her rehabilitation, reenacted in a memorable 1981 TV movie , in which she was played by Glenda Jackson, and Roald by Dirk Bogarde. (Exploring Dahl’s personal and professional entanglements, you’ll tumble down an IMDB hole deeper than the giants’ in “The BFG.”)

The author of previous books on Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, Dennison recaps most of these extraordinary events without fuss, riffling carefully through letters, diaries and other volumes, from the looks of his endnotes, but conducting no fresh interviews; there are no new revelations that I can discern, but instead refined interpretation. From the Dahl legacy, chocolate and bile and personality sloshing messily in all directions, he molds a digestive biscuit.

“Teller of the Unexpected” is maybe best capturing its 6-foot-5-plus subject as a swashbuckler: zooming around school grounds on a motorcycle or parachuting metaphorically into power centers like Washington, D.C., or Hollywood, where Dahl was courted by Walt Disney himself to develop a movie about gremlins — devilish creatures with horns and long tails blamed for R.A.F. mishaps. (Gremlins would go on to appear in plenty of movies, including a 1983 “Twilight Zone” sequence starring the Dahl look-alike John Lithgow , but this would not turn out to be one of the writer’s many lucrative franchises.) Encouraged early in his career by C.S. Forester and Hemingway, he was notoriously abrasive to his editors and had affairs with older and married women, complaining to a friend of Clare Boothe Luce’s voracious sexual appetite.

In Dennison’s telling, Dahl’s contradictions are beautifully illustrated but not particularly interrogated: He is here charitable but cruel; arrogant and desperate for acclaim; a self-declared man of action whose livelihood was language. He was an aesthete who cared deeply about his surroundings, early on collecting birds’ eggs in drawers lined with pink cotton wool and growing up to appreciate the finer things: painting, wine, the great composers. Long before it was fashionable, he made himself a man cave, a “writing hut” steps from his family cottage, whose name, Gipsy House, also offends 2023 ears.

And I think he would have liked Dennison’s writing style, lush but clipped, with such phrases as “the ubiquity of caprice” and “buoyant with slang,” full of a reader’s zest. This is not a potted biography, but it is a politely pruned one, idealism washing over the ick.

ROALD DAHL, TELLER OF THE UNEXPECTED: A Biography | By Matthew Dennison | 272 pp. | Illustrated | Pegasus Books | $27.95

Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic and the author of “Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.” More about Alexandra Jacobs

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About Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. His first moment of inspiration came when he was at boarding school, when a local chocolate factory invited pupils to trial new chocolate bars - 35 years later, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published.

He went on to write many more stories, including Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and Fantastic Mr Fox, all from a hut in his back garden in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. By the time he published The Minpins, he had written a total of 16 stories for children, which have been translated into 68 languages and read all over the world. He remains one of the world's greatest storytellers.

The Roald Dahl Story Company protects and grows the cultural value of Roald Dahl stories with their unique breadth of characters and worlds. With 300 million books sold, and one new book sold every 2.5 seconds, the Roald Dahl brand continues to grow in popularity globally, attracting new audiences with innovative developments in book, theatre, entertainment and beyond.

The Roald Dahl Story Company is committed to sharing the positive messages at the heart of all Roald Dahl stories - messages of the strength and potential of young people, and the power of kindness.

Find out more about Roald Dahl stories Apology for antisemitic comments made by Roald Dahl

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Roald Dahl is as troubling as he is beloved. Can’t he be both?

The author of children’s favorites like ‘matilda’ was a complicated man. a new biography reminds us just how complicated..

a biography of roald dahl

In the brisk and concise “ Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected ,” Matthew Dennison notes that the author of “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ,” “ The BFG ,” “ Matilda ” and much, much else has, according to the British journal the Bookseller, sold at least 250 million books in 58 languages.

That’s a phenomenal number, but just start almost any of Dahl’s books, then try to stop reading. I can testify to the tractor-beam power of his storytelling. After finishing Dennison’s biography, I decided to glance briefly at the opening chapters of “ The Witches ,” which I had reviewed, ecstatically, when it first appeared in 1983. When I finally lifted my eyes from the page, I was a quarter of the way through the novel, having been caught up all over again in its delicious scariness. Admittedly, “The Witches” remains my favorite among Dahl’s classics, closely followed by his 1988 paean to books and girl power, the wonderful “Matilda.” I didn’t reread it only because I had watched the exuberant — if overly dark — new film version instead. Like nearly all of Dahl’s best work, these two novels celebrate kindness, independent thought, daring, loyalty and self-reliance.

