Author profile: Roald Dahl

At a glanceAuthor profile: Roald Dahl● Teaching issue. Why Roald Dahl issuch a good subject for a LiteracyHour author profile● Word and sentence level. Dahl’sextraordinary use of language providesa rich and inventive setting forlanguage work● Fiction. Dahl’s stories contain allthe ingredients for modern dayfairytales● Non-fiction. Thepotent mixture of reallife and fiction

Book reviews● Favourite titles.Children from LydneyChurch of EnglandSchool, Gloucestershire,review their favouriteRoald Dahl books

Literacy Hourresources● New resources forliteracy teaching

Written by● Anne Faundez

Literacy consultant● Pie Corbett

Roald Dahl’s letter to hismother, written from his

boarding school when hewas nine years old.

Teaching issue

Authorprofile:Roald Dahl

Favourite authorRoald Dahl is, without doubt, mostchildren’s favourite author. Innumerous sur veys into children’sreading habits, his titles top thepolls as the best-loved and mostwidely read stories. Dahl’s rich andvaried work encompasses picturebooks, storybooks, poetry andautobiography - and some of hisbooks have also been adapted forthe cinema and theatre .

What is Dahl’s appeal?His stories entertain, offering afreshness and excitement hard tomatch. They are characterized by afast narrative drive and a flair forlanguage . He catches readers fromthe first sentence, holding theirattention to the very end. He tapsinto children’s imagination and seesthe world as children do - from aperspective which is self-contained,subjective and unambiguous in thedelineation of right and wrong. Hisplots are focused, stripped toessentials, his characters largerthan life and his descriptions

Roald Dahl’s incredible popularity, his rich and varied writing

and his unerring abil ity to see the world as children do, all

make him an ideal subject for a Literacy Hour author study

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powerful - and his superbstorytelling is complemented, forthe most par t, by Quentin Blake’sexuberant illustrations.

F ic t ionDahl’s stories are modern-day fairytales. His universe is one ofmagical happenings, peopled bycharacters who are obviously goodor obviously bad. This polarizationof characters is r einforced bydetailed descriptions, usually oftheir physical attributes. Hischaracters do not mature orexperience a spiritual crisisthrough the development of theplot. On the contrar y, their actionsand responses to each othertrigger the events. Tr y using Dahl’scharacterization as a model forchildr en to write their owncharacter sketches, focusing ondetails which evoke instantsympathy or dislike.

P l o t sThe plots in Dahl’s stories arestraightforward and linear,culminating in satisfying,

unambiguous endings in whichthe ‘baddies’ get their come-uppance. They provideample opportunities for

exploring essentialingredients of narrative -

from introduction to build-up to conflict and conflictresolution. Key incidents

are easily recognizable andcan be charted through the

use of simple storyboards.

V iewpo in tThe viewpoint iscrucial to the waywe interpret the text

- which means that astory can be read in

different ways, dependingon who is telling it.

Author profile

● Range of writing● Fast narrative drive● Rich, inventive language● Humorous writing● Larger-than-lifecharacters● Straightforward plots● Detailed descriptions● Modern-day fairy stories

Dahl’s ability to see theworld as children do.

‘Matilda and Lavender saw the giant in greenbreeches advancing upon a girl of about tenwho had a pair of plaited golden pigtailshanging over her shoulders.’

Why Roald Dahl makessuch an ideal subject foran author study:

Danny the Champion of the Worldis told by Danny in the firstperson narrative so that the readerempathizes with Danny and seesthings from his perspective . A thirdperson narrative usuall y offers aneutral standpoint - providing anoverview of all the characters andevents. However in Dahl’s stories,his third person narratives areoften more complex. He breaksthem down with another,anonymous voice - whose functionis to disrupt the smooth unfoldingof events and make the reader seethings from a definite slant. Usingasides and running commentary,the anonymous nar rator introducesbeliefs, opinions, likes and dislikeswhich colour our view of the story.Encourage children to try toidentify who is telling the story andto examine how this affects theway they see the characters. Intheir own writing, they can explorepoint of view by retelling a storyfrom another character’sstandpoint .

Comparing storiesIn Dahl’s stories, the maincharacters are often children fromone-parent families like Danny ororphans as is James in James andthe Giant Peach, Sophie in The BFGand the narrator in The Witches.The child symbolizes innocenceand a force f or good, and is pittedagainst adults who embodynegative forces - of evil, brutality,stupidity or simply incompetence.

