92 Fun Facts About Roald Dahl

In which country was Roald Dahl born?

Wales: his father, a successful shipbroker, had settled in Cardiff, so Dahl was born in the city's Llandaff district.

Dahl's parents were immigrants from which country?

Norway: after his father died, his mother chose not to take the children home, because Harald had wanted them educated in British schools.

Dahl was named after which famous polar explorer?

Amundsen vanished in 1928 while flying over the Arctic to search for the crew of a crashed airship.

Which children's author, his childhood idol, did Dahl meet when he was six?

Beatrix Potter used her book profits to buy Lake District farms, and she left almost all her property to the National Trust.

In the 'Great Mouse Plot of 1924', eight-year-old Dahl and his friends put a dead mouse in a jar of what?

Gobstoppers: the headmaster caned all five boys for the prank, and a blue plaque went up at Mrs Pratchett's old sweet shop.

Which Matilda character did Dahl base on Mrs Pratchett, a 'mean and loathsome' woman from his boyhood?

Miss Trunchbull even suffers a similar prank in the book, when Lavender slips a newt into her water jug.

What is the title of Dahl's autobiography about his childhood?

Boy tells how, when Dahl was three, his seven-year-old sister Astri died, and his father died only weeks later.

Which Dahl book did Wes Anderson turn into a 2009 stop-motion film starring George Clooney?

Fantastic Mr Fox: Anderson recorded the voice cast on location, in a forest, an attic and a stable, rather than in a studio.

Which chocolate company sent new bars to Dahl's school for testing, inspiring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Dahl dreamed of inventing a bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself.

After school, Dahl joined which oil company and was posted to East Africa?

Shell posted him to Tanganyika, where his gardener once killed a charging black mamba with a rake.

Which obsolete biplane fighter was Dahl flying when he crashed in the Libyan desert in 1940?

Gloster Gladiator: he had been sent to the wrong location, and crash-landed in no man's land after running low on fuel at dusk.

In which Egyptian city did Dahl spend months in hospital after his 1940 desert crash?

Alexandria: he was blind for six weeks, and after months of recovery there he went back to flying fighters.

In Dahl's The Twits, what does Mr Twit coat a tree with to catch birds for pie?

Glue: the monkeys and birds later glue the Twits' furniture to the ceiling, tricking them into thinking they're upside down.

Dahl flew in his first aerial combat in April 1941 over which country?

Greece: after fighting in the Battle of Athens, he was evacuated to Egypt as the Germans pressed on the city.

Which fighter was Dahl flying when he shot down his first enemy plane?

Hawker Hurricane: he flew Hurricanes until worsening headaches made him black out, and he was invalided home to Britain.

In 1942 Dahl was posted to Washington, D.C. in what role?

Assistant air attaché: his job was to win over isolationist Americans by giving pro-British speeches about his war service.

Which British novelist writing wartime propaganda in America asked Dahl to write down RAF anecdotes, prompting his first published story?

C. S. Forester met him in Washington in 1942, and the story Dahl wrote for him, 'A Piece of Cake', launched his writing career.

Which magazine retitled Dahl's first story 'Shot Down Over Libya'?

The Saturday Evening Post changed the title, though Dahl had really crash-landed in the desert rather than been shot down.

Which spy novelist worked alongside Dahl promoting Britain's interests in wartime America?

Ian Fleming later created James Bond, and the same wartime circle included future advertising tycoon David Ogilvy.

Dahl passed intelligence to the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, who is widely known by what name?

Intrepid: though the name stuck to him, historians say it was probably a telegraphic address rather than his wartime codename.

What was Dahl's first children's book, published in 1943?

The Gremlins caught Walt Disney's eye, though his planned film was never made, and Eleanor Roosevelt read the book to her grandchildren.

Which Hollywood actress did Dahl marry in 1953?

Patricia Neal won the Best Actress Oscar for Hud, and after three burst aneurysms in 1965 she had to relearn how to walk and talk.

Dahl helped develop the Wade-Dahl-Till valve to treat which condition, after his son Theo was hit by a taxi?

Hydrocephalus: the shunt valve Dahl built with an engineer and a neurosurgeon went on to help almost 3,000 children.

Roald Dahl's eldest daughter died aged seven in 1962 from complications of which disease?

Measles: Dahl later wrote a pamphlet, 'Measles: A Dangerous Illness', urging parents to have their children vaccinated.

To whom is The BFG dedicated?