The disturbing Mr. Dahl

Without supplanting either Jeremy Treglown’s pioneering “ Roald Dahl: A Biography ” (1993) or Donald Sturrock’s authorized biography, “ Storyteller ” (2010) — both of which I recommend, especially the latter — this succinct new biography provides just enough information for all but the most ardent Dahl devotee. As in his previous lives of Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, Dennison again reminds us that children’s authors are, to say the least, complicated people. Dahl, for instance, could face horrific life-or-death crises with heroic self-control, knowing precisely what needed to be done and doing it. In more ordinary circumstances, however, his need to dominate and take command wasn’t much different from that of his own villain, the controlling, paramilitary sadist Miss Trunchbull.

Yet Dahl remains a troubling, complicated figure. Waspishly opinionated, frequently offensive, a hard bargainer with publishers and swaggeringly obnoxious with his editors, he could also be irresistibly charming, outrageously funny and, in his younger days, a relentless Casanova. In later years, he transformed himself into a family man who was distinctly “sparky,” his own word from “ Danny the Champion of the World ” for what a father should be. Once, while his daughters Olivia and Tessa slept, Dahl wrote their names in weed killer on the lawn outside their bedroom window. “The following morning, he told them it was the work of fairies.” Throughout his life, the writer also practiced, without fanfare, what Dennison describes as “habitual generosity.” To this day, the Dahl estate continues to support specialist pediatric nurses and to underwrite research into neurological and blood diseases.

Born in 1916, Roald Dahl — named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen — was only 3 when his Norwegian-born father died, leaving a sizable fortune (from shipping and coal). At the prestigious Repton School, young Roald displayed no talent whatsoever for writing. One school report reads: “A persistent muddler. Vocabulary negligible, sentences malconstructed.” After graduation, rather than go on to university, he eagerly took up a job with Shell Oil in Africa, then later joined the Royal Air Force during World War II, flying combat missions over Greece.

Why read old books? A case for the classic, the unusual, the neglected.

Because of head injuries from a crash, the handsome 6-foot-6 flying ace was eventually redeployed to D.C. as a kind of British goodwill ambassador. There, besides doing a bit of intelligence work, he regularly bedded pretty girls and rich society matrons. But his “lucky break” — as he later titled an autobiographical essay — came about after meeting the novelist C.S. Forester. The creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower asked Dahl to write up his crash in the Libyan desert and was so impressed by the result that he sent the piece to the Saturday Evening Post, where it was published on Aug. 1, 1942. Other successful tales about wartime flying soon followed and were collected in 1946 as “ Over to You .” But Dahl’s first novel, 1948’s post-apocalyptic “ Some Time Never ,” proved a disaster, and his second never quite jelled, which isn’t surprising given its tentative title, “Fifty Thousand Frogskins.”

In his 30s, Dahl found his niche as a moderately successful author of sleek, unsettling suspense stories, which he later dubbed “ Tales of the Unexpected .” In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” a wife who has killed her husband ingeniously disposes of the highly original murder weapon. In “Taste,” a wine connoisseur stakes his 18-year-old daughter in a bet with a lecherous middle-aged rival over the identification of an obscure vintage of Bordeaux. Upon reading these elegant contes cruels, compiled in the 1953 collection “ Someone Like You ,” Noël Coward praised Dahl’s imagination as “fabulous” but also noted “an underlying streak of cruelty and macabre unpleasantness, and a curiously adolescent emphasis on sex.” These traits would characterize all his work for adults, including the stories of 1960’s “ Kiss, Kiss ” and the ribald exploits chronicled in 1979’s “ My Uncle Oswald .”

Until 1953, Dahl lived at home in England with his mother, to whom, as Dennison repeatedly emphasizes, he was close all his life. That year, though, he met and successfully wooed the American actress Patricia Neal. Their marriage, though rocky at first, lasted for 30 years, despite several terrible crises, including a traumatic brain injury to their infant son Theo and the death from measles of 7-year-old Olivia. When Neal suffered a debilitating stroke at just 39, Dahl personally oversaw an intense program of therapy and rehabilitation.

