R IS FOR READING AND THE ROYAL AIR FORCE.

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1 R IS FOR READING AND THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. Roald Dahl never read a book while flying a plane! But he did love reading adventure stories and he did join the RAF when he was twenty-three. O IS FOR OSLO the capital Norway, where Roald Dahl s father (and much of his family) came from. Roald s mother was from Norway too and Roald was born in Llandaff, Wales, in A IS FOR ADDICTED to chocolate! As a boy, Roald tasted chocolate for Cadbury s. He once said, If I were a headmaster I would get rid of the history teacher and get a chocolate teacher instead.

2 L IS FOR LANGUAGE. Whizzpopping, strawbunkles, natterbox, hippodumplings and the list of words Roald Dahl invented is endless! Nothing is un-impossible when it comes to making up words. D IS FOR DRAWINGS by Quentin Blakes (or Quent as Roald called him). Quentin s wonderful illustrations perfectly complemented Roald Dahl s stories. DIS FOR DREAM BLOWING. Roald would sometimes prop a ladder against his house, climb up and push a bamboo cane throughout his children s window, pretending to be the Big Friendly Giant.

3 AIS FOR ANARCHIC! Roal Dahl s stories have some really rotten characters that do the most disgusting things just wait until you meet the Grand High Witch and the gruesome Twits. Eugghh!!! H IS FOR HUT. Roald Dahl wrote many of his books in a white hut in the garden of his home, Gipsy House. The hut was built from bricks and had a yellow front door yellow was his favourite colour. L IS FOR LOVED by millions of children (and grown-ups!). Roald Dahl died in 1990 and his stories are still popular all over the world.

4 This is just the tiniest peek into Roald Dahl s world! Go to roalddahl.com now to find out more.

5 Roald Dahl DATES 1916 Roald Dahl was born on 13 September in Llandaff in Wales Roald was sent to boarding school St Peter s School in Weston-super-Mare Roald went to Repton, another boarding school. It was here that he helped to test new chocolate bars for Cadbury s. Favourites included Crunchie, KitKat, Mars and Smarties.

6 1934 Roald Dahl left school and went to work for Shell, the big oil company, because he wanted to travel to faraway places like Africa and China Shell sent him to east Africa. He hated the snakes! 1939 Roald Dahl joined the RAF at the start of the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot His plane crashed in the Western Desert, in north Africa, and he received severe injuries to his head, nose and back.

7 1942 Roald was sent to the USA to work in the British Embassy (and some say he was also a spy!). His first adult story was published and he wrote his first story for children, about mischievous creatures called Gremlins The Gremlins was published in the USA, Britain and Australia. It was Roald s first book Roald s book of spine-tingling stories for adults, Someone Like You, was published and was a huge success in the USA.

8 1961 James and the Giant Peach was published in the USA, followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in It was an instant hit with children James and Charlie were finally published in Britain and have become two of the most successful and popular children s books ever The first Charlie film was made as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Other films followed: The BFG and Danny the Champion of the World in 1989; The Witches in 1990; James and the Giant Peach and Matilda in 1996; the second Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, came out in 2005.

9 1978 Roald Dahl s partnership with Quentin Blake began with the publication of The Enormous Crocodile Roald Dahl died on 23 November, aged seventy-four.

10 2006 Roald Dahl Day is celebrated all over the world on 13 September to mark Roald Dahl s birthday. Visit roalddahl.com to join the fun! 2011 The phenomenal Matilda the Musical receives rave reviews and countless awards in London s West End theatres Casting begins for the musical production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

11 A day in the life of roald dahl Roald Dahl had a very strict daily routine. He would eat breakfast in bed and open his post. At 10:30 a.m. he would walk through the garden to his writing hut and work until

12 12 p.m. when he went back to the house for lunch typically, a gin and tonic followed by Norwegian prawns with mayonnaise and lettuce. At the end of every meal, Roald and his family had a chocolate bar chosen from a red plastic box. After a snooze, he would take a flask of tea back to the writing hut from 4 p.m. till 6 p.m. He would be back at the house at exactly six o clock, ready for his dinner. He always wrote in pencil and only

13 ever used a very particular kind of yellow pencil with a rubber on the end. Before he started writing, Roald made sure he had six sharpened pencils in a jar by his side. They lasted for two hours before needing to be re-sharpened. Roald was very particular about the kind of paper he used as well. He wrote all of his books on American yellow legal pads, which were sent to him from New York. He wrote and rewrote until he was sure that every single word was just right. A lot of yellow paper was thrown away. Once a month, when his large wastepaper basket was full to overflowing, he made a bonfire hut (where one of the white walls was soon streaked with black soot).

14 Once Roald had finished writing a book, he gave the pile of yellow scribbled paper to Wendy, his secretary, and she turned it into a neat printed manuscript to send to his publisher.

15 Wish you were here Easter Roald Dahl s father died when Roald was only three so his mother brought up him and his sisters on her own. Every Easter she rented a house in Tenby, Wales, and took the children there for a holiday. The house, called the Cabin, was right next to the sea. When the tide was in, the waves broke right up against the house s wall. Roald and his sisters used to collect winkles and eat on slices of bread and butter.

16 Summer Best of all were the summer holidays. From the time he was four years old to when he was seventeen, Roald and his family went to Norway every summer. There were no commercial aeroplanes in those days, so the journey was a splendid expedition. It took four days to get there, and four days to get back again! The sea crossing from

17 Newcastle to Oslo lasted two days and a night and Roald was generally seasick. Finally, they would reach what Roald Dahl called the magic island, the island of Tjome in a Norwegian fjord. The family would swim and sunbathe, and go fishing. When Roald was seven, his mother acquired a motor boat and they could explore other islands.

18 We would cling to the sides of our funny little white motor boat, driving through mountainous white-capped waves and getting drenched to the skin, while my mother calmly handled the tiller. There were times, I promise you, when the waves were so high that as we slid down into a trough the whole world disappeared from sight It requires great skill to handle a small boat in seas like these But my mother knew exactly how to do it, and we were never afraid.

19 Roald Dahl s writing hut

20 Roald Dahl wrote his books in a brick hut, which was built especially for him, on the edge of the orchard at Gipsy House. It was painted white with a yellow front door. His writing hut was full of gadgets: a chair with a hole cut out of the back (to prevent pressure on his damaged spine), a writing board of exactly the right thickness, tilted at exactly the right angle, and an old suitcase filled with logs for a footrest. His legs were tucked up in a green sleeping bag. He also rigged

21 up a rickety old electric fire on two parallel wires on the ceiling and would pull it towards him if his fingers got cold. Roald wouldn t allow anyone else inside the hut, so it was never cleaned or dusted! The only thing in the hut that was cleaned regularly was the writing board, which Roald Dahl had designed and made himself. It was covered in green felt and Roald used an old clothes brush to sweep off the bits of rubber from all his rubbings-out. He simply swept

22 them on to the floor and that was where they stayed! The contents of the writing hut were moved to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre on Great Missenden High Street in late 2011, as part of a painstaking conservation project, which took almost six months. This most private, creative space the birthplace of all Roald Dahl s wonderful children s stories became accessible to the public for the first time.

23 What Roald Dahl said I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else. If you re kind, that s it.

24 I am totally convinced that most grown-ups have completely forgotten what it is like to be a child between the age of five and ten I can remember exactly what it was like. I am certain I can. When I first thought about writing the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I never originally meant to have children in it at all!

25 If I had my way, I would remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead. You can write about anything for children as long as you ve got humour.

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