His late daughter Olivia: her death left Dahl 'limp with despair', and he dedicated The BFG to her twenty years later.

The heroine of The BFG is named after which member of Dahl's family?

His granddaughter Sophie Dahl was later discovered as a model by the fashion editor Isabella Blow.

What was the name of Dahl's home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, from 1954 until his death?

Gipsy House: the local builder who helped remodel it, Wally Saunders, went on to inspire Dahl's BFG.

Which of these Charlie and the Chocolate Factory characters did Dahl rewrite after the NAACP raised concerns?

Oompa-Loompas were drawn as African pygmies in the first edition, so Dahl made them white and gave them a made-up home, Loompaland.

Dahl's The Vicar of Nibbleswicke is about a clergyman with a fictitious form of which condition?

The vicar says words backwards; Dahl donated the rights to the Dyslexia Institute in London.

Which Dahl story, about a Cadillac wagered against a finger, did Tarantino adapt for Four Rooms?

'Man from the South' ends with a woman stopping the bet, and the hand she holds out has only a thumb and one finger left.

Which Dahl story did Hitchcock personally direct for TV in 1958?

'Lamb to the Slaughter' ends with detectives eating the frozen leg of lamb she killed her husband with, while she giggles in the next room.

Which of his books did Dahl write in 1975 inside a caravan in his garden?

Danny, the Champion of the World: Danny and his father drug a landowner's pheasants with raisins laced with sleeping pills.

Whose writing shed in Carmarthenshire did Dahl copy for his own writing hut?

On Desert Island Discs in 1979 he called Thomas 'the greatest poet of our time' and chose his reading of 'Fern Hill'.

Dahl wrote the screenplay for which 1960s spy film, set largely in Japan?

You Only Live Twice: Dahl judged the novel to have no filmable plot, so he kept only a few of its ideas and invented a new story.

Why did Dahl disown the 1971 Gene Wilder film of his chocolate-factory novel?

Too much Wonka, too little Charlie, he felt, and David Seltzer had rewritten much of Dahl's screenplay without credit.

Which illustrator is best known for drawing the pictures in Dahl's children's books?

Quentin Blake: to settle what the BFG wore on his feet, Dahl posted him one of his own sandals, and that is what the giant wears.

The grandmother in The Witches was based on whom?

Dahl's own mother, Sofie, told him and his sisters stories about trolls, much as the grandmother tells her grandson about witches.

Which ITV anthology series, running from 1979 to 1988, adapted Dahl's short stories?

Tales of the Unexpected began with Dahl's own stories and fireside introductions, but later series mostly adapted other writers.

Who played Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's 2005 Dahl adaptation?

Johnny Depp got the part after Dahl's widow, who held approval rights, blocked the studio's plan to have Tom Shadyac direct Jim Carrey as Wonka.

Which company bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021 for more than £500 million?

Netflix bought the rights to his whole catalogue, then released a film of Matilda the Musical in 2022.

Who plays Dahl himself in Wes Anderson's 2023 short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar?

Ralph Fiennes also plays the policeman who, after Henry throws his winnings into the street, tells him to find a better way to give.

In 2021, Forbes ranked Dahl first in which unusual category?

Top-earning dead celebrity: Forbes credited that year's sale of the Roald Dahl Story Company, and his books have sold over 300 million copies.

Which director made the 2016 live-action film of Dahl's The BFG?

Steven Spielberg reunited with E.T. writer Melissa Mathison, who died before the film came out, and he dedicated it to her.

Which seaside town, home to Dahl's boarding school St Peter's, did he describe as a 'seedy seaside resort'?

Weston-super-Mare: he was so homesick there that he faked appendicitis to get home, but the family doctor saw through it.

Which BBC honour did Dahl's daughter Lucy accept on his behalf in 2016?

A Blue Peter Gold badge went to Dahl, but badges can be taken back: presenter Richard Bacon had to return his when he was sacked.

Which children's imprint was criticised in 2023 for editing words like 'fat' out of Dahl's books?

Puffin made the changes on sensitivity readers' advice, then after the outcry agreed to keep his original texts in print too.

Dahl wrote that a Repton headmaster's brutal caning of a friend made him doubt what?

Religion: he named the caner as Geoffrey Fisher, later Archbishop of Canterbury, but biographer Jeremy Treglown says Fisher had already left Repton.

In 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic with a public schools expedition to hike through which territory?

Newfoundland: Dahl had passed up university, and trekked there with the Public Schools Exploring Society.

