| # | Fact |
|---|
| 1 | On a table near to his right hand, when he was sitting in his chair in his writing shed, he had collected all sorts of memorabilia; various things sent to him by fans or schoolchildren, a ball of silver paper from bars of chocolate which he had collected over the years since he was a young man and a part of his own hip bone that had been removed from him. |
| 2 | The unauthorized biography of Dahl by Jeremy Treglown was extremely unfavorable to him, claiming that he was a snob, very selfish and rude, a serial adulterer during his marriage to Patricia Neal, ungrateful and a virulent anti-Semite. His penchant for extra-marital affairs was confirmed by Neal in a television interview after his death, but his children defended him against the majority of Treglown's charges, and he had another champion (with reservations) in Dirk Bogarde, who played him in a TV movie and reviewed Treglown's book unfavorably in the London "Daily Telegraph" (concluding famously with the words, "He wasn't really such a shit, you know"). |
| 3 | During the last year of his life he compiled a book of anecdotes and recipes with his wife Liccy Dahl under his regular publisher Penguin in 1996 as his Cookbook. |
| 4 | "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" has never been made into a film; he refused to sell the rights after his profound disappointment with Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). "The Magic Finger" has never been made into a film either, or "George's Marvellous Medicine", but a film of "The Twits" is, as of this writing, in production. |
| 5 | His short story "Only This: may have inspired the climax of the Steven Spielberg film Always (1989), in which Pete's spirit guides Durinda to land a plane while in the cockpit with her. |
| 6 | He wrote for adults, too. |
| 7 | His TV series Tales of the Unexpected (1979) dramatized a selection of his short stories. |
| 8 | "The Witches" won the 1983 Whitbread Award. |
| 9 | His stories are highly acclaimed and widely translated and have become worldwide bestsellers. One of the most successful and well known of all children's writers, his books are read by children everywhere. |
| 10 | He has written two autobiographies, "Boy" and "Going Solo". |
| 11 | He lost the use of his eyes during World War II but regained his sight in recovery. |
| 12 | Dahl was badly wounded in Libya during World War II, but he served in the RAF in Greece and Syria. His book Over to You draws on those experiences and friends and colleagues to convey the bizarre reality of a pilot's existence and the daily possibility of death. |
| 13 | The Times described Dahl as "one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation" and wrote in its obituary, "children loved his stories and made him their favorite . . . they will be classics of the future". |
| 14 | His novel "My Uncle Oswald" was much praised and edited his Book of Ghost Stories. |
| 15 | At the start of World War II, Dahl enlisted in the RAF at Nairobi. Kenya. He was severely wounded after joining a fighter squadron in Libya, but later saw service as a fighter pilot in Greece and Syria. In 1942 he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attaché, where he started to write, and then transferred to Intelligence, ending the war as a wing commander. His first 12 short stories, based on his wartime experiences, were originally published in leading American magazines and then as a book, "Over to You", which draws on those experiences and friends and colleagues to convey the bizarre reality of a pilot's existence and the daily possibility of death. |
| 16 | His WWII novel "Over to You" was published in a magazine in 1946 and then as a book in 1973. The stories in "Over to You" were published in "The Saturday Evening Post", "Tomorrow", "Harper's Magazine", "Ladies' Home Journal" and "Town and Country". "Over to You" doesn't refer to anyone in particular, the pilots are not the names of people he knew, and when Dahl says "I" that doesn't mean he's talking about himself. The book was based on his wartime experiences, and he speaks with some respect for the German pilots in the book. |
| 17 | Fellow author Neil Gaiman has been likened to a Dahl for his generation, because they both wrote dark fantasies as if they were true, and they shared the ability to remind a reader of what it was like to be a child. |
| 18 | His parents were Norwegian, but he was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan, in 1916 and educated at Repton School. |
| 19 | Was portrayed by Dirk Bogarde in the made-for-TV movie The Patricia Neal Story (1981). |
| 20 | Had an interest in photography and often carried a camera around with him. |
| 21 | Was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report, "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended". |
| 22 | Died three months after The Witches (1990), based on his book, was released. |
