D is for Dahl

by Roald Dahl

  G is for Grown-ups

  Grown-ups ~ Roald Dahl had vivid memories of his own childhood, of looking up at adults and thinking that they were giants. The character Sophie in The BFG showed how it felt to be in the company of giants.

  “If you want to remember what it’s like to live in a child’s world, you’ve got to get down on your hands and knees and live like that for a week.”

  —ROALD DAHL

  G is for a Grrrr!

  Grrrr! ~ The question Roald Dahl dreaded most was “Where do you get your ideas from?” If he was in a bad mood, he would reply crossly, “Where do you think Beethoven got his from?” But sometimes he would show fans his precious ideas book, where he jotted down thoughts that popped into his head.

  Grumpy ~ Roald Dahl tended to get grumpy as he was drawing near the end of a book, and when he’d finished, he felt terrible. He was afraid that he would never be able to write another one. He would sit, moan, scribble away, and just hope that new ideas would pop into his head. They always did. Matilda was the only book he felt pleased with once he’d penned the last word.

  Gums ~ When Roald Dahl’s brother-in-law Leslie Hansen had to have all his teeth out, he absolutely refused to have false ones. From then on, he ate everything—even big, juicy steaks—using his gums.

  Did You Know?

  Michel Lotito from France can eat just about anything. He has consumed eighteen bicycles, eighteen TV sets, and a Cessna light aircraft, among other things!

  G is for Gypsy caravan

  Guy Fawkes ~ The best night of the year at Roald Dahl’s first boarding school was November 5—Bonfire Night on Guy Fawkes Day. Every single pupil was given a bag of fireworks to set off on the football field after dark. Roald joined in this fireworks ritual for four years and in all that time, amazingly, no one got seriously hurt.

  WARNING!

  Don’t try this yourself. Fireworks are very dangerous!

  Gypsy caravan ~ The sky-blue Gypsy caravan that became the setting for Danny the Champion of the World has stood in the garden of Gipsy House since 1960. It was bought by Roald’s sister for an old road-builder friend to live in and was moved to Gipsy House after his death.

  G is for Gypsy caravan

  It has survived decapitation—on its journey to Roald’s house, the caravan was driven under a very low bridge, slicing the roof clean off—and flames, which were dramatically put out by Roald and his garden hose. Roald’s children had great fun playing in it and even camped out in it sometimes.

  Ha ha ha! ~ Roald Dahl liked to make his readers giggle, guffaw, chuckle, chortle, and explode with laughter. Have you ever read any of his books without making even the teensiest snigger? Bet you haven’t!

  “You can write about anything for children as long as you’ve got humor.”

  —ROALD DAHL

  Hair ~ Roald Dahl didn’t like the idea of losing his hair. He even wrote a revolting recipe to make hair grow. And he never visited the barber, preferring instead to have his hair cut at home by his wife’s hairdresser. Sadly, he couldn’t stop it vanishing in the end!

  Did You Know?

  The longest hair in the world is almost 17 feet long! The longest ear hair belongs to a man in India and measures 4 inches.

  H is for Hard Black Stinker

  Hard Black Stinker ~ When he was young, Roald Dahl and his family scooted about the Norwegian fjords in a battered old motorboat called the Hard Black Stinker. Mama was never afraid to take the helm, whatever the weather. On sunny days, she ferried her family to and from tiny islands, where they picnicked and swam. On stormy days, she bounced the Hard Black Stinker from one massive wave to another, while Roald and his sisters clung to the sides, cheering her on.

  “There was no nonsense about wearing life jackets in those days. We simply clung on to the sides of the boat. . . getting soaked to the skin.”

  —ROALD DAHL

  Did You Know?

  Chinese and Turkish boats often have an eye painted on the side. This is for good luck—and so the boat can see where it is going.

  H is for Hooray

  Hard-hitter ~ At school, Roald Dahl was so eager to be a fantastic hockey player that he once secretly wound copper wire around his stick to add weight. He hoped that this would help him to hit the ball farther.

  Hemingway, Ernest (1899–1961) ~ This great American writer and Nobel Prize winner (1954) is best known for his novel A Farewell to Arms. Roald Dahl and Hemingway were friends and Roald always tried to follow Hemingway’s advice: “When you’re going good—stop writing.”

  Hiding places ~ When he was younger, Roald Dahl made sure that his diaries were well hidden. . . so well hidden, in fact, that they have never been found. As an adult, he hid his gambling money, too—under the floorboards. The kind of hiding that Roald loved best of all, however, was shutting himself away in the Hut to think up wonderful stories.

  Hooray (and boo) for Hollywood! ~ In the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California—the movie capital of the world—Roald Dahl had some of the best and some of the worst times ever. He loved the excitement of working for Walt Disney and meeting great stars. But he was very upset when his film The Gremlins was cancelled. Later, when his first wife became very ill while acting in a Hollywood film, enough was enough. Roald packed his family’s bags and returned to England for good.

  H is for Hope

  Hope ~ When Tim Burton approached Roald Dahl’s widow about his plan to make a film of James and the Giant Peach, she asked him why he wanted to do it. Burton’s answer clinched the deal: “It’s the only book that ever gave me any hope when I was a child.”