Recurring themesNight-time, especially the aspectof moonlight, is an importantelement in the books. Moonlightplays havoc with our senses andinfuses the landscape with fluidityand soft shapes. It heralds a worldof magic and dreams and is theperfect fantasy setting. It is inthe moonlight that Sophie firstlays eyes on the BFG while themain events of Danny theChampion of the World takeplace at night under the spell ofthe moon.

PoetryDahl’s poetry is rich in rhyme,rhythm and humour. Dirty Beastsand Revolting Rhymes willencourage children to seek outpoetry. It will also help them todevelop listening and oral skills.Sounds and word patterns arealmost as important as the contentof Dahl’s poems. Enjoyment oftencomes from his fusion ofincongruous, disparate andunexpected images. Use the fairytale characters in Revolting Rhymesas models to trigger children’s ownalternative poems.

WitHumour permeates all of Dahl’swork and takes different forms. Anunexpected turn of events,exaggeration, absurd behaviour,wordplay, nonsense words, thegrotesque and dark humour arejust some of the ways by whichDahl holds his young audience.

Non-f ict ionDahl’s account of his childhood isset out in his autobiography, Boy.The events and situations which hedescribes here are the basis forthemes which he develops in hisfiction - punishment at the handsof grown-ups, a fascination with

sweets and confectionery anda burgeoning love of nature,fully developed in later years inMy Year. His own strong,individualist personality, anintegral part of all of his maincharacters, is rooted in personalexperiences of growing up in aworld dominated and frustratedby adult values.

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Dahl’s characters carrythe plot by their actions.

‘Mr Fox crept up the dark tunnel to the mouthof his hole. He poked his long handsome faceout into the night air and sniffed once.’

Moonlight is an importantelement in Dahl’s stories.

‘The wood was murky and verystill. Somewhere in the sky themoon was shining.’

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Word Level

Authorprofile:Roald Dahl

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Feel for languageRoald Dahl delights in the soundsand music of words, their meaningand rhyme. He enriches his fictionwith a whole vocabulary ofinvented words - gobblefunk,uckyslush , lickswishy - whosemeanings derive from theirsounds. His prose sizzles withwordplay, giving his language afreshness, spontaneity and vigour.His non-fiction writing, especiallyin My Year , is lyrical, fluid andpr ecise, with simple descriptionsof the nature he so loved. Therichness of both his fiction andnon-fiction makes them perfect forreading aloud.

WordplayHumour in Dahl’s w ork derivesfrom his obvious relish for words.Dahl uses language to createhumour, often playing havoc withour sense of logic and order. Hisfiction is brimming withspoonerisms - transposing theinitial letters or syllables of two ormor e words, malapropisms - usinga word in mistake for one soundingsimilar, and deliberate misspellings.

The BFG, one of the wittiestchildren’s books ever written,exemplifies Dahl’s extraordinaryzest for language. The BFG has hadlittle education, he claims. Besides,he lives in a world of his own andmodels language to his ownpurpose. His hearing is acute andso, naturally, his understanding oflanguage is phonic-based topr oduce words such as langwitchand vegitibbles . Some words andphrases become muddled - amixtur e of spoonerisms andmalapr opisms: curdbloodingling,skin and groans , catasterousdisastrophe , squeakpips , elefuntand squarreling. His explanationsoften culminate in Am I right or left?

Onomatopoe i aDahl’s sensitivity to the richness oflanguage is most obvious in his useof onomatopoeia - the formation ofwords by imitating sounds.Prevalent in all his work, it is at itsmost creative in the character ofthe BFG, who constructs a wholenew language from sound-words.

Roald Dahl has an extraordinary and inventive way with

language. In his hands it sparkles with wit and assumes a

l i fe of its own - open to endless possibil it ies of meaning

Dahl’s relish for words andwordplay and zest for language.

‘The Enormous Crocodile laughed so much his teethrattled together like pennies in a moneybox...Veryquickly, the crocodile reached up and snapped hisjaws at the Roly-Poly Bird.’

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He sorts the dreams he collectsinto good and bad - soft, sonorouswords denote the good dreams,consonant-heavy, stressed vowelsand lumbering sounds describe thenightmares - trogglehumpers,bogthumpers and grobswitchers asopposed to the melodiouswinksquiffers and phizzwizards. InCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,Loompaland, the original home ofthe Oompa-Loompas who work inWilly Wonka’s factor y, is infestedwith dangerous beasts includinghornswogglers , snozzwangersand whangdoodles .

