Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl — an English writer of Norwegian origin, author of novels, fairy tales, and novellas. A master of the paradoxical tale. One of the best-known authors in the United Kingdom.

He was born in Llandaff, South Wales, into a Norwegian family. His father, Harald Dahl, emigrated with his wife and two children to Great Britain at the turn of the century. Soon after the death of his first wife, Harald returned to Norway and married Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg in the hope that his new wife would help him raise the children.

On September 13, 1916, Roald was born, named after the famous Norwegian explorer Amundsen. Unfortunately, in 1920 Roald’s older sister Astri died of appendicitis, and a few months later Harald Dahl also died of pneumonia, having dreamed that his children would be educated in the best English schools in the world. The widowed Sofie, who was at that time carrying Asta, was left alone with four daughters and two sons. A less resolute woman would have packed up and returned home to Norway, but Sofie decided to stay in Wales and fulfill Harald’s wish. To begin with, she sent the children, one by one, to the primary school for little children, at Elmtree House in Llandaff.

When Roald turned seven, his mother decided it was time for him to attend Llandaff Cathedral School, where he spent two years. However, the headmaster’s cruel treatment of the children forced Sofie to transfer the boy to St. Peter’s boarding school in Weston-super-Mare, where he studied and was homesick until the age of 13. Dahl described all his childhood adventures — the mockery by teachers and staff — in the book Boy. Perhaps it was his school years that set Roald on the path to a series of “horror” stories? The boy stood out among his peers with his nearly two-meter height, his success in cricket and swimming, but not in his studies. Roald devoured Kipling, Haggard, and Henty, absorbing the heroism and masculinity that later influenced his life and work.

By the time Roald was thirteen, the family had moved to Kent in England, and he was soon sent