HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROALD DAHL
Born on the 13th of September 1916 and named after an Arctic explorer Roald Dahl was one of the characters of 20th century life. He was Welsh since that's where he was born but his parents were Norwegian so Roald was Norwegian too.
He went to school in Britain but did not enjoy school life very much. oldpoetry.com/opoem/61675 . His school often received cases of chocolate from Cadbury's who were trying out new ideas. Roald's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka stemmed from his thoughts about this. Try a taste yourself, take a look at his Candy Man poem oldpoetry.com/opoem/61670 .
He did not go to University from school but, after a short break trekking in Newfoundland, he moved to East Africa when he started work for a petrol company. Whilst there he learned to speak Swahili and whilst living in the jungle contracted Malaria. At the outbreak of World War 2 he was one of only 15 Britons living in Dar-es-Salaam and was therefore immediately drafted and one of his first tasks was to round up all the German nationals to be interned. He then joined the RAF as a pilot and after only a few hours actual flying training was granted his "Wings" and went onto advanced flying training before being promoted to Pilot Officer. On an early mission he was given the wrong co-ordinates and found himself trying to touch down in no-man's-land between the opposing forces. He crashed and after dragging himself clear he passed out and he knew nothing more until he woke up in hospital the next day . . . blind. Fortunately his sight returned and only 5 months later he was pronounced fit enough to return to duties (despite doctor's early predictions that he would never fly again) and actually flew several combat missions and is credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft. After a while he began to get severe headaches as a result of his previous injuries. He was grounded and sent on medical leave but soon become air-attaché to Washington, USA. He ended the war as a Wing Commander.
If this sounds like a James Bond Story there's a further twist. He went on to write the screen play to You Only Live Twice one of the best of the Bond movies.
In 1943 Roald had written a children's book called "The Gremlins" for Walt Disney but unfortunately the promised film was never made.
Roald Dahl is probably best remembered as a writer of children's stories but he also wrote plays, shorts stories, children's tales and adult mysteries, poetry and screenplays, radio scripts and autobiographies. What's more he was successful in all those genres. Perhaps this describes his thoughts about writers such as himself? oldpoetry.com/opoem/61679 .
Most of his stories are a little macabre with exaggerated characters and plots. Dahl himself once said "I make my points by exaggerating wildly. That's the only way to get through to children". Here's how he tried to persuade them not to watch too much TV. oldpoetry.com/opoem/11627 .
Roald Dahl died of Leukaemia in 1990. The Times called him "one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation" but a better memorial might be oldpoetry.com/opoem/61668 .
oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Roald_Dahl
This is where you will find him on Oldpoetry
Adding your comment:
Nice column! He's one of my fav writers too. Pity he's not around anymore. Would've loved to meet him. 
. I've realy only taken notice recently as I've been checking out his books for an 8 year old and I;m enthralled with his children writing.