Similes and metaphorsSimiles, comparing one thing withanother using the words ‘like’ and‘as’, and metaphors, where onething is another, abound in Dahl’swriting. He uses them to colour hisdescriptions of characters,bringing them vividly to life likethe Bloodbottler in The BFG, whohas two purple frankfurter lips, orthe BFG whose toes are as big asbumplehammers. Aunt Sponge inJames and the Giant Peach is likea great white soggy overboiledcabbage. Grandma in George’sMarvellous Medicine has a smallpuckered up mouth like a dog’sbottom. The BFG calls Sophiequacky as a duckhound and asksher to be still as a starfish .Comparisons, too, are vivid;twilight shadows, the setting forDanny the Champion of theWorld, are darker than awolf’s mouth.

Al l i terat ionAlliteration, having the same letteror sound at the beginning ofseveral words, adds spice to a textand heightens comic effect.Muggle-Wump refers to the Twitsas two fearful frumptious freakswhile Miss Trunchbull addressesMatilda as you clotted carbuncle.The BFG describes himself asbrimful of buzzburgers while thewicked giants regard him as ashrivelly little shrimp! Mucky littlemidget! Squaggy little squib!Grobby little grub!.

Puns and nonsense words‘Humans beans from Wales istasting whooshey of fish’ the BFGdeclares in the first of many punsbased on different word meanings(homonyms) and spellings(homophones). Nonsense wordscombine into meaningfulsentences - ‘You must be cockles tobe guzzling such rubbsquash’booms the Bloodbottler, referringto the BFG’s favourite vegetable,the snozzcumber. Place andcharacter names are richlysymbolic, carrying humour andmeaning even further. Propernouns conjure an instant image -Crunchem Hall primary school, MrWormwood, Mr Kranky, theTwits, Miss Trunchbull,

aunts Spiker and Sponge - notforgetting the dim-witted farmingtrio Boggis, Bunce and Bean and,of course, the mellifluous, gentleMiss Honey.

PoetryDahl’s poetr y is humorously writtenfrom a child’s perspective and isstrongly rhythmic with simplerhyming patterns. Both RevoltingRhymes and Dirty Beasts haveclear, energetic rhyming patternsand strong, catchy rhythms.Rhythm and rhyme encouragechildren to play with sounds - andhelp instil a love of language andits possibilities. Introducingchildren to Dahl’s poetry willprovide enormous pleasure whilehelping them to develop their ownlanguage and thinking skills andto choose words and phrasingwith care.

Rhyming coupletsDahl’s poetry is based on rhymingcouplets, that is a pattern of twosuccessive end-words that rhyme.The end-words often consist ofonly one syllable - feel/meal, hat/that, fell/well. Rhyming couplets,based as they are on wordexpectation, add further humour to

his light-hearted subjects.

Dahl’s ability to construct a wholenew language from sound-words.

‘When all the other giants is galloping off every what way andwhich to swollop human beans, I is scuddling away to otherplaces to blow dreams into the bedrooms of sleeping children.’

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Authorprofile:Roald Dahl

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deprivation like Sophie in The BFG ,or poverty like Charlie in Charlieand the Chocolate Factory, embodygoodness. Those who hold powerbut abuse it, like Mr Wormwoodand Miss Trunchbull, or who use itto bully or subjugate thedefenceless, like the Gregg familyin The Magic Finger, are whole-heartedl y bad. To adults, Dannyand his father may seem outsidethe law and therefore ‘bad’: tochildr en they embody the principleof fair play, especially when pittedagainst the obnoxious and flashilyrich brewer, Mr Hazell.

J u s t i c eUpholding the fairy tale tradition,evil is always punished. Punishmentfeeds into a child’s sense of justice ,of what is right and wrong, andfrom this perspective it is anessential ingredient. Revenge , too ,is both sweet and necessary.

To fully appreciate the richness and complexity of Dahl’s

stories, they should be placed firmly within the fairy tale

tradition - of magic, good and evil , punishment and revenge

Dahl’s stories are modern-dayfairy tales.

‘A great round ball as big as a house hadbeen sighted hovering high up in the skyover the very centre of Manhattan.’

