Little known facts about Roald Dahl, who passed on this day in 1990 ❤️
et al, have formed the fibre of many a childhood, defined by their wit, wisdom and downright silliness as well as the common theme of good triumphing over evil. His imagination knew no bounds: when you pick up a Dahl book you rest safe in the knowledge that you will be transported to a new, quixotic realm. As his daughter Lucy once said, in a sentiment echoed by many,"His spirit was so large and so big, he taught us to believe in magic.
2. Dahl went to boarding school at the age of eight and was deeply unhappy there, although he never revealed this to his mother to whom he wrote countless cheery letters. After her death in 1967, he discovered that she had kept every one of these in a bundle held together with green tape. 3. Dahl remained a remarkable secret keeper during his secondary school years at Repton, where he acquired an illicit motorbike which he would ride wildly through the town, hidden and unrecognisable beneath his waders, helmet, wind-jacket and goggles. He infuriated the masters who never caught him or saw through his disguise. He later said of his escapades, “I never told anyone, not even my best friend.
4. At Repton, the pupils would occasionally be sent trial chocolate from nearby factory Cadbury. Subsequently, Dahl spent many hours daydreaming about new types of chocolate bars he could invent for the manufacturers, an early precursor to his beloved children’s novel. Dahl’s love of chocolate continued into adulthood – he later kept a red plastic box stuffed with Mars Bars, Kit-Kats and Smarties that he offered to his guests after eating.5.
6. Later in the war, Dahl relocated to Washington where, in Sturrock’s words, he led ‘an extraordinary life’ working for the British Security Co-ordination’ , a secret British intelligence network linked to MI6. During this time the tall and dashing Dahl, who was known to be ‘a skilled flirt’, is said to have seduced various influential American women with a view to persuading them to express public sympathy for the British wartime cause.
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