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About Roald Dahlhttps://notes.io/#
Roald Dahl was a spy, an ace fighter pilot, a chocolate historian and a medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, and a treasury of original, evergreen, and beloved chilhttps://notes.io/#dren’s books. He remains for many the world’s No. 1 storyteller. Born in Llandaff, Wales, on 13th September 1916 to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Heisenberg, Dahl was named after Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian who had been the first man to reach the South Pole just four years earlier. A heroic start in life. But his early years were blighted by the tragic deaths of his older sister, Astir, and his father. Wanting the best for her only son, his mother sent him to boarding school - first to St Peter's, Weston-super-Mare; then, in 1929, to Renton - where many bizarre and memorable events would later be recounted in Boy. Pupils at Renton were invited to trial chocolate bars, a memory that stayed with Dahl throughout his life, inspiring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Schooldays happily behind him, Dahl’s lust for travel took him first to Canada, then to East Africa, where he worked for an oil company until the outbreak of World War Two. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force at 23 years oldling September 1940, Dahl received severe injuries to his head, nose and back when his Gladiator crash-landed in the Western Desert. After six months recovering from his injuries in Alexandria he returned to action, taking part in The Battle of Athens. Later, after a posting to Washington, he supplied intelligence to MI6.In 1953 Roald Dahl married the American actress, Patricia Neal, with whom he had five children. They divorced after 30 years, and he later married Felicity “Lucy” Crosland, who has furthered Roald’s legacy through the foundation of Roald Dahl's Marvelous Children's Charity and The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. IN 1953 Roald Dahl married the American actress, Patricia Neal, with whom he had five children. They divorced after 30 years, and he later married Felicity “Lacy” Crosland, who has furthered Roald’s legacy through the foundation of Roald Dahl's Marvelous Children's Charity and The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. There followed a burst of literary energy: in 1961 James and the Giant Peach was published in the US, followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald then wrote screenplays for the James Bond hit You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as adult novels such as Kiss Kiss. Fantastic Mr. Fox was published in 1970, the year before the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was released. The rest of the decade saw the publication of many other classics, including Danny the Champion of the World, The Enormous Crocodile, and My Uncle Oswald.

Roald also enjoyed enormous success on television. Having already had his stories told in six episodes of the award winning US series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, his Tales of the Unexpected ran for several series between 1979 and 1988 in the UK. In the early 1980s he published The Twits, Revolting Rhymes, The BFG and The Witches. There followed two autobiographical books: Boy, in 1984 and Going Solo, in 1986. Matilda was published in 1988, Ezio Trot in 1990, and finally, in 1991, came the posthumous delight of The Minkins. Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, aged 74. He was buried in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Missenden - the Buckinghamshire village where today The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre continues his extraordinary mission to amaze, thrill and inspire generations of children and their parent

Characters "The "TheThe "The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump." - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Augustus Glop ("The great big greedy nincompoop!" as the Oompa-Loompas sing later) appears in Roald Dahl's story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which has since been adapted into two films, an opera and a West End musical.

Augustus is a young boy who enjoys eating. His mother, Mrs Gloop, tells us he eats so much chocolate it would have been impossible for him not to find one of the Golden Tickets hidden in Willy Wonka's chocolate bars, and so win a trip to the Chocolate Factory.

In the original story Roald Dahl doesn't tell us where Augustus is from, but in the 1971 film he hails from the fictional town of Dusselheim. In the 2005 film, he's from Düsseldorf, and in the 2013 West End musical production he is from Bavaria. All of these places are in Germany, so most of us think of Augustus as being German.

One thing for certain, though, is that Augustus is a greedy boy. Once inside Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory he's so keen to get started that he won't listen to what Mr. Wonka says and very nearly meets a very sticky end in that chocolate river. Luckily, the Oompa-Loompas are on hand to divert Augustus from the fudge room, but it's close...

On film, Augustus has been portrayed by actors Michael Ballmer (1971) and Philip Wiegerts (2005).

