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This year marks 100 years since the birth of one of our most loved authors, Roald Dahl. Publishing his first book, The Gremlins, more than 70 years ago, Dahl went on to pen some of the greatest children’s stories of our time; with titles including Matilda, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG.
So what is it that makes these tales so captivating? A favourite bedtime read that has spanned generations? Dahl had a way with words and he even made a few (over 500 in fact) up, creating a world full of alliteration, spoonerisms and gobblefunk. But it is these loveable idiosyncrasies which set such a precedent, placing him high on a literary pedestal above so many others. From appetising snozzberries and Dahl’s Chickens (AKA Charles Dickens) to the whangdoodles that live in Loompaland and Roly-Poly Bird and Muggle-Wump the Monkey who are the unfortunate tasty dinner treats of The Enormous Crocodile.
All bought to life by illustrator Quentin Blake, Dahl’s characters are memorable, likeable and at times, wonderfully ridiculous. He seemed to have an amusing penchant for a plump character too – introducing us to nine year old Augustus Gloop “who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump” and Boggis the chicken farmer who too, was extremely fat “because he ate three boiled chickens smothered with dumplings every day for breakfast, lunch and supper.” And who could forget 11 year old Bruce Bogtrotter? “Who was decidedly large and round” and consumed an entire chocolate cake in one sitting.
More than 20 years after his death, Dahl’s gloriumptious stories and unfettered imagination lives on in the form of West End shows and adaptions for the big screen. Off stage, these limitless worlds filled with hungry giants and child-eating crocodiles ignite our own imaginations too. Through his writing, Dahl willed us to believe in something a little less than ordinary, a little less serious. The loveable BFG who is “four times as tall as the tallest human,” teaching us what a snozzcumber is and of course, the infamous Mr Twit with his dirty, smelly beard rooted with cornflakes, tinned sardines and stilton cheese because he never washed it – not even on a Sunday.
Roald Dahl looked at life differently to most: he concentrated on the little things and made those count above all else. He knew what children loved most and created a world just for them, teaching them to look down when so many adults look up. Growing up with these phizz-whizzing stories myself, I’ve no doubt they will continue to inspire, making future generations laugh for many more years to come – what a wonderful and truly humbling legacy that is to leave behind.
“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” The Twits.
