Donald Sturrock

'Dear Mama, I am having a lovely time here. We play football every day here. The beds have no springs . . .' So begins the first letter that a nine-year-old Roald Dahl penned to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, under the watchful eye of his boarding-school headmaster. For most of his life, Roald Dahl would continue to write weekly letters to his mother, chronicling his adventures, frustrations and opinions, from the delights of childhood to the excitements of flying as a World War II fighter pilot and the thrill of meeting top politicians and movie stars during his time as a diplomat and spy in Washington. And, unbeknown to Roald, his mother lovingly kept every single one of them. Sofie was, in many ways, Roald's first reader. It was she who encouraged him to tell stories and nourished his desire to fabricate, exaggerate and entertain. Reading these letters, you can see Roald practicing his craft, developing the dark sense of humour and fantastical imagination that would later produce such timeless tales as The BFG, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Witches. The letters in Love from Boy are littered with jokes and madcap observations; sometimes serious, sometimes tender, and often outrageous. To eavesdrop on a son's letters to his mother is to witness Roald Dahl turning from a boy to a man, and finally becoming a writer.

Roald Dahl's Letters to his Mother

Love from Boy

THE FIRST AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF ROALD DAHL, STORYTELLER IS A MASTERFUL, WITTY AND INCISIVE LOOK AT ONE OF THE GREATEST AUTHORS AND ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS OF THE MODERN AGE. In his lifetime Roald Dahl pushed children’s literature into uncharted territory, and today his popularity around the globe continues to grow, with millions of his books sold every year. But the man behind the mesmerizing stories has remained largely an enigma. A single-minded adventurer and an eternal child who gave us the iconic Willy Wonka and Matilda Wormwood, Dahl was better known during his lifetime for his blunt opinions on taboo subjects—he was called an anti-Semite, a racist and a misogynist—than for his creative genius. His wild imagination, dark humor and linguistic elegance were less than fully appreciated by critics and readers alike until after his death. Granted unprecedented access to the Dahl estate’s extraordinary archives—personal correspondence, journals and interviews with family members and famous friends—Donald Sturrock draws on a wealth of previously unpublished materials that informed Dahl’s writing and his life. It was a life filled with incident, drama and adventure: from his harrowing experiences as an RAF fighter pilot and his work in wartime intelligence, to his many romances and turbulent marriage to the actress Patricia Neal, to the mental anguish caused by the death of his young daughter Olivia. Tracing a brilliant yet tempestuous ascent toward notoriety, Sturrock sheds new light on Dahl’s need for controversy, his abrasive manner and his fascination for the gruesome and the macabre. A remarkable biography of one of the world’s most exceptional writers, Storyteller is an intimate portrait of an intensely private man hindered by physical pain and haunted by family tragedy, and a timely reexamination of Dahl’s long and complex literary career.

The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl

Storyteller

Anyone who ever wished as a child to meet Willy Wonka or hang out with the BFG will be fascinated to learn in this engrossing, authorized biography of the late Roald Dahl that his own life was far, far more strange than even his fiction. Twenty years after his death, Roald Dahl's bestselling stories continue to inspire and entertain children around the globe. But the man behind the stories remains an enigma. Despite his astonishing life as a Norwegian growing up in Wales, whose father died when he was just five, and as an ace fighter pilot, British intelligence agent, and husband for a while to one of Hollywood's top stars, Dahl nonetheless persistently embroidered the truth about himself, rewrote history, ignored reality, and defended his deep vulnerabilities with outlandish and wilfully provocative remarks. Facts bored him. As his authorized biographer, Donald Sturrock, a wonderful writer and careful researcher, has drawn on Dahl's many previously unexamined files and a vast body of unpublished letters for this nuanced and engrossing narrative of the storyteller's long, adventurous life. From the Hardcover edition.

A Life in Letters

Roald Dahl

The authorised biography of one of the greatest storytellers of all time, written with complete and exclusive access to the archives stored in the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl è uno dei più grandi scrittori e cantastorie di tutti i tempi. La sua fantasia ha spinto la letteratura per ragazzi in territori inesplorati e, a poco più di vent’anni dalla sua morte, la sua popolarità tra adulti e bambini non cessa di aumentare. Considerato un eroe dai suoi lettori, l’uomo dietro lo scrittore, tuttavia, è rimasto per anni un mistero, e il personaggio pubblico non è stato immune da critiche. Alla sua morte, però, la sua reputazione ha subìto una vera e propria trasformazione e i critici adesso ne celebrano unanimemente l’impetuosa immaginazione, lo humour eccentrico e l’eleganza linguistica, mentre personaggi come Willy Wonka, il Grande Gigante Gentile e Matilde si ergono nel panorama letterario mondiale come creazioni immortali. Per questa magnifica biografia, Sturrock ha avuto accesso per la prima volta all’archivio privato dello scrittore, così come a centinaia di lettere e appunti inediti, rivelando aspetti sconosciuti della sua straordinaria vita: la spaventosa esperienza come pilota di caccia; gli anni a Washington durante la Seconda guerra mondiale; la depressione causata dalle disgrazie famigliari che lo colpirono negli anni Sessanta. Nel giro di pochi anni, l’unico figlio maschio dello scrittore rimase vittima, a soli quattro mesi, di un incidente stradale; la sua primogenita di sette anni morì in seguito a un attacco di meningite; la moglie, l’acclamata attrice americana Patricia Neal, venne colpita da emorragia cerebrale. Il libro descrive la reazione di Dahl a queste dolorose esperienze e gli avvenimenti che lo portarono, dopo aver passato la cinquantina, a innamorarsi per la prima volta. La biografia avvincente di uno scrittore eccezionale, ritratto intimo di un uomo estremamente riservato, perseguitato per tutta la vita dal dolore fisico e dalle tragedie famigliari. Dahl continua a vivere in ogni pagina di questo libro, che evoca la sua voce unica e svela l’uomo come non l’avevamo mai visto prima.

Donald Sturrock

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