Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His mother immigrated to the UK and married his father in 1911. They had two children together (Ellen Marguerite and Louis) before her death in 1907. Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker, had immigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, a Frenchwoman named Marie Beaurin-Gresser. Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl (1863–1920) and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née Hesselberg) (1885–1967). His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.ĭahl at age 10 with his sisters Alfhild, Else and Asta. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me and George's Marvellous Medicine. His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. ĭahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. Though he and his work have been criticised for antisemitism, racism and misogyny, in 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.
He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. ĭahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England.
His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot.