Roald Dahl

He married Patricia Neal, an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress, in 1953, at Trinity Church, New York City.

The couple had five children – daughter Olivia Twenty (1955), daughter Chantal Tessa (1957), son Theo Matthew (1960), daughter Ophelia Magdalena (1964) and daughter Lucy Neal (1965).

In 1960, his four-month old son, Theo, was severely injured when a taxi hit his baby carriage, leaving him with a brain injury called hydrocephalus. He recovered after undergoing a number of surgeries.

Roald Dahl was born on September 16, 1916 in Llandaff, Cardiff, South Wales, as the third of five children, to Norwegian emigrants Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl.

After his eldest sister Astri’s death, in 1920, followed by his father’s tragic death a few weeks later, his mother stayed back in Wales to get the kids educated at British schools as per Harald’s wish, instead of relocating back to Norway.

He went to The Cathedral School, Llandaff, but due to his mischievous nature, his mother sent him to British-boarding St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare, in 1925.

In 1929, he shifted to Repton School, Derbyshire, where he showed more interest in sports, excelling in football, squash and fives, apart from literature and photography.

After completing his schooling in 1934, he took a job in Shell Petroleum Company in Mombasa, Kenya, after two years of training in the UK. Subsequently, he was transferred to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

To accomplish his adventurous dreams, he entered Royal Air Force in 1939 as an aircraftsman. Upon completing his training in Nairobi, Kenya, he became an acting pilot officer.

During his term in the Mediterranean in 1940, his plane crashed in Fouka, Libya, injuring his spine and skull, crushing his nose and blinding him for days. He was operated for a hip replacement and underwent six spinal surgeries.

Following his treatment for months in the hospital, he was discharged fit in 1941 and resumed his flying duties in Athens, Greece. However, his recurring blinding headaches forced him to leave RAF and return to Britain.

In 1942, he went to Washington DC and became an assistant air attaché in the British Embassy, where he met novelist C.S. Forester and started his writing career with a short story for ‘The Saturday Evening Post’.

His second collection of short stories, ‘Someone Like You’, released in 1953, became a huge success.

In 1960, he developed a device called Wade-Dahl-Till (WDT) valve, which helped in treating thousands of children suffering from hydrocephalus, in reducing the cranial pressure.

His fourth book ‘Kiss Kiss’, a collection of short stories, was released in 1960 and became a bestseller on The New York Times list, with ‘Pig’ being its masterpiece.

Some of his best-selling children’s stories included ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘The Twits’, ‘Matilda’, ‘The Witches’, ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘The BFG’, ‘The Magic Finger’, and ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’.

His highly acclaimed short story and novel collection for adults included ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, ‘The Smoker’, ‘My Uncle Oswald’, ‘Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories’, and ‘The Landlady’.