Roald Dahl Biography: Dahl's popularity
Many people have tried to account for the astonishing success of Roald Dahl’s writing for children. Robin Swicord, who co-wrote the script for the movie version of Matilda says that “He is keyed into the psychological life of a child better than any other writer. He brings their fears right to the surface, whether it’s about the first day of school or saving your grandparents from death.” In a similar vein, Danny DeVito, actor, producer and director, says that “Dahl will lead a child out onto a windy limb and then suddenly he’'ll place a ladder underneath and the child will be able to get safely to the ground.”
Roald’s empathy with children goes even further than that. As David Gritten notes in Sainsbury’s – The Magazine, “Dahl books, strong on plot and instilled with a tremendous sense of mischief, insist on seeing the world through children’s eyes, and often portray adults as silly, uncomprehending or insensitive; no wonder kids love them.” This was something Roald was set upon doing. He once declared that, “If you want to remember what it’s like to live in a child’s world, you’ve got to get down on your hands and knees and live like that for a week. You’ll find you have to look up at all these… giants around you who are always telling you what to do and what not to do.”
The Dahl magic has proved unstoppable throughout the world. In addition to the UK editions, his work has been translated into 34 languages, reaching everywhere from Estonia to Finland; from Greece to Japan. In spite of his unrivalled success, Roald Dahl won only a handful of awards, including, in the UK, the Whitbread Award 1983 for The Witches and the Children’s Book Award (from the Federation of Children’s Book Groups) in 1988 for Matilda. As Tony Bradman noted in The Telegraph, such awards “came late in a career characterised by a general snootiness in critical quarters, and a growing tide of popularity with the punters which eventually became a deluge of Noah-style proportions.”
Roald Dahl was a great believer in the importance of reading. "I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers,” he once said, “to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” He would, then, have been gratified by his obituary in The Independent, which paid tribute to the huge role he played “in getting children hooked into reading by offering them the kind of stories they really wanted to read. Stylistically too, he helped new readers by using language simply and accurately. The quality of his writing is easily discernible by the fluency with which it can be read aloud… For many children Roald Dahl is synonymous with reading. He is the one author whose books are currency among children, being passed eagerly from hand to hand as soon as they appear.”
Roald’s empathy with children goes even further than that. As David Gritten notes in Sainsbury’s – The Magazine, “Dahl books, strong on plot and instilled with a tremendous sense of mischief, insist on seeing the world through children’s eyes, and often portray adults as silly, uncomprehending or insensitive; no wonder kids love them.” This was something Roald was set upon doing. He once declared that, “If you want to remember what it’s like to live in a child’s world, you’ve got to get down on your hands and knees and live like that for a week. You’ll find you have to look up at all these… giants around you who are always telling you what to do and what not to do.”
The Dahl magic has proved unstoppable throughout the world. In addition to the UK editions, his work has been translated into 34 languages, reaching everywhere from Estonia to Finland; from Greece to Japan. In spite of his unrivalled success, Roald Dahl won only a handful of awards, including, in the UK, the Whitbread Award 1983 for The Witches and the Children’s Book Award (from the Federation of Children’s Book Groups) in 1988 for Matilda. As Tony Bradman noted in The Telegraph, such awards “came late in a career characterised by a general snootiness in critical quarters, and a growing tide of popularity with the punters which eventually became a deluge of Noah-style proportions.”
Roald Dahl was a great believer in the importance of reading. "I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers,” he once said, “to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” He would, then, have been gratified by his obituary in The Independent, which paid tribute to the huge role he played “in getting children hooked into reading by offering them the kind of stories they really wanted to read. Stylistically too, he helped new readers by using language simply and accurately. The quality of his writing is easily discernible by the fluency with which it can be read aloud… For many children Roald Dahl is synonymous with reading. He is the one author whose books are currency among children, being passed eagerly from hand to hand as soon as they appear.”
Danny DeVito as
The Giant in
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Giant in
Jack and the Beanstalk
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