It was during these tumultuous years that he turned to writing for children. Dahl was 48 when his first masterpiece, “ James and the Giant Peach ,” appeared in 1961. Like his eerie adult stories of revenge and comeuppance, his children’s books required many drafts, scribbled longhand on yellow legal pads. He confessed that “when I first thought about writing the book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ I never originally meant to have children in it at all.” On a rejected draft, Charlie was Black.

Roald Dahl was anti-Semitic. Do we need his family’s apology now?

In his mid-50s, Dahl began an extended affair with the 20-years-younger Felicity Crosland, a friend of Neal. After much angst all around and a bitter divorce, Crosland became his second wife. The marriage proved a happy one, leading to the great works of the 1980s: “The BFG,” “The Witches,” “Matilda” and the delightful, highly embroidered memoirs “ Boy ” and “ Going Solo .” When Dahl died of a rare blood cancer in 1990 at age 74, reprints of his books described him as the world’s No. 1 storyteller.

Reflecting on his work, Dahl once inventoried what children most enjoy in fiction: “They love being spooked. They love suspense. They love action. They love ghosts. They love the finding of treasure. They love chocolates and toys and money. They love magic.” Dahl’s books duly supply all these, as well as plenty of rowdy, Dickensian gusto and tall-tale exaggeration. What’s more, his stories don’t flinch from the rude body humor — flatulence, belching, smelly feet, mock vomiting — that children find so funny. Even the nastiness of Dahl’s villains is deliberately over the top so that the young hero or heroine’s ultimate triumph may be all the more satisfying to child readers. Above all, though, Dahl resolutely eschews overt moralizing: “There are very few messages in these books of mine. They are there simply to turn the child into a reader of books.”

Yet to adult eyes, Dahl frequently goes uncomfortably too far in depicting an anarchic Hobbesian world of savagery and violence. When “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” first appeared in 1964, the Oompa Loompas were racist caricatures of African pygmies (though later changed to hippie-ish, rosy-skinned dwarfs). The depiction of Veruca Salt’s father, in that same book, sails close to Jewish stereotypes. Not least, while Dahl defended his notorious “anti-Israeli” political views as justifiable anger over that nation’s treatment of the Palestinian people, many felt this argument was a cover for antisemitism.

Rudyard Kipling has been called the most controversial writer in modern English literature. Sometimes I suspect that Roald Dahl must run him a close second. Still, in the end, our dealings as readers aren’t with authors, all of whom are flawed human beings, but with their books. Our lives would certainly be poorer without Dahl’s tender portrait of the love between a father and his son in “Danny the Champion of the World” or the inspiring fairy tales of “The BFG” and “Matilda.” Even the critic Kathryn Hughes, who once called Dahl “an absolute sod,” concluded, quite rightly, that “despite so many reasons to dislike him,” he nonetheless remains “one of the greatest forces for good in children’s literature of the past 50 years.”

Teller of Unexpected Tales

By Matthew Dennison

Pegasus. 272 pp. $27.95

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a biography of roald dahl

Roald Dahl Was a WW II Spy and Fighter Pilot Before Becoming a Beloved Children's Book Author

Prior to writing 'James and the Giant Peach,' 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda,' and more, Dahl was a member of the Air Force and involved in a covert spy operation.

roald dahl

It all started during World War II when Dahl left his oil industry job in Tanzania to enlist in the Royal Air Force in 1939. Despite measuring well over six feet, which made it difficult for him to fit into a cockpit, he became a fighter pilot. But on his first excursion he crashed in the Libyan desert (Dahl would later write that he'd been shot down, but it was an accidental crash).

The crash fractured his skull, injured his spine and destroyed his nose. Swelling left him temporarily unable to see, and it took several months for Dahl to recover. But he turned down a chance to go back home to convalesce in the hopes of flying again, and in the spring of 1941, he was cleared to join the battle against the German invasion of Greece.

In this fight, the small number of British planes were vastly outnumbered by German ones, and aerial combat was often deadly for the British pilots. Dahl survived the dangerous flights and took down some of the enemy before it was necessary to retreat. Yet after this, he only flew for a few more weeks. Suffering from increasingly painful headaches and occasional blackouts linked to his earlier injuries, he was deemed unfit to fly.

roald dahl and ernest hemingway

Dahl became a spy in Washington, D.C.

In 1942, America was a recent ally in World War II. But the country still had many isolationists who were unhappy about joining the fight — some even felt President Franklin D. Roosevelt had conspired to let Pearl Harbor happen in order to push America toward war. As a dashing, wounded fighter pilot, Dahl was sent to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to help make the case for U.S. involvement in the war.