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View detail page This is Charlie. How d 'you do? And how d 'you do? And how d 'you do again? He is pleased to meet you." - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie Bucket appears in two of Roald Dahl's stories: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - which has been adapted into two films, an opera and a stage musical - and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Charlie lives with his mother, his father and his four grandparents in a little wooden house near a great town. Well, he does the first time we meet him, anyway.

Charlie and his family don't have much money. That means they don't have much to eat. Which makes the fact that there is a great big Chocolate Factory in his very own town all the more difficult for poor Charlie. Because more than anything else, Charlie loves chocolate - Wonka chocolate especially. His very favourite is the Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight bar. You could even say this is his lucky bar. It is, after all, the bar that changes Charlie's life...

When he finds a Golden Ticket in that Wonka chocolate bar, Charlie's luck starts to change. From touring Mr Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to bursting through its roof in the Great Glass Elevator, that little flash of gold is only the beginning of his adventures. Mr Wonka personally escorts him round his chocolate factory - then appoints him as his successor. He visits outer space with his entire family - and ends up outsmarting some very unpleasant Vermicious Knids. He witnesses his old grandparents return all the way to babyhood after some ill-advised experiments with Wonka Vite. Then, to top it all off, he gets invited to dinner at the White House.

And yet throughout all of his adventures, little Charlie keeps his cool. He really is, as Grandpa George says in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "a fine little fellow."

On the big screen, the role of Charlie has been played by Peter Ostrom (in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005.)

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The Gorlitz doesn't seem right to me that men and boys should kill animals just for the fun they get out of it." - The Magic Finger

The Magic Finger was published in 1962, four years after Roald Dahl finished writing it. It's narrated by an eight-year-old girl with a very special power. She hates hunting, and she hates injustice, and anyone who is guilty of either of these things should watch out...

Her next-door neighbors The Greggs find this out to their cost one day when The Girl sees them out hunting and they make the mistake of laughing off her angry protests.

They're not laughing later, when The Girl puts The Magic Finger on them...

Because whenever The Girls gets cross, she gets very, very hot all over and the tip of her forefinger of her right hand begins to tingle, and suddenly a flash comes out like something electric.

The Greggs soon learn their lesson.

No one is going to be worrying too much about me. That place you took me from was the village orphanage. We are all orphans in there." -Sophie, The BFG

Sophie appears in Roald Dahl's much-loved story, The BFG, first published in 1982. She is "kidsnatched" from her bedroom at the orphanage where she lives by The Big Friendly Giant (or The BFG, for short) after spotting him through her window one night.

Sophie may be, as The BFG says, "only a tiny little girl," but she is resiliant and very brave. Having been taken from her home in the middle of the witching hour, she finds herself journeying to Giant Country clutched in the palm of The BFG's hand. Once there - and having realized The BFG is not going to eat her - she quickly takes stock of her surroundings and it's not long before she is eating foolsome snozzcumbers and drinking jumbly frobscottle with her new friend.

And it's Sophie who comes up with the bright idea to stop The BFG's horrible neighbours - Fleshlumpeater, The Bloodbottler, and all the other nasty Giants who would rather gobble human 'beans' than snozzcumbers. After joining The BFG on a trip to dream country, she sees a way for The BFG's incredible dream collection to help them stop the Giants from eating up any more people...

The BFG was adapted for a UK TV film in 1989, with Amanda Root voicing the character of Sophie. A new film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg is scheduled for release in 2016. Sophie does not have a last name in the original story.

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View detail pageThe lucky person was a small girl called Veruca Salt who lived with her rich parents in a great city far away." - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Veruca Salt ("the little brute," as the Oompa-Loompas call her) is the second finder of one of chocolatier Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets, joining Charlie Bucket and the other finders on a tour of Mr Wonka's Chocolate Factory. She appears in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Written in 1964, the book has been adapted for two feature films, an opera and as a West End musical.

Veruca is an only child whose parents spoil her excessively. She only receives her Golden Ticket after the workers at her father's peanut factory are commanded to start shelling chocolate bars instead of peanuts. And, as Charlie Bucket's Grandpa Joe says, "no good can ever come from spoiling a child like that, Charlie, you mark my words.”

