Roald Dahl was in born in 1916 to Norwegian parents, and was named after the explorer Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway at the time.
By 1925, both Roald's Father & Sister had both died from illness. Nevertheless, his mother was determined to keep the family in Britain rather than head back to Norway to stay with relatives.
Because the family still lived in Wales, Roald first attended Llandaff Cathedral School.
Throughout his pre to mid teens, Dahl had been sent to several boarding schools, St Peter's Preparatory school (Weston-super-Mare), and finally Repton (Derbyshire).
Cadbury, a chocolate company, would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils. It is said that this was Dahl's inspiration for him to write his third book for children, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Throughout his childhood and adolescent years he spent his summer holidays in his parents' native Norway. When Dahl turned 18, he got a job at 'Shell Petroleum', which following two years of training in the UK, sent him to other parts of the world including Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika.
In November 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force. Following six months of flying Hawker Harts he was made a Pilot Officer and assigned to a squadron in the RAF, flying Gloster Gladiators. He later saw service in Syria and then worked for military intelligence. He ended the war as a Wing Commander.
Dahl's first published work was in 1942, in an issue of the Saturday Evening Post, where he wrote about the story of a crash landing in the desert. He had ran out of fuel whilst trying to find an airstrip, due to being given the wrong co-ordinates.
In 1953, Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal. Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl had five children during their three decades together, but in 1965 Neal suffered a series of strokes while pregnant with the Dahl's youngest child, Lucy; Roald took personal control of her rehabilitation until she had relearned to talk and walk. The marriage ended when Neal discovered that he had been having an affair with her then-best friend, Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland, whom he married in 1983.
It was during the 30 years with Neal that Dahl wrote his famous children's stories, some of the more memorable ones being James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1967), Danny the Champion of the World (1975), The Twits (1980), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983) and Matilda (1988).
Many of these books were brought to life via film, the latest adaptation being Tim Burton's 2005 version of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring Johnny Depp.
Dahl's work was also the subject matter for the television serial 'Tales of the Unexpected' (another favourite of mine) which ran from 1979 to 1988. He also presented the show from 1979 to 1980, but took a back seat when most of the stories coming forward were based on the work of other writers.
Roald Dahl died of leukaemia on 23 November 1990 at the age of 74, not long after finishing his final story, 'The Vicar of Nibbleswicke'.