| 23 | His short story "Beware Of The Dog" is officially the basis for the film 36 Hours (1964), although the plot is much altered and extended. According to one of the biographies of Dahl, the film was written without reference to him or his story, and it was only after the leading female role in the film was offered to his then wife Patricia Neal that he learned of the film at all. The similarity between the script and his original plot was obvious, and, with a great deal of money already invested, MGM was in no mood to be sued by Dahl for plagiarism. It quickly agreed to pay him a large sum of money for the film rights to his short story and gave him appropriate credit (Eva Marie Saint took the female lead in the film). |
| 24 | Honored by a set of British commemorative postage stamps issued 10 January 2012. The stamps feature illustrations by Quentin Blake, which were originally used in the following children's books by Dahl: "Fantastic Mr. Fox", "The Twits", "The Witches", "James and the Giant Peach", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Matilda", and "The BFG". |
| 25 | Enjoyed betting on horse races, even though he usually lost. |
| 26 | Had a bad back, which caused him to become ill-tempered. |
| 27 | Loved to eat chocolate, and admitted that he ate too much of it. |
| 28 | In the company of adults, he became bored quite quickly. |
| 29 | Enjoyed drinking both whiskey and wine in the evenings. |
| 30 | He fathered five children, four daughters and one son with first wife, Patricia Neal: Olivia Twenty Dahl was born on Wednesday, April 20, 1955, and she died from measles on Saturday, November 17, 1962. His second daughter was born on Thursday, April 11, 1957, named Tessa Dahl. His only son was the third of five, Theo Matthew Roald Dahl was born on Saturday, July 30, 1960, aka Theo Dahl. Third daughter, Ophelia Magdalena Dahl, was born on Tuesday, May 12, 1964, aka Ophelia Dahl, and Lucy Neal Dahl was born on Wednesday, August 4, 1965, aka Lucy Dahl. |
| 31 | When his first wife, Patricia Neal, started suffering a series of devastating strokes in 1965, he was appalled at the lack of effective rehabilitation. He subsequently designed techniques that restored her to full functionality after doctors had told him she would never recover. His techniques are now standard procedure throughout the world in the treatment of stroke victims. |
| 32 | His only son, Theo Dahl, suffered a brain injury when his baby carriage was struck by a taxi when the boy was just four months old. The most serious of his injuries was hydrocephalus (commonly known as water on the brain). Dahl got together with a pair of friends--a neurosurgeon and an engineer--and created a device called the Wade-Dahl-Till valve to alleviate cranial pressure. Theo recovered before the device was perfected, but it allowed thousands of others suffering from hydrocephalus to recover from their injuries. His book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is dedicated to Theo, who almost died. |
| 33 | He strongly disliked Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), which was based upon his children's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". He felt it made the story world, which he had created, too peaceful, to his personality. |
| 34 | Flew Hawker Hurricanes in 80 Squadron in WWII. |
| 35 | In one of Dahl's short stories, "Beware of the Dog," a fighter pilot is shot down during wartime and loses one of his legs. He recovers in a hospital only to discover that he is in Nazi-occupied France. Although the story is based on Dahl's WWII experiences, it is not entirely autobiographical; Dahl did crash his plane, but did not lose a leg or become a prisoner of war. |
| 36 | Wrote two screenplays based on books by Ian Fleming: You Only Live Twice (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Coincidentally, Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, appears in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), based on Dahl's book. He also appears in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), which is named after a word Dahl coined. |
| 37 | He replaced Richard Maibaum as screenwriter for You Only Live Twice (1967) at the last minute. Maibaum returned to the chair in 1969. |
| 38 | He allegedly declined to receive an O.B.E. (Officer of the order of the British Empire) in 1986. |
| 39 | Wrote his novels in his garden shed. |
| 40 | Daughter, Olivia, died of the measles at age 7. |
| 41 | Father died of pneumonia when Roald was 3. |
| 42 | Nearly lost his nose in a car accident. |
| 43 | The Helga (Luke's grandmother) character in "The Witches" was based on his own Norwegian grandmother, who he said was a tough and fearless woman. |
| 44 | Credited with coining the term "Gremlin" during the Second World War. These were little "creatures who lived inside fighter plane engines, causing them to stall at the worst possible time. |
| 45 | Grandfather of British model Sophie Dahl and Chloe Dahl. |
| 46 | Parents were Norwegian |
$10 Million