Grandpa Joe is proved right during their tour of the Chocolate Factory when Veruca Salt and her parents are forced to evacuate in a rather unpleasant manner - after Mr Wonka's trained squirrels decide they're all Bad Nuts and send them down the rubbish chute.

In the original story and the 2013 West End adaptation, both of Veruca's parents join her in the Factory, but in the 1971 and 2005 films it is only her father that acts as her supervisor. And in the 1971 film, the trained squirrels are replaced by geese that lay special golden eggs, meaning Veruca's trip down the rubbish chute is because she is a Bad Egg.

On film, Veruca has been played by Julie Dawn Cole (1971) and Julia Winter (2005).

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View detail pageMike Teavee himself had no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body, and every now and again he would leap up into the air and fire off half a dozen rounds from one or another of these weapons." - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The fourth finder of Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets is Mike Teavee, a television-loving boy who appears in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. First released in 1964, the story has been adapted for two films, an opera and a stage musical.

In the original story, Roald doesn't tell us where Mike is from but - just like with Violet Beauregarde - most adaptations have presented him as an American. In the 1971 film he is from Marble Falls, Arizona; in the 2005 film he is from Denver, Colorado; and in the 2013 West End musical he is from an unnamed town in suburban America.

Mike is obsessed with TV and gadgets and is far less keen on people. In the original story and the 1971 film, he watches a lot of television, particularly shows involving gangsters shooting each other. In the 2005 film and 2013 musical it is video games that are his entertainment of choice. In all versions, it is his dependence on the small screen that ultimately proves his downfall. Like the other children before him, he ignores Mr Wonka's warnings and attempts to send himself by television - a big move that leads to a rather smaller result than he might have expected...

On film, Mike Teavee has been played by Paris Themmen (1971) and Jordan Fry (2005).

Find out moreLittle Billy's mother was always telling him exactly what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do." - The Minpins

When we first meet him at the beginning of The Minpins, Little Billy is bored. His mother has stopped him going out to play and most especially going to visit The Forest of Sin. But Little Billy is a resourceful boy and he sneaks out when his mother's not watching, ignoring her warnings about The Spittler and those terrible Vermicious Knids.

There is no Spittler but in the forest, Little Billy does indeed come across some ferocious beasts. He also meets The Minpins - tiny human-like creatures who live in the trees - and that resourcefulness comes in very handy when he needs to get home, past the dreaded Gruncher..."After James Henry Trotter had been living with his aunts for three whole years there came a morning when something rather peculiar happened to him." - James and the Giant Peach

James Henry Trotter is the lead character in Roald Dahl's first well-known children's book, James and the Giant Peach, which was first published in 1961. Since then the story has been adapted as an animated film in 1996, and as a children's play by David Wood.

When we first meet him, James is a lonely boy living with his two aunts "in a queer ramshackle house on the top of a high hill in the south of England." This is because, right at the beginning of the story, poor James is orphaned when his parents are killed by an angry rhinoceros.

His aunts are horrible. They make James do all the cleaning and never let him away from the house to meet other children or make friends.

But James's luck starts to change when he meets a mysterious old man who hands him a magical gift that will change his life - and introduce James to some of the most unusual friends a young boy could ever have...

In the 1996 film version of James and the Giant Peach, James was voiced by actor Paul Terry.

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View detail pageHe may have been only eight years old but he was a brave little boy. He was going to take this old woman on." - George's Marvellous Medicine

George is the only son of Mr and Mrs Kranky. He lives at home on a farm with his parents and his mother's own mother - miserable old Grandma, who orders George around and scares him with terrifying tall tales as soon as his Mum and Dad are out of the house.

Such a terror is George's Grandma that one day, when he's been left at home and instructed to give her her eleven o'clock medicine, he decides to conduct a little experiment.

"I'll make her a magic medicine, a medicine no doctor in the world has ever made before," he thinks.

And that's just what he does.

He's resourceful, is George, and experimental too. He wonders from room to room inspecting and collecting his medicinal ingredients and when eleven o'clock finally comes - well, Grandma doesn't quite know what's hit her.

And George? Well, George's experimental medicines leave him feeling he has touched the "edge of a magic world..."

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