V iew this resource and lots more in our Roald Dahl resource collection.ĭahl also wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. He returned to the RAF, but began to suffer from headaches which caused him to black out, meaning it was too dangerous for him to fly any longer. He was taken to a hospital in Egypt, where he slowly recovered. His plane was destroyed, and he suffered serious injuries to his head. Unfortunately, he crash-landed in the Western Desert of North Africa. In 1939, aged 23, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Kenya at the outbreak of the Second World War, and became a fighter pilot. The snake-catcher had to be called! He later said of his time in Africa, 'I loved it all.' One time, as recounted in his second autobiography titled, 'Going Solo', he was visiting a friend when a deadly poisonous green mamba slithered up the steps and into the house. During his time in Tanzania, Dahl saw many wild and dangerous animals, including lions, rhinos and hyenas, but it was the snakes that he feared the most. I want to go straight from school to work for a company that will send me to faraway wonderful places like Africa or China.'ĭahl’s first job with an oil company sent him to work first in Kenya, and then in Tanzania - both countries in the continent of Africa. When asked by his mother if he wanted to go to university, his reply was: 'No, thank you. One of the rare highlights of being a pupil here was when the boys were asked to sample and rate new chocolate bars for Cadbury! Overall, however, Dahl did not enjoy his school days, calling them 'days of horror' that were filled with 'rules, rules and still more rules that had to be obeyed.' Roald completed his education at Repton School in 1934, aged 17.
Roald was very homesick to begin with, and even pretended to have appendicitis so that he would be sent back home to Wales!Īt the age of 13, Roald became a pupil at Repton School in Derbyshire, England. )Īs a result of this caning, Roald's mother withdrew him from Llandaff Cathedral School, sending him instead to St Peter's Boarding School in Weston-super-Mare, England. (This story, as well as many other tales from his childhood, is recounted in Dahl’s autobiography, ‘Boy’. The boys were later found out and were caned by their headmaster, with the sweet shop owner watching. He was said to have been a mischievous child - one example of this is when he and his friends devised the 'great mouse plot', where they hid a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers in order to give an unpleasant old sweet shop owner a fright.
School Life Llandaff Cathedral School, ages 7-9ĭahl began attending Llandaff Cathedral School in Wales when he was 7 years old. Unfortunately, Dahl experienced tragedy from an early age - his older sister, Astri, died from appendicitis when she was just 7 years of age (Roald was only 3), and his father died of pneumonia a few weeks later. His parents were Norwegian, and so many of Roald's childhood summers were spent visiting his grandparents in Oslo, Norway. Roald Dahl was born on September 13th 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales. His children’s books have been translated into almost 60 different languages, and sold over 250 million copies worldwide. Roald Dahl is one of the most famous authors in the world. Roald Dahl Day is September 13th! Read this blog and learn loads of facts about this famous author.