Roald Dahl's Life and Accomplishments

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Have you ever wondered who creatively wrote stories about an extraordinary chocolate factory? Or a story about a girl who became best friends with a Big Friendly Giant? He has won a lot of awards for his best-selling stories for children, and also for adults. His name is Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl was known as a British novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and fighter pilot. His tremendous success in writing has influenced a lot of childrenin their habit of writing. Did you know that Roald Dahl remains as the most popular author of a survey among children, according to The Guardian? But, what led to his success? How was he motivated to write for children?

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales on 13 September 1916 as the only son of a second marriage. His parents were Norwegian. The young Roald Dahl really loved stories and books. His mother would tell him stories about mythical Norwegian creatures which grow his interest in short stories. Roald really admired his mother’s ability to tell stories. “She was a great teller of tales,” Roald said, “Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten.” (Penguin Group). At the age of eight, he tied his secret diary to the top branch of a tall tree. He would climb up the tree and write his diary entries there. His father was also a writer; he would write observations about the World War 1 and put them into his diary. His father kept on writing in his diary for 5 years (1914-18). His unhappy years at school seemingly became an inspiration to his writings. He despised his teacher who hated small boys, named Miss Trunchbull, which later became one of the characters in his book, titled Matilda. He used to write letters to his mother and he began to ...

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...ce at his childhood and his trained skills of writing, therefore, led him to his success and become noticed by child readers.

Works Cited

Dunne, Jerry. What makes Roald Dahl such a successful children’s writer?.

10 July 2012. Web. Last accessed 19th March 2014.

Faundez, Anne. on target for literacy Author profile: Roald Dahl. on target for literacy.

PDF file. Last accessed 19th March 2014.

Lazar, Tara. Roald Dahl: What Makes a Good Children’s Writer.

10 July 2012. Web. Last accessed 19th March 2014.

Penguin Group (USA). Roald Dahl: About Roald Dahl. 2000. Web. Last accessed

19th March 2014.

The Guardian Press Association. Dahl beats Rowling as young adults' favourite

author. 11 September 2007. Web. Last accessed 19th March 2014.

Middleton, Haydn. Heinemann Profiles: RoaldDahl. Great Britain : Heinemann

Library, 1998. Print.

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