  Hot-house Eggs ~ Roald Dahl took over the cooking when his first wife was ill, and he tried to be as imaginative with food as he was with words. He served up bright pink milk and transformed plain old fried eggs and fried bread into Hot-house Eggs, which tasted scrumptious and looked superb.

  H is for Hut

  Recipe for Hot-house Eggs

  (Be sure to ask an adult for help.)

  Cut a circle out of a slice of bread.

  Pop the bread into a buttered pan and cook on both sides.

  Crack the egg in the hole in the bread.

  The egg oozes across the bread as it cooks.

  Mmmm. . .

  The Hut ~ Roald Dahl wrote his books in a white hut on the edge of the orchard at Gipsy House. It was an exact copy of the author Dylan Thomas’s writing hut, which Roald once visited. He got his friend Wally Saunders to build it—out of bricks and with a yellow front door. It was very cozy, with sheets of polystyrene lining the walls and a dangerous-looking overhead contraption to keep him warm. The Hut still stands exactly as Roald left it, with everything set up ready for writing. His cigarette ends are in the ashtray and the wastebasket is almost full, as if he had just popped out for a bit.

  Ideas ~ Roald Dahl kept two ideas books for about forty years. They were both old school exercise books, the first of which was sandy colored, and the second red and very battered. He thought that good ideas were like dreams—soon forgotten—and made sure that he wrote them down straight away. He then checked off the really good ideas and crossed out the ones he had used. Some ideas were developed years and years after they were jotted down. Can you guess which books came from these ideas?

  I is for Interests

  If. . . ~ If Roald Dahl hadn’t been an author, he could have been a doctor, a boxer, a golfer, an inventor, a scientist, a botanist, or a picture framer. He had a natural talent for all of these things.

  Interests ~ Roald Dahl was interested in just about EVERYTHING. But here are a few of the things he was especially fascinated by:

  nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings

  eighteenth-century English furniture

  gardening

  orchids

  music

  wine

  gambling

  good food

  chocolate

  I is for Inventions

  Inventions ~ If Roald Dahl wanted
something that didn’t exist, he didn’t let this stop him—he simply invented it. He created gardening gadgets, made his own hot-air balloons and kites, developed medical cures and devised brain-bending games. His ambition was to invent a silent cigarette lighter—so that he could smoke at night without waking his wife. Luckily for his lungs, he never did. When Theo was hurt in an accident, Roald researched ways to help his son and jointly invented a special valve to drain water from the brain. He and his neighbor also pioneered a type of therapy that helped his first wife to make a full recovery from her strokes. It’s still used today by the National Stroke Association.

  Random Roald Fact

  His favorite famous inventions were the Thermos flask, the penknife, the ballpoint pen, the zipper, cat's eye safety reflectors, and razor blades.

  James and the Giant Peach ~ Did you know that it was nearly called James and the Giant Cherry? Eventually, Roald Dahl decided that a peach would be prettier, bigger, and squishier—with a lovely pitted stone in the middle. It was one of the books that Roald was most pleased to have written.

  January ~ This was Roald Dahl’s least favorite month. He thought the best place to spend an English January was in a hot bath.

  “If I had my way I would remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead.”

  —ROALD DAHL

  J is for Jelly

  Jelly ~ Jelly was Roald Dahl’s beautiful black Labrador-cross. Roald often told children that it was really Jelly who wrote the stories and he just took the credit. Jelly is also one of Roald Dahl’s dessert inventions. Have you ever wanted to try a dessert that is both crunchy and wibbly-wobbly? You have? Then wait no longer!

  Roald’s Recipe for Crunchy Jelly

  Make up some Jell-O following the instructions on the side of the box.

  Watch the Jell-O as it sets.

  Are you still watching it?

  When it is almost ready, mix in a handful of cake decorating sprinkles.

  When the Jell-O is set, you’ll have wibbly-wobbly, Crunchy Jelly!

  Jokes ~ Once he’d been told a joke, Roald Dahl never forgot it. He got many of his jokes from his secretary, Wendy. Her children passed them on from the school playground. (See also Knock-knock.)

  Jones ~ One of Roald Dahl’s boyhood heroes was Jones (nicknamed Joss Spivvis by the Dahl children), the Welsh gardener. Roald would hang out with Joss whenever he could, and in the holidays was by his side all day long. Roald was captivated by Joss’s endless stories, and the highlight to the week was their Saturday afternoon trip to Ninian Park to watch Cardiff City football team play. Before the match, they’d stop outside the ground at the whelk stall, where Joss would have jellied eels and Roald would have baked beans and two sausages.

  Random Roald Fact

  He preferred to write about villains, because he thought they were more interesting for the writer and more entertaining for the reader.

  Kindness ~ Are you a kind person? If you are, Roald Dahl would’ve been pleased to meet you. If you aren’t, he would’ve wanted to push you down the rubbish chute after Veruca Salt (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). The BFG was one of his kindest characters, as was the grandmother in The Witches. Roald himself was extremely kind, especially with his time. If you lined up to have a book signed, he’d have something special to say to you and everyone else as well, even if he took two or three hours to talk to the whole line.