Dahl could be charming, which won him invitations to dinners and cocktail parties. And he was helped along in society by the friendship of Charles Marsh, a newspaper owner and oil magnate (whose other mentees included Lyndon Johnson ). Eventually, Dahl became involved in the covert spy operation British Security Coordination.

BSC's agents were keeping an eye on U.S. involvement in the war, as well as scoping out any post-war plans the United States might be making. His work as a spy still called for Dahl to attend a lot of dinners and cocktail parties — but now he was reporting the tidbits and gossip he heard to BSC.

He was tight with major political players

When Dahl was invited to visit Hyde Park with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , he took notes to pass along to BSC. Among Dahl's other notable friends and acquaintances were Vice President Henry Wallace (the two regularly played tennis) and then-Senator Harry Truman (who Dahl joined for poker games). Dahl also had numerous affairs, including with Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce. The congresswoman wasn't an avid supporter of British interests; Dahl may have been directed to encourage her to change these views.

Dahl's friend Marsh inadvertently aided the younger man's espionage when he showed Dahl some papers from Wallace regarding America's plans for the aviation industry once the war was over. Dahl was so intrigued by what he'd read that he arranged for someone to come and take the papers to be copied. While this was happening he lingered by the lavatory to establish an alibi should anyone wonder why it had taken him so long to read the document.

Dahl was valued enough that even when his higher-ups at the embassy didn't want him around any longer — he was a very undiplomatic diplomat who didn't care for office life — BSC arranged for his return to the States. And he had enough pull that he was able to help Ernest Hemingway travel to London, where Dahl served as Hemingway's minder, prior to D-Day.

the mischevious gremlin was a concept popularized by british author roald dahl in his children's book the gremilins which was adapted for a film by walt disney

Dahl nearly made a film with Walt Disney

Being an embassy attaché and spy would seem enough to occupy most people — but Dahl also found time to write while he was posted in the States during World War II. A piece about his crash in Libya impressed writer C.S. Forester so much that he helped Dahl get it published in the Saturday Evening Post .

Another Dahl project was about gremlins. These creatures had a long history within the RAF, often receiving the blame for mechanical failures. Dahl's work on a story about gremlins led to interest from Walt Disney , who began developing an animated feature. Dahl made trips to Hollywood to work on the film (on one occasion dining with Ginger Rogers). But he proved to be a difficult collaborator at times, arguing with Disney about how the gremlins should look. And as commercial prospects for the movie seemed to dim, Disney decided not to make it after all.

Dahl's gremlins did appear in an illustrated book published under the Disney aegis in 1943 (he sent a copy to Eleanor Roosevelt, which helped the two forge their friendship). But this book would be the only children's publication on Dahl's resume for many years to come. It wasn't until he wrote James and the Giant Peach , which was published in the United States in 1961, that he discovered his true calling: writing books for children.

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The Depressing Truth About Willy Wonka's Oompa Loompa

Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was one of secrecy. The cheerful songsters Oompa Loompas revealed the dirty truth behind the chocolatier’s success.

  • The Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory had origins rooted in racism, colonialism and white supremacy.
  • While all three movies based on Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory attempted to address the issues with the Oompa Loompas, Wonka (2023) does so most effectively.
  • Still, it is important for audiences to look beyond Wonka's "world of pure imagination" and be aware of the implications of the original text.

The following reveals spoilers for Wonka, now playing in theaters.

They were discovered by the eccentric Willy Wonka, who invited them to live and work at his wondrous chocolate factory. The three film adaptations of Roald Dahl's children's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , introduced the Oompa Loompas to viewers differently. In 1971, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory revealed them to be smaller than average humanoid creatures with orange skin and cartoonish features. Tim Burton's 2005 adaptation of the story depicted them as identical workers -- all played by actor Deep Roy -- dressed in flashy clothes. The 2023 prequel Wonka follows the visual style of the 1971 film, with a single orange Oompa Loompa played by Hugh Grant. All three versions depict them as happy in their work, and the factory as a kind of fairy-tale kingdom where they can live in safety.

However, that dreamy portrayal was far from the truth. Even in Willy Wonka's world of pure imagination , concerning signs about the Oompa Loompas never truly diminished. Traces of slavery, white supremacy and capitalistic exploitation existed in every corner: hidden in the plain sight of a lighthearted, magical factory. The issue stems from Dahl's book, and all three movie adaptations have taken steps to address those dynamics, with varying degrees of success.

