Name ______date ______

Roald Dahl Biography

Roald Dahl was born in Wales on 16th September 1916 to Norwegian parents. His father died when he was 3 years old and he was raised by his mother. He did not enjoy his time at boarding school and his school memories provided some of the inspiration for his later stories.

After leaving school he worked for the Shell Oil Company and was based in Africa, until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when he signed up with the Royal Air Force. Unfortunately, on a flight into enemy territory he ran out of fuel and crashed in the Libyan desert.

He was sent to Washington DC to work as an attaché where, almost by accident, he started his writing career. When he was interviewed for an article about his time in action, he offered to write about his experiences. His piece was published in the Saturday Evening Post, who signed him up to write more articles in 1941.

In 1943 he wrote his first children’s book, The Gremlins, which was originally intended to be made into an animated film by Walt Disney. The film was not made and instead Dahl turned to writing adult fiction.

In 1945 he moved back to the UK, but in the early fifties returned to America, and in 1953 he married his first wife, the actress Patricia Neal. They had five children together but got divorced in 1983. The last years of his life were very happy and he wrote some of his best books during this period: The BFG, The Witches and Matilda. In total, he wrote 21 children’s books. Roald Dahl died on 23rd November 1990 in Oxford, England. 1. How old was Roald Dahl when he died? ______

2. Why did his plane crash in the desert?

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3. How many children did he have? ______

4. Name two of his books ______

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5. Complete the following timeline of Dahl's life (fill in all the blanks!):

1916 Dahl was born in South Wales 1919 1934-39 Worked for Shell Oil in London and Africa 1939 1941 Published a newspaper story in the USA 1943 1945 Got married to ... Died in Oxford

Complete the titles of these Roald Dahl books.

Charlie and the ______Factory

Danny, the Champion of the ______

Esio ______

Fantastic Mr ______

George's ______Medicine

James and the ______Peach

M______

The BF__

The Enormous ______

The G______Marvellous Chocolate World The Magic ______Fox Giant G The M______

The T______Matilda Crocodile Trot

The W______Minpins Witches Finger

Twits Gremlins