Roald Dahl Popular Books

Roald Dahl Biography & Facts

Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. 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. 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. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity.Dahl'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. His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. 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, George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, the Champion of the World. His works for older audiences include the short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. Early life and education Childhood 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). Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker and self-made man, had emigrated to Britain from Sarpsborg in Norway and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, Frenchwoman Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together (Ellen Marguerite and Louis) before her death in 1907. Roald Dahl's mother belonged to a well-established Norwegian family of lawyers, priests in the state church and wealthy merchants and estate owners, and emigrated to Britain when she married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. The children were raised in Norway's Lutheran state church, the Church of Norway, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff. His maternal grandmother Ellen Wallace was a granddaughter of the member of parliament Georg Wallace and a descendant of an early 18th-century Scottish immigrant to Norway.Dahl's sister Astri died from appendicitis at age seven in 1920 when Dahl was three years old, and his father died of pneumonia at age 57 several weeks later. Later that year, his youngest sister, Asta, was born. Upon his death, Harald Dahl left a fortune assessed for probate of £158,917 10s. 0d. (equivalent to £6,791,035 in 2021). Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales instead of returning to Norway to live with relatives, as her husband had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered the world's best. When he was six years old, Dahl met his idol Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit featuring the mischievous Peter Rabbit, the first licensed fictional character. The meeting, which took place at Potter's home, Hill Top in the Lake District, north west England, was dramatised in the 2020 television film, Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse. Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. At age eight, he and four of his friends were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs Pratchett. The five boys named their prank the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924". Mrs Pratchett inspired Dahl's creation of the cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, and a prank, this time in a water jug belonging to Trunchbull, would also appear in the book. Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl referred to them in his fictional Everlasting Gobstopper which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.Dahl transferred to St Peter's boarding school in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school, and this proved to be the nearest because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters; they were broadcast in abridged form as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood. Excelling at conkers—a traditional autumnal children's game in Britain and Ireland played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees—Dahl recollected, "at the ages of eight, nine and ten, conkers brought sunshine to our lives during the dreary autumn term". Repton School From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life. Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment.According to Dahl's autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher. Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: "All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely... I couldn't get over it. I never have got over it." Fisher was later appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, and he crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown, the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie, Fisher's successor as headmaster. Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God". He viewed the brutality of the caning as being the result of the headmaster's enmity towards children, an attitude Dahl would later attribute to the Grand High Witch in his dark fantasy The Witches, with the novel's main .... Discover the Roald Dahl popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Roald Dahl books.

Best Seller Roald Dahl Books of 2024

  • Flight or Fright synopsis, comments

    Flight or Fright

    Stephen King

    #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of horror Stephen King teams up with Bev Vincent of Cemetery Dance to present a terrifying collection of sixteen short stories (and ...

  • Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl

    Jeremy Treglown

    A New York Times Notable Book: A revealing look at the famous twentiethcentury children’s author who brought us The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Few writers have had ...

  • Roald Dahl Colors synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl Colors

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Learn your colors with Roald Dahl, the World's No. 1 Storyteller!This deluxe board book is the perfect way to learn about colors. Featuring beloved art created by Quentin Blake fro...

  • Concorde synopsis, comments

    Concorde

    Mike Bannister

    The definitive account of the rise and fall of the iconic Concorde plane from British Airways' former Chief Concorde Pilot'A remarkable story' DAILY EXPRESS'A stonking good read' F...

  • The Twits synopsis, comments

    The Twits

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG!Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, nastiest, ugliest people in the world. They hate ...

  • Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl

    Ann Alston & Catherine Butler

    Roald Dahl is one of the world's bestloved authors. More than twenty years after his death, his books are still highly popular with children and have inspired numerous feature ...

  • Skin and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    Skin and Other Stories

    Roald Dahl

    How would you get rid of a murder weapon without causing suspicion? Where would you hide a diamond where no one else would think of looking? What if you found out that the tattoo o...