The Racist Implications of the Original Oompa Loompas

The Oompa Loompas, depicted as Black pygmies, in the 1964 first edition of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Wonka Trailer Hints at Another Disney Remake as a Major Inspiration

Published in 1964, Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reflected a rise in British social anxieties as immigrants and New Commonwealth citizens entered the labor market. This, of course, led to suspicion and paranoia in the story in the form of Charlie Bucket's Grandpa Joe. As a formally laid-off employee of the chocolate factory (in the 2005 film), Grandpa Joe whispered to Charlie about the new secret workers in the factory: "Not people, Charlie. Not ordinary people, anyway."

In the first edition of Dahl's novel , Oompa Loompas were Black pygmies Willy Wonka imported from "the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle," according to Jeremy Treglown's Roald Dahl: A Biography . In 1970, the NAACP issued a statement expressing concerns about the racist portrayal of the Oompa Loompas in light of the then-upcoming film. Dahl himself showed sympathy for their stance, and re-imagined them in the 1973 edition as having "golden-brown hair" and "rosy-white" skin.

Despite that change in description, the Oompa Loompas' exploitative origin remained. Wonka smuggled them from their home to work at his factory. They worked tirelessly in exchange for cocoa beans, even as the chocolatier earned real money for their labor. They were prisoners restricted to areas inside the factory. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka learned the tribal language when negotiating a deal with the Oompa Loompas, but he was proud that "they all speak English now."

Besides the unreasonable wage and inhumane treatment, Oompa Loompas were Wonka's test subjects for new inventions. Although the film showed "Whips - All Shapes and Sizes" as cows being whipped to produce cream, the rooms could have been another indication of the chocolatier's full ownership of Oompa Loompas. Wonka believed that he had "rescued" them from the dangerous jungles, deadly diseases and starvation, expressing a pro-slavery sentiment that echoed the "positive good" defense of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Willy Wonka Movies Make Changes to the Oompa Loompas

Gene Wilder and Christopher Lloyd as Willy Wonka

Christopher Lloyd Played the Scariest Willy Wonka - But It Worked

The filmmakers for all three movies were aware of the problematic nature of the Oompa Loompas and the implicit exploitation of their status in the factory. All three lean into the idea of the factory as a magical kingdom and its workers akin to fairies or elves rather than maltreated minorities. The 1971 movie omits mention of how they're paid, only that Wonka wishes them to live in peace and safety. (Though they are still experimented upon: Wonka states that a number of Oompa Loompas were turned into blueberries before Violet Beauregard.) And the British setting is subtly changed to an unnamed city, shot in Munich to enhance a sense of fairy tale timelessness rather than Dahl's late imperialist sensibilities.

The 2005 version directed by Tim Burton adheres more closely to the Dahl text -- presumably in an effort to distance itself from its predecessor -- which brings the Oompa Loompas' problematic qualities into the forefront. It includes a visual depiction of Loompaland as a savage jungle, and the inhabitants as coded primitives worshiping cacao beans. Wonka still offers to pay them in chocolate, and they're still the subjects of experimentation. The film flirts with other problematic stereotypes as well -- such as the story of a foolish Indian prince who commissions a palace built out of chocolate -- and its innate sympathy with Wonka as a misunderstood outsider tends to compound his exploitative practices. (Wilder's Wonka has more overtly sinister qualities.)

Of the three, Wonka (2023) addresses the problem most directly: taking advantage of its status as a prequel to step outside of Dahl's text. A young Wonka traps an Oompa Loompa named Lofty , who was exiled from Loompaland after Wonka himself unknowingly stole several cacao beans on his watch. Lofty has been claiming his chocolates in repayment for the debt, and Wonka's responsibility on that front -- however unintentional -- becomes a key point in the plot. Loompaland itself is stripped of its colonialist implications: portrayed as an uncharted island in an unnamed sea, with the Oompa Loompas dressed in modern striped suits. (Lofty is sent in exile wearing a wealthy yachtsman's outfit and piloting a speed boat.) Wonka -- portrayed as a champion of the downtrodden who is himself exploited through most of the film -- offers Lofty a job as the "head of the tasting department" in his new factory which he builds effortlessly through magic rather than requiring manual labor. It implies that the Oompa Loompas are equal partners in his endeavor, and makes Wonka's bottomless generosity an overt anomaly among rival candy makers motivated entirely by greed.

