Roald Dahl

Early Life. Famed children's author Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, South Wales, on September 13, Dahl's parents were Norwegian. When Dahl was 4 years old, his father died.

Roald Dahl The young Roald loved stories and books. His mother told Roald and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures.

 The young Dahl received his earliest education at Llandaff Cathedral School. Dahl later transferred to Repton, a private school with a reputation for academic excellence.

School  At school he was always homesick  He had to wear a horrible school uniform  Teachers were cruel and often caned the students  He describes the school beat-ups in his book

 Roald Dahl worked in East Africa  He lived in a jungle  He learned to speak Swahili  He suffered from malaria

 After training in Nairobi, Kenya, he became a World War II fighter pilot.  While serving in the Mediterranean, Dahl crash-landed in Alexandria, Egypt. The plane crash left him with serious injuries to his skull, spine and hip.

Personal Life  In 1953 Dahl married a film actress Patricia Neal, who won an Academy Award for her role in Hud in The marriage lasted for three decades and resulted in five children, one of whom tragically died in  The couple would eventually divorce in Soon after, Dahl remarried to Felicity Ann Crosland, his partner until his death in 1990.

Starting a career  Dahl started writing in the 1940s  He published his stories in several magazines  “Shot Down Over Libya” was his first story

Some of his works  In 1943, he published his first children's book "The Gremlins " with Walt Disney

The last years of his life were very happy and he wrote some of his best books during this period:

Roald Dahl died on 23rd November 1990 at the age of 74 of a rare blood disease.