Dahl joined the RAF in 1939 and learned to fly in which African city?

Nairobi: he quit his oil company job in Dar es Salaam and made the long journey there on his own to enlist.

What does Matilda's father sell for a living in Roald Dahl's Matilda?

Second-hand cars: he tampers with their speedometers and packs them with sawdust to fool the buyers.

Which body asked Dahl to write a children's railway safety booklet, published posthumously in 1991?

The British Railways Board wanted to cut rising deaths of children on the tracks, and the booklet was one of the last things Dahl wrote.

What power does Matilda discover she has in Dahl's novel?

Moving things with her mind: once she moves up to a harder class, the power fades, and she is glad to see it go.

In the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which working animals does Veruca Salt demand as a pet?

Squirrels crack walnuts for Wonka in the book, and Veruca falls down the rubbish chute trying to catch one. The 1971 film swapped them for geese laying golden eggs.

Roald Dahl first planned James and the Giant Peach around which other giant fruit?

A cherry was the first idea, but Dahl decided a peach would be bigger, better-looking and much more squashy.

A 2018 statue for 30 years of Roald Dahl's Matilda showed Matilda standing up to which public figure?

Donald Trump topped a public poll on who Matilda would face down today, ahead of Theresa May and Piers Morgan. The statues stood opposite the library that inspired the one in the book.

Which actor played a young Willy Wonka in the 2023 musical prequel film Wonka?

Timothée Chalamet was a frontrunner for the part alongside Tom Holland, and his singing chocolatier brought him a Golden Globe nomination.

In Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, which pet does Mr Hoppy secretly swap for ever bigger ones?

Tortoise spelled backwards gives the title. Mr Hoppy hands Mrs Silver a backwards 'spell' to whisper to her pet Alfie, then quietly swaps him so she thinks the magic works.

In The BFG, whose help do Sophie and the giant seek to capture the man-eating giants?

The Queen wakes to find Sophie in her bedroom, talks to the giant over breakfast and sends a fleet of helicopters to tie up the man-eaters as they sleep.

In James and the Giant Peach, which escaped zoo animal eats James's parents on a shopping trip?

A rhinoceros does it when James is four, leaving him with his cruel aunts Spiker and Sponge, who are later flattened by the runaway peach.

Which child in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory falls into the Chocolate River and is sucked up a pipe?

Augustus Gloop ignores Wonka's warning, as do the others: Violet turns into a giant blueberry, Veruca drops down a rubbish chute and Mike is shrunk by television.

In Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, which storybook heroine carries a pistol and ends up with two fur coats?

Red Riding Hood turns sharpshooter in Dahl's verse, and the last of the little pigs later calls her in to deal with his own wolf, which wins her another fur coat.

Roald Dahl co-wrote the screenplay of which 1968 children's musical film starring Dick Van Dyke?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang took its land of Vulgaria and its airship from Dahl's script; neither appears in the original children's book.

What is the surname of Charlie, the poor hero of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Bucket is the family name of Charlie, who lives in poverty with his parents and grandparents. Wormwood and Kranky belong to Dahl's Matilda and George.

Which bedridden grandparent gets up to join the factory tour in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Grandpa Joe suddenly regains his mobility on hearing about the Golden Ticket. In an early draft Dahl had Charlie's mum go to the factory instead.

Where does the lift end up after overshooting the factory in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator?

In orbit, the lift docks at a newly built American hotel, where a scatterbrained President takes Wonka's party for foreign enemies.

Roald Dahl began but never finished a third Charlie book, set in which seat of power?

The White House is where the sequel leaves off: the President invites Charlie's family there as thanks for a rescue, and the grandparents jump out of bed to go.

In which country was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory first published in 1964, ahead of Britain?

The USA got the book first, from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, because Dahl had struggled to find a UK publisher for his children's stories.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka makes a chocolate palace for a prince of which country?

India is home to Prince Pondicherry, who ignores Wonka's advice to eat his palace before it melts.

Which food company financed the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to launch a new chocolate bar?

Quaker Oats had never made a film, but bought the book rights and paid for the picture purely to promote its new Wonka Bar.

At the end of James and the Giant Peach, the peach lands on the spire of which New York landmark?

The Empire State Building spears the peach after the wing of a passing plane cuts the last of the strings holding it in the air.

In The BFG, what foul-tasting food does the giant live on because he refuses to eat people?

Snozzcumber tastes of frog skin and rotten fish to Sophie, yet it is the only crop that grows in Giant Country, so the BFG has nothing else to eat.