Are Oompa Loompas Slaves?

Oompa Loompas singing and holding up their hands in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Violet asked her father for an Oompa Loompa, and he promised he would obtain one for her by the end of the day. That suggested a transfer of ownership and reinforced the slave aspect of the Oompa Loompas' condition from a privileged, white supremacist viewpoint. Yet, viewers often overlooked this troubling aspect under the blind worship of the chocolatier.

As Donald Yacovene explains, Chocolate has a direct, historical link to slavery , starting with the first cocoa shipments to Europe in 1585. Great Britain has been knee-deep in the colonial business since the mid-17th century. The cocoa trade significantly impacted countries in Central America and the Caribbean. However, most of the world's cocoa production shifted to West Africa due to Britain's involvement. Many crops exploited enslaved people and child laborers to obtain a more significant profit. Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807. However, slavery and exploitation in cocoa production continue in other ways even today.

Through deconstructing the seemingly wonderful supernatural beings of the Oompa Loompas, viewers come to understand the underlying colonial context and severe racial and social issues associated with the beloved children's story. Willy Wonka was certainly not a man to worship, and his chocolate factory, as dreamy as it was, was built on exploitation. Subsequent adaptations have been obligated to either show that exploitation more plainly, or re-imagine both Wonka and the Oompa Loompas as different than the text portrays them.

Wonka is now playing in theaters.

Wonka sits among all kinds of colorful giant candies and chocolate on the Wonka Film Poster

With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

IMAGES

  1. Biography of Roald Dahl, British Novelist

    a biography of roald dahl

  2. Roald Dahl Facts, Information and Biography for Kids

    a biography of roald dahl

  3. Roald Dahl biography

    a biography of roald dahl

  4. Roald Dahl: A Biography

    a biography of roald dahl

  5. A short biography of Roald Dahl

    a biography of roald dahl

  6. The Reading Life: Roald Dahl A Biography by Jeremy Treglown (1994)

    a biography of roald dahl

COMMENTS

  1. Roald Dahl

    Born: September 13, 1916, Llandaff, Wales Died: November 23, 1990, Oxford, England (aged 74) Awards And Honors: Costa Book Awards (1983) Notable Works: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" "James and the Giant Peach" "Kiss, Kiss" "Matilda" "Matilda the Musical" "Someone Like You"

  2. Roald Dahl

    Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander.

  3. Roald Dahl

    (1916-1990) Who Was Roald Dahl? Roald Dahl was a British author who penned 19 children's books over his decades-long writing career. In 1953 he published the best-selling story collection...

  4. Biography of Roald Dahl, British Novelist

    Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916-November 23, 1990) was a British writer. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he became a world-famous author, particularly due to his best-selling books for children. Fast Facts: Roald Dahl Known For: English author of children's novels and adult short stories

  5. Roald Dahl Biography

    Roald Dahl - (13 September 1916 - 23 November 1990) was a best selling British children's author and a flying ace in the Second World War. Short Bio Roald Dahl Roald Dahl was born in 1916, Cardiff to Norwegian parents. At a young age, his father passed away, and Roald was sent to boarding schools in England.

  6. Roald Dahl Biography, Works, and Quotes

    Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian immigrants Harald and Sofie Dahl. He grew up speaking Norwegian at home with his parents and sisters. When Dahl was three years old, he lost his older sister Astri to appendicitis, and then weeks later his father died of pneumonia.

  7. Roald Dahl

    He was born in Wales in 13th September 1916. Before writing he also served in the Air Force and fought in the World War two. He was a flying ace and also an intelligence agent. Known as one of the greatest storytellers for children, he was in the list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.

  8. Roald Dahl: The Story Of The 'Storyteller'

    Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl. By Donald Sturrock. Hardcover, 672 pages. Simon & Schuster. List price: $30. Read An Excerpt. Roald Dahl is best known for his children's ...

  9. Roald Dahl: A Biography

    Roald Dahl: A Biography Jeremy Treglown Open Road Media, Jun 28, 2016 - Biography & Autobiography - 322 pages A New York Times Notable Book: A revealing look at the famous twentieth-century...

  10. The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl

    The life of Roald Dahl, who brought us hair toffee and the Chocolate River — and lived with pain and tragedy. ... Sturrock's new biography, which comes 20 years after Dahl's death and ...

