Posted on Tuesday 11 September 2007
The 13th of September marks a worldwide Roald Dahl Day on which the writer of James and the Giant Peace, Matilda, Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG would have turned 91. This will be the 5th edition of the worldwide Roald Dahl Day, with the first held in 2003. 
The Welsh novelist, born from Norwegian immigrants, became famous for his children’s books, of which Quentin Blake illustrated all.
Dahl was first published in the Saturday Evening Post, who paid him $900 for Shot Down Over Libya, now published as A Piece of Cake.
His first children’s book was The Gremlins, which was published in 1943 and commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.
His inspiration for his third children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came from his work for the Cadbury Chocolate Company. Dahl, it seems, dreamed of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury. A first edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now worth close to £4,000.
Along with books he also wrote screenplays. Two of his screenplays were based on novels by Ian Fleming, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In total over 50 million Dahl paperbacks have been sold in the UK so far.
For more information on the worldwide Roald Dahl Day visit:
by Michou Gerits