  • The Greatest Bed-Time Stories synopsis, comments

    The Greatest Bed-Time Stories

    Beatrix Potter, L. Frank Baum, Louisa May Alcott, Thornton Burgess, Margery Williams, Howard R. Garis, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Anna Sewell, Hugh Lofting, Laura Lee Hope, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Vishnu Sharma, Aesop, Valery Carrick, Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang, James Matthew Barrie, Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Sharp, Maurice Maeterlinck, Georgette Leblanc, John Ruskin, Carl Sandburg, Marion St. John Webb, Mary Louisa Molesworth, Johnny Gruelle, R. Nisbet Bain, W. R. S. Ralston & Arthur Ransome

    Put your little ones to a snuggling sleep or go back yourself to the world of dreams and dreamers, magic, fairytales, legends and fantasy with the greatest bedtime classics. Conte...

  • The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me synopsis, comments

    The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! The Ladderless WindowCleaning Company certainly doesn't. They don’t need a pail, either, bec...

  • Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl

    Matthew Dennison

    A New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceFrom one of our finest literary biographers comes a brilliant biography of Roald Dahl: the muchloved author and creator of countless ico...

  • My Sister Jodie synopsis, comments

    My Sister Jodie

    Jacqueline Wilson

    There's no one quite like my big sister Jodie . . .Quiet, cautious Pearl has always adored her bold, brash, bad big sister Jodie. When their parents get new jobs at a grand, fusty ...

  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar synopsis, comments

    The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

    Roald Dahl

    Seven superb short stories from the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is coming soon to Netflix!Meet the ...

  • Roald Dahl Whoppsy-Whiffling Joke Book synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl Whoppsy-Whiffling Joke Book

    Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl is known for his humor! This joke book is an ideal companion to his beloved novels.Roald Dahl's WhoppsyWhiffling Joke Book is a collection of hundreds of great jokes tha...

  • The Greatest Fairytales Of All Time synopsis, comments

    The Greatest Fairytales Of All Time

    Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang, James Matthew Barrie, Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Sharp, Maurice Maeterlinck, Georgette Leblanc, John Ruskin, Carl Sandburg, Marion St. John Webb, Mary Louisa Molesworth, Johnny Gruelle, R. Nisbet Bain, W. R. S. Ralston, Arthur Ransome & L. Frank Baum

    eartnow presents to you this meticulously edited collection of the mostcelebrated and bestloved fairy tales of all time: Complete Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen Complete Fa...

  • Cuentos completos de Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Cuentos completos de Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl

    Por primera vez en un único volumen, esta edición definitiva de los Cuentos completos de Roald Dahl incluye algunos relatos inéditos en español.Brillante y con tintes fantásticos c...

  • The Wonderful Land of Bed-Time Stories synopsis, comments

    The Wonderful Land of Bed-Time Stories

    Beatrix Potter, L. Frank Baum, Louisa May Alcott, Thornton Burgess, Margery Williams, Howard R. Garis, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Anna Sewell, Hugh Lofting, Laura Lee Hope, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Vishnu Sharma, Aesop, Valery Carrick, Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang, James Matthew Barrie, Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Sharp, Maurice Maeterlinck, Georgette Leblanc, John Ruskin, Carl Sandburg, Marion St. John Webb, Mary Louisa Molesworth, Johnny Gruelle, R. Nisbet Bain, W. R. S. Ralston & Arthur Ransome

    Put your little ones to a snuggling sleep or go back yourself to the world of dreams and dreamers, magic, fairytales, legends and fantasy with the greatest bedtime classics by ear...

  • Matilda synopsis, comments

    Matilda

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Now a musical on broadway and streaming on Netflix! Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but ...

  • James and the Giant Peach synopsis, comments

    James and the Giant Peach

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the World's No. 1 Storyteller, James and the Giant Peach is a children's classic that has captured young reader's imaginations for generations.One of TIME MAGAZINE’s 100 Best ...

  • The Witches synopsis, comments

    The Witches

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the World's No. 1 Storyteller, The Witches is a children's classic that has captured young reader's imaginations for generations.This is not a fairy tale. This is about real w...

  • Fantastic Mr Dahl synopsis, comments

    Fantastic Mr Dahl

    Michael Rosen

    Life story of Roald Dahl, World's No.1 storyteller, creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach and many more, broug...

  • Esio Trot synopsis, comments

    Esio Trot

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! Mr. Hoppy is in love with his neighbor, Mrs. Silver; but she is in love with someone elseAlf...

  • The BFG synopsis, comments

    The BFG

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Roald Dahl's beloved novel hits the big screen in July 2016 in a major motion picture adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg from Amblin Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures. Wh...

  • Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout synopsis, comments

    Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout

    Andy Stanton

    Shabba me whiskers! It’s one of those Mr Gum books by Andy Stanton. They’re only the craziest, funnest most amazing books for children in the world.Good evening. Talking parrots in...

  • Matilda synopsis, comments

    Matilda

    Roald Dahl

    Now a musical on broadway and streaming on Netflix! Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but ...

  • Roald Dahl 123 synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl 123

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Learn your numbers with Roald Dahl, the World’s No. 1 Storyteller! This deluxe board book is the perfect way to learn about numbers. Featuring beloved art created by Quentin B...

  • Love Lessons synopsis, comments

    Love Lessons

    Jacqueline Wilson

    Fourteenyearold Prue and her sister Grace have been educated at home by their controlling, superstrict father all their lives. Forced to wear Mum's odd handmade garments and forbid...

  • The BFG By Roald Dahl Reading Group Activity Guide synopsis, comments

    The BFG By Roald Dahl Reading Group Activity Guide

    Jason Elliott

    This “The BFG” activity guide by Roald Dahl is set up so it can be used as a unit plan for the teacher, or used by students in literature circles. It does not include the actual bo...

  • Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl

    Damian Walford Davies

    Published to mark the centenary of Roald Dahl’s (Welsh) birth, Roald Dahl: Wales of the Unexpected breaks new ground by revealing the place of Wales in the imagination of the write...

  • Fantastic Mr. Fox synopsis, comments

    Fantastic Mr. Fox

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Nobody outfoxes Fantastic Mr. Fox!Someone's been stealing from the three meanest farmers around, and they know the identity of the thiefit's Fantastic Mr. Fox! Working alone they...

  • Boy synopsis, comments

    Boy

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Find out where the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG got all his wonderful story ideas in this autobiographical account of his childhood! ...

  • Danny the Champion of the World synopsis, comments

    Danny the Champion of the World

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Can Danny and his father outsmart the villainous Mr. Hazell?Danny has a life any boy would lovehis home is a gypsy caravan, he's the youngest master car mechanic around, and his ...

  • Roald Dahl synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl

    Ms. Hirschhorn

    A demo of an eBook created for my students about famous author Roald Dahl's life and books.

  • The Big New Yorker Book of Cats synopsis, comments

    The Big New Yorker Book of Cats

    The New Yorker Magazine, Haruki Murakami, Calvin Trillin & M.F.K. Fisher

    Look what The New Yorker dragged in! It’s the purrfect gathering of talent celebrating our feline companions.This bountiful collection, beautifully illustrated in fu...

  • Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator synopsis, comments

    Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG!Last seen flying through the sky in a giant elevator in Charlie and the Chocolate Factor...

  • Roald Dahl ABC synopsis, comments

    Roald Dahl ABC

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Learn the alphabet with Roald Dahl, the World’s No. 1 Storyteller! This deluxe board book is the perfect way to learn the alphabet. Featuring beloved art created by Quentin Bl...

  • The Missing Golden Ticket and Other Splendiferous Secrets synopsis, comments

    The Missing Golden Ticket and Other Splendiferous Secrets

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Secrets and surprises from Roald Dahl!Feast your eyes on a secret! Between these covers is a longlost chapterand the original endingfrom Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other...

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory synopsis, comments

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

    Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

    Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last!But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose ho...

  • Storyteller synopsis, comments

    Storyteller

    Donald Sturrock

    THE FIRST AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF ROALD DAHL, STORYTELLER IS A MASTERFUL, WITTY AND INCISIVE LOOK AT ONE OF THE GREATEST AUTHORS AND ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS OF THE MODERN AGE. In his ...

  • The Enormous Crocodile synopsis, comments

    The Enormous Crocodile

    Roald Dahl

    From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! The Enormous Crocodile is a horrid greedy grumptious brute who loves to guzzle up little boy...

  • Man of the Hour synopsis, comments

    Man of the Hour

    Jennet Conant

    “Gripping…an outstanding portrait” (The Wall Street Journal) of one of the most influential men of the greatest generation, James B. Conanta savvy architect of the nuclear age and ...

  • The Littlest Bigfoot synopsis, comments

    The Littlest Bigfoot

    Jennifer Weiner

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a “cheerful” (The New York Times Book Review) and “charming” (People) tale of friendship, furry creatures, and findi...