In The BFG, what does the giant catch, store in jars and blow through a trumpet to sleeping children?

Dreams are his trade: he catches them in Dream Country, gives the good ones to children all around the globe and destroys the bad ones.

Which English stage actor gave the motion-capture performance as the giant in the 2016 film The BFG?

Mark Rylance followed David Jason, who voiced the giant in a 1989 animated film first shown on ITV on Christmas Day.

In Roald Dahl's Matilda, which kindly teacher was raised by the aunt who is now her school's headmistress?

Miss Honey lives in poverty in a derelict farm cottage because that aunt has her salary paid into her own bank account.

In Roald Dahl's Matilda, which pupil is made to eat an enormous chocolate cake in front of the whole school?

Bruce Bogtrotter is caught stealing a slice of the headmistress's own cake, then stuns her by finishing all 18 inches of the one meant to punish him.

In Roald Dahl's Matilda, which creature does Lavender slip into the headmistress's water jug as a prank?

A newt ends up in the jug, and it is Matilda rather than her friend Lavender who gets the blame for the practical joke.

Which Australian musical comedian wrote the songs for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Matilda the Musical?

Tim Minchin got the job after Bill Bailey turned it down, and the show went on to win both Olivier and Tony awards.

Which actress played the Grand High Witch in the 1990 film of Roald Dahl's The Witches?

Anjelica Huston spent six hours having the make-up applied and another six having it removed. Anne Hathaway took the part in the 2020 remake.

In Roald Dahl's The Witches, the witches meet in a hotel ballroom in which English seaside resort?

Bournemouth's luxury hotel hosts them under a false name, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The boy is only there because a trip abroad was cancelled.

In Roald Dahl's The Twits, what is hidden in a plate of spaghetti as one of the couple's nasty pranks?

Worms in the spaghetti are typical of the Twits, who also put a frog in the bed. The dish lives on as Wormy Spaghetti in a book of Dahl recipes.

Roald Dahl wrote The Twits as an attack on which male fashion that disgusted him?

Beards disgusted Dahl, so he gave Mr Twit a filthy one. He once told a bearded writer's young son that his father's probably still held that morning's breakfast.

In George's Marvellous Medicine, which of his father's animals is the first that George doses with the potion?

A chicken shoots up to giant size, and George's father is so thrilled he wants gallons of the stuff brewed to make the family rich.

In The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, what kind of business do Billy's animal friends run without ladders?

Window cleaning brings a job on every window of a Duke's vast house, where the crew catch a jewel thief known as the Cobra.

Which Roald Dahl book about tiny people living inside trees was published in 1991, after his death?

The Minpins make their home in a forest where Little Billy flies on a swan's back to lure a fire-bellied monster, the Gruncher, into a lake.

Which Roald Dahl memoir follows his years in East Africa and as a wartime fighter pilot?

Going Solo includes a lion carrying off a woman in its mouth and a gardener killing a black mamba with a rake, all before Dahl ever climbs into a cockpit.

In The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which skill does Henry spend years mastering to win at casinos?

Seeing through cards makes him rich but leaves him cold, so he throws cash off his balcony and then uses his winnings to fund orphanages.

Which keepsake from his own operation did Roald Dahl keep on a table in his garden writing hut?

His hip bone, saved after a hip replacement, sat on the table beside a ball of crushed silver wrappers from chocolate bars.

Which Hollywood star played shy Mr Hoppy opposite Judi Dench in the BBC's 2015 film of Esio Trot?

Dustin Hoffman's bashful bachelor woos Dench's Mrs Silver in a script adapted by Richard Curtis and narrated by James Corden.

In Roald Dahl's short story Taste, a dinner guest stakes two houses against a marriage on naming what?

A wine is the challenge, and the guest proceeds to name the district, commune, vineyard and year of the claret while the host's family look on in horror.

In Roald Dahl's story The Sound Machine, an inventor's device lets him hear the screams of what?

Plants shriek whenever they are cut, the machine reveals, by turning sounds pitched too high for human ears into ones its maker can hear.

Which American actor won an Olivier Award for playing Roald Dahl in the stage play Giant?

John Lithgow took one of the play's Olivier Awards, alongside Best New Play, after its Royal Court premiere, then carried the role to Broadway.

Before the war, Roald Dahl worked for an oil company in which East African city, then in Tanganyika?

Dar es Salaam gave him a cook, personal servants and a home shared with the company's only other two men in the territory.