The Life of Roald Dahl
By Isabel Jones
Early Life
Later Life
In 1951 Roald met his wife Patricia Neal and was married at the age of 37 in New York. Then in 1955 his first daughter Olivia was born, in 1957 his second daughter Tessa was born, and in 1960 his son Leo was born. The 1960's were a very important time in his life and also the decade of some of his most famous works. It started out with his show on CBS called Way Out in 1961 and sadly after in 1962 his eldest daughter Olivia died. After that he published some of his most famous works such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964, The Magic Finger in 1966, and Chitty Chitty Bang bang in 1968. In 1970 he wrote Fantastic Mr. Fox and in 1971 the movie Charlie and the Chocolate factory was released.
The 1980's also had great accomplishments, some lows, and was sadly Roald's last full decade of life. He released The Twits in 1980, Georges Marvelous Medicine in 1981, The BFG in 1982, The Witches in 1983, and one of my personal favorites Matilda in 1988. He also separated from Patricia Neal in 1981 and remarried again in 1983 to Felicity Crossland. Sadly Roald Dahl died on November 23rd, 1990 at the age of 74 but even after his death his works and spirit lived on. In 1996 James and the Giant Peach and Matilda were released as movies and Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009. Matilda also went on Broadway in April of 2013 and was a huge hit in the industry.
Matilda
Meet Matilda a charming, genius, almost supernatural, girl who is born to idiotic parents who ignore her instead of noticing her incredible skills. In spite of them, she taught herself to read and heads to the local library, where the librarian Mrs. Phelps sets her up with a very advanced reading list. But then Matilda starts school and at school there is Miss Trenchbull, two hundred pounds of kid-hating headmisstress. Quickly after starting school Miss Honey, Matilda's teacher, starts to know how smart she is and befriends the girl during school. Meanwhile Matilda's new friend Lavender decides to prank Miss Trenchbull during a school field trip by putting a newt in her glass of water. Miss Trenchbull accuses Matilda of doing it and Matilda, so angry, uses her mind to knock over the water glass. Matilda went straight to Miss Honey and showed her her telekinesis powers which causes Miss Honey and Matilda to have tea together. During tea Miss Honey shares about her terrible past and about her awful aunt who killed her father and stole her money. Matilda later learns that her aunt is Miss Trenchbull. Matilda decides to use her special powers and help Miss Honey, get rid of the Trenchbull and Matilda would be a hero. But that would take a super-human genius, wouldn't it? Read Matilda by Roald Dahl to find out if Matilda and Miss Honey get there happy ending.