I believe you’ve read or seen “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Can you name who wrote this book? As you can guess, it’s Roald Dahl /ˈroʊ.əld ˈdɑːl/ . He wrote a lot of tales for kids: James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George’s Marvellous Medicine.
Roald was born on the 13th of September,1916).
Let’s learn some interesting facts about him.
1. Roald is considered to be a British writer cause he lived in the UK but his parents were Norwegian.
2. He wrote his books in a special place – a shed in the garden. He dedicated four hours to writing on a daily basis. Do you think it’s the right amount of time for a writer? I think it’s too little…
3. He was buried with chocolates, burgundy, HB pencils and other things.
4. One of Roald’s daughter became an author and his granddaughter as well.
5. Roald Dahi made up his own words! For example,
HORRIGUST – horrible+disgusting
ZOZIMUS – the stuff that dreams are made of.
GOBBLEFUNK – to play around with words and create new ones.
FIZZWIGGLER – sb cruel and mean.
6. Steven Spielberg believes that The BFG teaches children that being different and having an active imagination is OK, that’s why he read it to his kids.
7. Scarlett Johansson mentioned Fantastic Mr Fox as one of the books that made a difference to her.
8. Roald was a fighter pilot and a spy during the war. He supplied intelligence from Washington to Winston Churchill.
I’ve never read any of his books, but I believe it’s not an easy task taking into account all these made-up words.
Have you seen any of these movies or read any of his books?
Matilda
·directed by Danny DeVito (1996).
Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory
·directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp (2005).
The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)
·directed by Steven Spielberg (2016).