  K is for Kiss

  Kiss ~ Ugh! Although one of Roald Dahl’s adult books is called Kiss Kiss, he was embarrassed by people kissing in public, and thought you could catch things from it. This poem is from Rhyme Stew.

  My mother said, “There are no joys

  In ever kissing silly boys.

  Just one small kiss and one small squeeze

  Can land you with some foul disease.”

  K is for Knock-knock

  Knock-knock ~ Roald Dahl and his daughter Tessa once compiled a great collection of knock-knock jokes. Here are just a few. . . .

  Knowledge ~ Roald Dahl loved learning new things and had a marvelous memory. Whenever he was interested in something—photography, sport, cooking, anything!—he had to know as much about it as possible. One of his favorite book collections as a child was his mama’s set of battered Encyclopaedia Britannica.

  K is for Krokaan

  Kress, Wendy ~ She worked for Roald Dahl for nearly seven years, transforming his scratchy handwritten pages into neatly typed manuscripts. She also helped answer the many thousands of letters Roald received from his fans.

  “It was wonderful to be the very first person to see what he had written.”

  —WENDY KRESS

  Krokaan ~ This mouth-watering Norwegian treat—a crispy kind of toffee made from butter, sugar, and almonds—was one of Roald Dahl’s favorites. Krokaan chips in ice cream is out of this world. . . but watch out for your teeth!

  “You chewed it and it went crunch and the taste was something you dreamed about for days afterwards.”

  —ROALD DAHL

  Languages ~ Roald Dahl’s books are read by children all over the world and have been translated into forty-two languages, including Bulgarian, Estonian, Faroese, Friesian, Icelandic, Korean, and Vietnamese. Can you guess which books these are?

  Did You Know?

  There are estimated to be 6,809 languages in the world.

  Leg of lamb ~ Roald Dahl’s sense of humor could be very wicked. In one story for adults, a woman murders her husband by bashing him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She then manages to hide the murder weapon from the police while they are searching the house from top to bottom. Can you think how she did it?

  L is for Librarians

  WARNING!

  Don’t try this at home. It would be very baaaaaad.

  Leukemia ~ Roald Dahl died of a form of leukemia (a cancer that affects the blood) on November 23, 1990. He was seventy-four. This is why the Roald Dahl Foundation supports hematology (blood) projects.

  Librarians ~ Roald Dahl had a love-hate relationship with librarians. Some liked his books, some didn’t. He was puzzled when certain librarians banned The Witches, saying that it was anti-women, because the book includes a wonderful, friendly female character—the grandmother. He also created a lovely librarian in Matilda, Mrs. Phelps.

  L is for Liccy

  Liccy (short for Felicity) ~ Pronounced “Lissy,” she is Roald Dahl’s second wife. They married in 1983. Among other things, Liccy worked for a fashion magazine and in television and then in an antiques restoration studio. She jointly set up a restoration business in the 1970s called Carvers & Guilders. It did so well, it was granted a Royal Warrant—this meant they could put on their notepaper “By appointment to HM the Queen.” After Roald’s death, she established the Roald Dahl Foundation, which raises money for charities that were close to the author’s heart. (See Family Tree.)

  Llandaff ~ Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, South Wales, in 1916. He met his wife Liccy more than fifty years later and was amazed to discover that she too was born in Llandaff—and on the same street!

  Lofty ~ Roald Dahl’s fellow Royal Air Force pilots gave him this nickname because he was so tall—just over 6 1⁄2 feet. He also answered to Lampy and Stalky.

  Loneliness ~ James is Roald Dahl’s loneliest character. So lonely, in fact, that he has only insects for company. They turn out to be the greatest friends of all, however. Roald knew what it was like to be lonely when he was an airman during the war. He also spent many lonely hours in the Hut. As soon as he finished work for the day, he strolled up to Gipsy House, where he was guaranteed to be surrounded by family and friends. Writing must be one of the loneliest careers of all.

  L is for Lucy

  Louis ~ Roald Dahl’s older half-brother was his mentor. Louis often took Roald for a spin on the back of his motorbike and taught him all about fishing. Roald might have caught the inventing bug from him—Louis invented a wonderful boomerang-like toy called—guess what?—a Skilly Wonka. (
See Family Tree.)

  Lucky ~ When he was first flying in Africa, Roald Dahl wrote to his mother, telling her how lucky he felt to be whizzing and soaring through the skies. He really was lucky. Most of the pilots he trained with didn’t survive the war, and Roald nearly didn’t when his plane crashed in the Libyan desert and burst into flames. He managed to drag himself out before the whole thing blew up.

  Lucy ~ Roald’s youngest daughter (nicknamed Lukey by Roald) was born in 1965 and became a keen horse rider. At gymkhanas she would always look out for a yellow bobble hat in the crowd—Roald would wear it to let her know that he was there. (See Family Tree.)

  The Magic Finger ~ This story was originally called The Almost Ducks. The characters were to be Mr. and Mrs. Almost, and their unlucky children were to be magically transformed into ducks. Instead, it’s the Gregg family who are at the receiving end of the magic finger, which has the power to. . . Well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?