Roald Dahl's Life and Work

Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. His parents were Harald Dahl of Sarpsborg, Ostfold, and Sofie Magdalene Dah,l nee Hesselberg. Mr. and Mrs. Dahl moved from Norway to Cardiff in the 1880s where the family remained. There they were to raise five children: Astri, Alfhild, Roald, Else, and Asta, and two children from Harald Dahl's previous marriage.

Roald's early childhood was marked with tragedy and sadness. At the age of three Roald's sister, Astri, died of appendicitis. Approximately a month later his father died at the age of 57 of pneumonia. Roald's mother was left to raise two stepchildren and her remaining four children. She decided to stay in the UK and not to return to her native Norway because it was Harald Dahl's wish to have his children educated in British schools.

Roald received the gift of storytelling from his mother. As a child, Mrs. Dahl would tell her children mystical tales of trolls and mythical creatures of her homeland, Norway. According to Dahl, his mother had an extraordinary memory and remembered every detail of every event that had ever happened to her in her lifetime. She had an exceptional ability of storytelling and would spend hours concocting wonderfully elaborate tales for her children. These were some of Roald's fondest memories as a child.

Roald's father, Harald, kept a diary and wrote in it every day. After his death, Roald kept his fathers writings. "I still have one of his many notebooks from the Great War of 1914-18. Every single day during those five war years he would write several pages of comment and observation about the events of the time."[1]

Like his father, Roald would keep a diary starting at the age of eight. He hid his diary high in a conker tree so his sisters would not find it. He would climb up and sit in the tree every day to write in his diary. His love for writing was inherited from his father.