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Roald Dahl
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Roald Dahl was a famous short story writer who became one of the most successful and beloved writers for children of all time. He ... wrote several screenplays. Born to parents from Norway in Wales, he attended British schools, but never went to university, opting to go work for the Shell Oil Company instead. He worked there for a few years, but when World War II started, he joined the RAF. As Assistant Air Attache in Washington DC, he became a writer, and that was his job for the rest of his life. He wrote two novels, two autobiographies, nineteen children's books, and wrote many short story collections, the most notable being Kiss Kiss (1959) and Switch Bitch (1974).
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Roald Dahl (1916-1990) is one of the most successful children's writers in the world: around thirty million of his books have been sold in the U.K. alone. Children love his poems and stories because he writes from their point of view - in his books adults are often the villains or are just plain stupid! Roald Dahl's unusual name comes form his parents who were Norwegian, though they had already moved to Cardiff, Wales by the time of their son's birth. Roald's father died when he was three and in the same year he ... lost his sister, Astri. However, Roald's mother was a very strong person and decided to stay in the U.K because she wanted her children to attend British schools. She was important in encouraging her children's imagination, telling them lots of stories based on Norwegian myths full of giants and trolls.
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Roald Dahl has such an unusual first name due to fact that his parents spelt his name wrong on the Register of Births. From this non-literary background came one of the masters of children's literature.
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Roald Dahl’s early life was had its share of sadness, with his older sister Astri dying when he was three years old, followed shortly by his father’s death. Harald Dahl had settled in Cardiff in the 1880s, founding the Aadnessen and Dahl ship-brokering company. He was buried in Radyr, Cardiff.
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As recounted in Boy, Roald Dahl's father, Harald Dahl, immigrated to England from Norway around the turn of the century (1900). Not long after the death of his first wife, he took a trip back to Norway in hopes of finding a wife to help him raise his young son and daughter. He married Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg in 1911 and the couple moved to Dahl's home in Llandaff, Wales. Over the next six years they had five children: Astri, Alfhild, Roald, Else, Asta. Roald was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandaff. Unfortunately Astri, the eldest, died of appendicitis in 1920.
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Best known as a beloved writer of children's stories and of rather eccentric short stories, Roald Dahl ... worked on a few screenplays. Much of his popularity with children stemmed from his fantastical and sometimes disturbing characters and his refusal to talk down to his younger audiences. Many of Dahl's books allowed children to view life's dark side, their fears and concerns, in a way that was funny and safe. His books often caused controversy for his low regard for corruption and hypocrisy amongst adults and other authority figures. Dahl published his first children's story, The Gremlins, in 1943. He originally wrote the story for Walt Disney, who wanted to make an animated film.
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Roald Dahl