Wednesday 25 March 2009

Now we're all reading Roald Dahl

Having very much enjoyed reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Minpins, The Magic Finger, James and the Giant Peach and Esio Trot (and The BFG, but it's a bit scary for the small girl I think), and having visited the Roald Dahl Museum recently, I realised that there are still some adult Roald Dahl titles which I haven't read. I've therefore just read Boy, part one of his autobiography, and am now on to part two, Going Solo.

It was a fascinating early life although tinged with sadness (the deaths of his father and sister, for one thing, and being sent away to boarding school didn't sound like much fun). And he had his nose cut off in a car accident - truly! Apparently his mother had to hold it on until the got to the doctor's, and the doc then set about it with a needle and thread and no anaesthetic. Blimey. I remember reading somewhere that he had a plane crash later on when flying for the RAF, so I expect I'll come to that next. It's the physical stuff which has really grabbed me - the descriptions of gettting caned are hilarious and gruesome at the same time. Now I wish that there were other ones I hadn't read so that I could read them too!

1 comment:

  1. Boy and Going Solo are both great. I wish he'd written more non-children's books.

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