Roald Dahl
Basic Facts about Roald Dahl
Roald was born in Landiff, Cardiff which is in Wales, in 13 December 1916. Both of his parents where Norweign_Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (Hesselberg). Roald was named after the famous polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
Famliy
Roald first married Patricia Neal, an america actress on the 2 of July 1953. She had 5 children called Oivia (she died when she was seven because of measles encephalitis), Tessa, Theo, Ophelia and Lucy. When Theo was 4 months old he was greatly hurt by an accident. His baby carrige hit a taxi and he suffered with hydrocephalus. 1983 and re-married to Felicity d'Abrue Crosland who was born 2 December 1938 and she was 22 years younger than him.
School...(through the eyes of Roald Dahl)
From age seven to nineIwent to Llandaff Catherdral School where the great mouse plot occoured, and was caned on the back of his legs. Then there was when I went on holiday with his family and My mother took me to the docters where my adenoids where removed without any anaesthetic. By a steel opertation tool that was about the thickness of a pencil and shrank towards the end where itwas barely a centimetre long like a sharp, shiny blade. It was heated then twisted and turned at the roof of my mouth.
Then I went to St Peters from age nine to thirten. Now in those days they had something called a tuck box and sometimes they still dohave them nowadays. A tuck box is a box where the student can put anything in there like cakes, buns, yo-yos and other everyday objects. Everyone in the school had one. In the school there was something called Matron. She was a mean, spiteful lady and was never pitiful to litle boys who cut their knee. She would just florish it away and said "Such a big fuss over nothing!"
Now one day I was homesick and wanted to go home more despertately than any other time. So, I pretended to be ill but the docter was far more cleverer than me and knew I wasn't. They agreed that I would never do anything lik,e that again and told the school that he was curing me with pills.
Holidays Disaster!
During the christmas holidays I went driving in a motor car with my half-sister. She was driving. My half-brother, my sister and my mother was also in the car with me. We where urging her to go faster complaining that she was going to slow by going 15 miles an hour compared to 60. We where going at around thirty-five miles an hour when they got to a very sharp turn on the road. My half-sister had never been so fast on such a sharp turn that she cried "HELP!" and slammed the brakes. Amazingly nodody was hurt majorly exept from me. My nose was cut from my face exept tht it was hanging on a single thread of skin. My mother quickly went to me and took a handkerchief and placed it on my nose. My half-sister had some trouble driving backwards exept she finlay maneged. We went to Dr Dunbar's house as he exclaimed "My, my! It's off of your face! And you can definately not go around with no nose on!" Dr Dunbar examined.
"But he will have to, won't he?" "Of course not! I shall sew it back on again!" he annouced.
"Are you sure you'll be able to? I definatly would not want my sonto go around with an odly placed nose, people might think he's deformed!"
" I Shall try my best. I will be at your house in one hour with my assistant."
One hour later I found himself on the same bed hios half-sister was on for her appendix. A man was pouring a clear liquid on a piece of cotton. "There now, take some deep breaths,thats it, now don't try to wake up..." A strong smell filled the air I breathed before I blacked out. I woke up in the bed I usually sleep in, with my mother holding my hand looking over at me. I thought you where never going to wake up. You've been sleeping for over eight hours. How do you feel?"
"Sick. Bllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!" I replied as I threw up in a small tub.
"Look under your pillow. Thats for you. Because you were so brave." Under my pillow was a sovereign King George V on the outline.
Repton
I went to Repton and Shell from when I was thirteen to twenty. When I was around twelve my mother ask me "Do you want to bo to Marlborough or Repton?"
"Repton . I want to go to Repton." To be honest I actually didn't know about the two of them, I only knew they where famous public schools, I just told her Repton because it's easier to say. We lived in Kent, in Bexly and because Repton was in the midlands, up, up, up. 140 miles north. There where more trains than cars back then so, unsurprisingly, I would be taken there on train. A week before school started my mother and I went to London to by my uniform.I can still remember how shocked I was to see the uniform. "I can't wear those! Nobody in the whole entire world wears that!" I cried.
"Are you sure you have'nt mistaken the uniform?" my mother asked. I hoped there was but the answer was unfortunate.
"If he's going to go to Repton he wears that,"The shop keeper replied firmly. It was in front of me ironed and washed on the first day of school. "Go on, put it on!" my mother urged "Or you're going to miss the train." I reculuctantly started dressing myself.
In Repton Prefects were called Boazers not Prefects. Boazers ruled over the junior kids. They could it hit you just for having a sock on the boys changing room floor instead of it being hung up or burning his tea toast or beacuse you didn't clean his study properly. The list could go to the moon and back and still not be finished. Late at night in the changing room the boazer would ask "Four with the dressing gown or three without it?" the people in the dormitry had told him the answer as he would mutter "I'll have four with it on..." Nearly immediatly there was a crack, crack, crack. "Woa, that Williamson's got a great eye! Look at that! Not many Boazers can getthat without a dressing gown!"
A cardboard box came now and then from the great chocolate factory it self- Cadburys. One boy from every house would get a nibble of every bar. Cadburys where smart. They were using the best chocolate tasters in the world which were 13 to 18 years old!
I spent two years being a fag. Two long years. A fag is a severant to a studyholder. If you were unlucky you would be a fag to a Head Boazer on which the reasons are obvious. Durin the second term I was chosen to be a fag to a Boazer to the seventeen years old Carleton.We would clean and wash every day or him. Also a House Boazer could make any fag in his house do what he wanted. All he had to do was shout Fa-a-a-a-g! and the last one there had to do the job. Once I was the last on there so he said the most complecated thing in the world. Go heat my seat in the bogs. I asked a fellow fag and he said it meant go heat my toilet seat so I went to the toilet scraped off the ice took off my trousers and sat on the seat. It must thave been 15 mineuts before he (The Boazer-Wilberforce) came. He said I was very good and he put me thon the list. Fronm that day on I was his favoutrite bog wamer
When I was twenty I was sent to a business trip to East Asia. I told my mother that I would be away for three years. Most mothers at this stage would dtart fussing but my mother exlaimed, Oh good for you it's where you always wanted to go! I left six days later and enjoyed my adventure.