Fairy tale genreTaken at face value , as descriptionsof reality, Dahl’s stories may appearoutrageous, dark, cruel andamoral. Situated within the fairytale tradition - of psychologicalhappenings, eternal truths and thestruggle of good over evil - theybecome powerful, optimistic,believable and moral. Ingredientsessential to the fairy tale genre -magic, fantasy characters, wish-fulfilment, punishment, revengeand a happy ending - are all to befound in Dahl’s fiction.

Dahl’s worldIn true fairy tale tradition, Dahldemands that his readers suspendbelief the very moment they enterhis world. Reality is topsy-turvy.Unusual and improbable events arepresented as ordinary, ever ydayhappenings which could beexperienced by anyone at any time.

Good and evilThere is a strong delineation ofgood and bad in Dahl’s work, andhis characters are stronglypolarized. What interests him is thejuxtaposition of opposing forces.Each good person is balanced by

an evil character. Spiritualgrowth and the attainment of

self-knowledge have noplace in his work.

Those who arepowerless ordeprived in

some way, suffering famil y

Dahl demands that his readerssuspend belief from the momentthey enter his world.

‘Every one of these ‘‘creatures’’ was at leastas big as James himself, and in the strangegreenish light that shone down fromsomewhere in the ceiling, they wereabsolutely terrifying to behold.’

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M a g i cMany of Dahl’s characters areendowed with supernaturalpowers. The girl narrator in TheMagic Finger has the ability totransform the Gregg family intobirds. Her extraordinar y talent istriggered by a red hot tinglingfeeling which concentrates in thetip of her finger. Matilda canconjure a feeling of hotness whichgathers in her brain, allowing hermind to shift objects at will. Spellsare also cast by the mixing ofingredients. In George’s MarvellousMedicine, George stirs a concoction

of snails and lizards, shaving soapand shampoo into a powerfulpotion which stretches his grannybefore shrinking her to nothing.The Grand High Witch relies on abrew to turn the boy narrator intoa mouse in The Witches, while astrange, little old man offers Jamesa bagful of magic in James and theGiant Peach. The BFG mixes magicpowders, arranging them intodreams and nightmares - the gooddreams to be blown into children’sears at night, the nightmaresexploded into nothing.

Fantasy charactersDahl’s fictitious world abounds ingiants, wizards, witches andfantastical creatur es. In TheWitches, the gruesome gang aresymbols of dark, ir rational forcesout to change the world to favourtheir evil purpose. They mayappear ordinary but, as theanonymous voice warns, in realitythey are bent on destruction. TheBFG is the least threatening of thegiants. The Bloodbottler, theFleshlumpeater, the Meatdripper, astheir names suggest, prey onhuman beings, especially chiddlers .Willy Wonka, from Charlie and theChocolate Factory, epitomizes themodern-day wizard. In James andthe Giant Peach, James’ fate isdetermined by the grotesquelyoversized minibeasts.

Magic wishesWish-fulfilment is essential to manyof Dahl’s stories and provides hischaracters with the means torealize their dreams. A wish maytake the form of personal, materialenhancement - such as Charlie’sdreams coming true - or ofvendettas against the adult world,as in The Magic Finger .

Happy endingIn all of Dahl’s books, theprotagonist endures a series ofordeals but comes throughunscathed. The just are rewarded -saved by their wits, as is Matilda,or by external circumstances, as isJames, in his extraordinaryadventure. The happy endingdemands the punishment of thebad - and Dahl revels in descriptionsof the punishments he hands out.

HeroesDahl’s heroes are alwaysunambiguously good. His boyheroes are usually passive, prey toexternal forces which propel theminto adventure. His girl heroes,Matilda and the little girl in TheMagic Finger, are active and thecatalysts for the unfolding ofevents .

Dahl presents unusual andimprobable events as ordinary.

‘They all peered down anxiously at the sharks whowere cruising slowly round and round the peach.’

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Authorprofile:Roald Dahl

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An autobiography is more likely to beselective as the author dips into memorieswhich have fluctuated with time. Thebiographer is more likely to adopt adetached tone while the autobiographer,intent on drawing the reader in, uses awarm and direct voice. In biography, thenarrative voice is the third person and inautobiography, the first person.