  11. Roald Dahl : a biography : Treglown, Jeremy, author : Free Download

    Roald Dahl explores this master of children's literature from childhood--focusing a tight lens on the relationship between Dahl and his mother, who lovingly referred to him as "Apple"--Through to his death.

  12. Biography of Roald Dahl: Author, Short Story Writer and Poet

    Roald Dahl was born to Harald and Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg on 13 September 1916 in Llandaff, Cardiff, South Wales. Roald Dahl was born in a big house named "Villa Marie." He had four sisters: Astri, Alfhild, Else, and Asta. He also had a half-sister, Ellen Marguerite, and a half-brother, Louis, from his father's first marriage.

  13. A Rosier View of Roald Dahl

    A Rosier View of Roald Dahl. "Teller of the Unexpected," an elegant new biography, sidesteps the ugly side of the children's book author while capturing his grandiose, tragedy-specked life ...

  14. Roald Dahl: A Biography by Jeremy Treglown

    Roald Dahl: A Biography by Jeremy Treglown | Goodreads Jump to ratings and reviews Want to read Kindle $11.99 Rate this book Roald Dahl: A Biography Jeremy Treglown 3.68 361 ratings45 reviews The first full-length biography of the successful and controversial author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

  15. About Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. His first moment of inspiration came when he was at boarding school, when a local chocolate factory invited pupils to trial new chocolate bars - 35 years later, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published.

  16. Roald Dahl: A Biography Kindle Edition

    Hardcover. $15.17 48 Used from $1.35 2 New from $12.61 5 Collectible from $12.00. A New York Times Notable Book: A revealing look at the famous twentieth-century children's author who brought us The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Few writers have had the enduring cultural influence of Roald Dahl, who inspired generations of loyal ...

  17. Roald Dahl is as troubling as he is beloved. Can't he be both?

    A new biography, "Road Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected," reminds us how complicated. ... Born in 1916, Roald Dahl — named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen — was only 3 when his Norwegian ...

  18. Roald Dahl bibliography

    Roald Dahl bibliography. Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was a British author and scriptwriter, [1] and "the most popular writer of children's books since Enid Blyton ", according to Philip Howard, the literary editor of The Times. [2] He was raised by his Norwegian mother, who took him on annual trips to Norway, where she told him the stories of ...

  19. Roald Dahl: A Biography

    As Jeremy Treglown in his very well done Roald Dahl A Biography shows us Dahl, at six foot five, was a larger than life figure. He served with served with great valor as a fighter pilot in W W Two, being awarded the Distinquished Flying Cross. He began to write short stories based on his experiences.

  20. Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography

    A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice From one of our finest literary biographers comes a brilliant biography of Roald Dahl: the much-loved author and creator of countless iconic literary characters. Roald Dahl was one of the world's greatest storytellers. He conceived his vocation as as that of any fearless explorer and, in his writing for children, he was able to tap into a child's ...

  21. Roald Dahl Was a WW II Spy and Fighter Pilot Before ...

    Roald Dahl Was a WW II Spy and Fighter Pilot Before Becoming a Beloved Children's Book Author Prior to writing 'James and the Giant Peach,' 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda,' and...

  22. Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography

    3.41. 141 ratings29 reviews. A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceFrom one of our finest literary biographers comes a brilliant biography of Roald the much-loved author and creator of countless iconic literary characters.Roald Dahl was one of the world's greatest storytellers. He conceived his vocation as as that of any fearless ...

  23. Roald Dahl: A Biography by Treglown, Jeremy

    4.0 80 ratings See all formats and editions A biography of one of the world's most popular authors discusses his youth, his early life as a wartime propagandist, his tormented marriage to actress Patricia Neal, his writing, and more Report an issue with this product or seller Print length 322 pages Language English Publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux

  24. Willy Wonka: The Controversial Truth Behind the Oompa Loompas

    In the first edition of Dahl's novel, Oompa Loompas were Black pygmies Willy Wonka imported from "the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle," according to Jeremy Treglown's Roald Dahl: A Biography. In 1970, the NAACP issued a statement expressing concerns about the racist portrayal of the Oompa Loompas in light of the then-upcoming film.

  25. Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl's 'James and the Giant Peach' read by Bella Ramsey. Roald Dahl was a master at creating all sorts of characters, which is demonstrated in this reading where we are introduced to seven ...