Dahl’s autobiographyIn his autobiography, Boy, Dahltraces the formative years of hislife, beginning with his parents andhis primary and secondary schoollife and ending with the excitementof his first job and the beginningsof adulthood. In these pages wecan trace the incidents andpreoccupations which Dahl laterreworked into his fiction. Hisdelight in the sweet shop and inchocolate bars, his fascination withflying, his interest in nature and hisbrush with bullying and corporalpunishment are just some of thepersonal experiences which stayedwith him and which he wove intohis stories.

Roald Dahl’s autobiography focuses on his early l i fe and gives

an intriguing insight into the ideas, experiences, people and

themes that came to dominate his stories and poems

Biography and autobiographyBiography and autobiographyprovide factual information about aperson’s life. They are bothexamples of recount writing. Arecounted text includes details ofwho, what, why, where , when andhow. In a r ecount, key events areset in chronological order and thetext is usually written in the simplepast tense.

S im i l a r i t i e sBoth biography and autobiographystart from the premise that thesubject is worth writing about. Inboth cases, the title usually offersclues about the content. ChrisPowling’s excellent biography issimply called Roald Dahl whileDahl’s own account of hischildhood is Boy. The illustrativematerial in both biography andautobiography consists ofphotographs, letters, maps andother reference material whichrelates directly to the subject.Setting is entirely at the mercy ofwhat is being narrated. It can beomitted altogether, or expanded,depending on the point which isbeing made in regard to the centralcharacter. Characters have adefinite function - to throw light onthe events and behaviour of thecentral person - and can beintroduced and dismissed at whim.

D i f f e rencesA biography aims totake an objectivestance and to beaccurate and truthfulabout its subject. It isbased on knowledge ofand, often, discussionwith the person beingwritten about. It takesa well-roundedapproach and is morelikely to be critical.

Above right: Quentin Blake’s

drawing of himself with

Roald Dahl.

Below: Dahl working at home

with Quentin Blake.

▲next page: book reviews

Biography

Read Dahl’s autobiography, Boy and then use our

biography to compare some of the aspects of his life.

Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff in 1916. His parents wereNorwegian but were living in Britain because his father

was a shipbroker. He had one brother and four sisters andwhen he was seven years old, he went to Llandaff CathedralSchool. Two years later he became a boarder at St Peter’sSchool in Weston-super-Mare - and then at 13 he moved toRepton School, in Derbyshire.

Roald Dahl was not interested in going to university. Hewanted to travel and so joined the Shell Oil Company withthe ambition of becoming part of their foreign staff. In 1938he got his wish to go abroad - the company sent him toMombasa, in Kenya, where he sold oil to the owners ofdiamond mines and sisal plantations.

In 1939, when World War II broke out, hejoined the RAF in Nairobi andlearned to fly aircraft. He was sent toCairo, then ordered to go into theLibyan desert, ready for action.

It was here that his plane crashed,leaving him with spinal injuries fromwhich he was to suffer all his life.After convalescence in an Alexandriahospital, he rejoined his squadron andsaw action in Greece, Crete, Palestineand the Lebanon.

In 1942, after a short stay in England,he was posted to Washington as anassistant air attaché at the BritishEmbassy.

There he met the author CS Forresterwho was instrumental in getting Dahl’sfirst short story, The Gremlins, published.The book attracted the attention of WaltDisney, who soon invited him toHollywood to write the script for the filmversion.

In 1952, Dahl met actress Patricia Neal.They were married in the following yearand returned to England to live at GipsyHouse in the village of Great Missenden,Buckinghamshire. He lived there for therest of his life.

Dahl and his wife had five children - Olivia, Tessa, Theo,Ophelia and Lucy. But between 1960-65 tragedy struck theDahl family. Baby Theo was brain-damaged in a trafficaccident, Olivia died from a complication of measles and thenPatricia suffered a stroke. It was during these years that Jamesand the Giant Peach (1961) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(1964) were published.

In the late 1970s Dahl met Quentin Blake, who was toillustrate his latest story, The Enormous Crocodile. Thiscollaboration marked the beginning of a flourishingpartnership.

In 1983 he won the Children’s Book Award for The BFGand the Whitbread Award for The Witches. He won theChildren’s Book Award again in 1989 with Matilda. In1983 Patricia Neal and Dahl divorced. Later that year,Dahl married Felicity D’Abreu, with whom he was toremain for the rest of his life.

Roald Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74.

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