Introduction: ‘A Perfectly Ordinary Fellow’
1 Roald Dahl, ‘For Children’, speech, typescript 1975, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre (hereafter RDMSC) RD06010126.
2 Liz Attenborough to Roald Dahl, 24 May 1990, RDMSC RD1/6/12.
3 P. L. Travers, ‘Johnny Delaney’, 1944, included in Aunt Sass Christmas Stories (Virago, London, 2014), p. 111.
4 Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl (Harper Press paperback, London, 2011), p. 486.
5 Kathryn Hughes, Guardian, 11 September 2010.
6 Roald Dahl to Christine Wootton, 2 August 1989, private collection.
7 Roald Dahl to Professor Mark West, 6 April 1988, RDMSC RD1/6/10.
8 Dahl, ‘For Children’.
9 Roald Dahl, ‘A Note on writing books for Children’, RDMSC RD 6/2/1/12.
Chapter 1: ‘Little Boy Blue’
1 Roald Dahl, ‘On Writing Matilda’, RDMSC RD/6/1/2/30.
2 Roald Dahl, ‘Genesis and Catastrophe’, 1959, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two (Penguin, London, 2013), p. 105.
3 Roald Dahl, Boy: Tales of Childhood (Puffin paperback, London, 1986), p. 20.
4 Roald Dahl, My Year (New Windmill reprint, Oxford, 1997), p. 5.
5 Western Mail, 6 November 1918 and 22 November 1919.
6 Dahl, Boy, p. 53; Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at Gipsy House (Viking, London, 1991), p. 65.
7 Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox (Puffin reprint, London, 1997), p. 17.
8 Dahl, Boy, p. 17; Western Mail, 30 October 1975.
9 Dahl, Boy, p. 21.
10 Tessa Dahl, ‘You Can Love but You’d Better Not Touch’, YOU Magazine, 1990, RDMSC RD/12/2/11/1.
11 Roald Dahl, ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’, audio interview, 28 September 1986, RDMSC RD/12/1/27; Roald Dahl to the secretary, Writers Guild of America, 9 January 1984, RDMSC RD1/6/6.
12 Tessa Dahl, ‘You Can Love but You’d Better Not Touch’; Wendy Kress, quoted Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 553.
13 Dahl, Boy, p. 22.
14 Dahl, My Year, pp. 18 and 20.
15 Roald Dahl, ‘The Bookseller’, 1987, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 752.
16 Roald Dahl, The Witches (Puffin reprint, London, 1985), p. 8.
17 Else Logsdail (sister), quoted in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’.
18 Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography (Faber and Faber, London, 1994), p. 14.
19 Roald Dahl, ‘Only This’, 1944, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One (Penguin, London, 2013), p. 38.
20 Alfhild Hansen (sister), quoted in Sturrock, Donald, Love from Boy: Roald Dahl’s Letters to His Mother (John Murray, London, 2016), p. xxi.
21 Alfhild Hansen (sister), quoted in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’.
22 Roald Dahl, Ideas Book 1, RDMSC RD11/1.
23 Else Logsdail (sister), quoted in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’; Dahl, The Witches, p. 6; see Roald Dahl, Introduction, Fear (Penguin reprint, London, 2017), p. 12.
24 Roald Dahl, ‘Nursery Rhymes’, school essay, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/39.
25 Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin reprint, London, 2001), p. 97.
26 Dahl, Ideas Book 1.
27 Roald Dahl, ‘Joss Spivvis’, included in When We Were Young: Memories of Childhood (David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1987), p. 13.
28 Damian Walford Davies, ed., Roald Dahl: Wales of the Unexpected (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2016), p. 17.
29 Ibid., p. 16; Dahl, ‘Joss Spivvis’, p. 14.
30 Dahl, ‘Joss Spivvis’, p. 13.
31 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 68.
32 Roald Dahl, ‘Dahl Diary’, manuscript, RDMSC RD2/33/4.
33 Dahl, Boy, p. 54.
34 Ibid., pp. 55–6.
35 Ibid., p. 57.
36 Ibid., p. 61.
37 Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach (Puffin reprint, London, 2016), p. 1.
38 Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World (Puffin reprint, London, 2001), p. 215.
39 Roald Dahl, ‘Dreams’, school essay, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/23.
40 Dahl, Boy, p. 65.
41 Roald Dahl, The BFG (Puffin reprint, London, 2016), p. 14.
42 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 22.
43 Ibid., p. 4; Roald Dahl, Matilda (Puffin reprint, London, 2013), p. 77.
44 Roald Dahl, ‘On Writing Matilda’, RDMSC RD/6/1/2/30.
45 Ibid.; Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 55.
46 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 29.
47 Dahl, Boy, p. 51; Roald Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, 1977, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 618.
48 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 618.
49 Dahl, Boy, p. 49.
50 Ibid., p. 33.
51 Dahl, ‘Dahl Diary’.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 624.
58 Ibid., p. 619; Dahl, The Witches, p. 71.
59 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 621.
60 Dahl, ‘Dahl Diary’.
61 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 56.
62 Roald Dahl, letter to the editor of The Times, 9 October 1989, RDMSC RD1/6/19.
63 Roald Dahl, ‘A Note on Writing Books for Children’, RDMSC RD6/2/1/12.
64 Dahl, Matilda, p. 7.
65 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 56; Roald Dahl, Introduction, Fear, p. 11.
66 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 199.
67 Dahl, ‘A Note on Writing Books for Children’.
68 Roald Dahl to Kenneth Baker, 21 November 1988, RDMSC RD010613.
69 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 629.
70 Roald Dahl, Foreword to ‘The Roald Dahl Notebook’, RDMSC RD1/6/11.
Chapter 2: Plodding, Endless Terms
1 See RDMSC RD13/4/8.
2 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 4 February 1934, RDMSC RD13/1/9/24.
3 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 32.
4 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 25 January 1930. See Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 45.
5 Ibid., p. 85.
6 Ibid., p. 56.
7 See RDMSC RD2/23/1/166.
8 Ibid.; Dahl, Boy, p. 163.
9 Dahl, My Year, p. 44.
10 Roald Dahl, ‘The Reapers’, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/13.
11 Roald Dahl, ‘Laughter’, school essay, October 1933, RDMSC RD13/3/3/1.
12 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 630.
13 See RDMSC RD2/23/1/166.
14 Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World, p. 6.
15 Roald Dahl, ‘Galloping Foxley’, 1953, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 445.
16 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 22.
17 Dahl, Boy, p. 145.
18 Roald Dahl to ‘all the clever children at Primate Dixon Memorial Boys’ School’, undated [1988], later included as ‘A Poem in Reply to Schoolchildren’, in The Roald Dahl Treasury (Jonathan Cape, London, 1997).
19 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 79.
20 Ibid., p. 53.
21 Roald Dahl, annotation to a school essay on ‘The Importance of Parliamentary Reform Acts’, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/4.
22 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, May 1933, RDMSC RD 13/1/8/38.
23 Roald Dahl, ‘Adventures with Carlyle’s Wishing Hat’, school essay, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/10.
24 Roald Dahl, ‘A Conversation with a Pavement Artist’, creative writing, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/6.
25 See RDMSC RD/12/1/27.
26 Dahl, Boy, p. 163.
27 Ibid., p. 148.
28 Roald Dahl, see Angela Levin, YOU Magazine, 24 April 1983, RDMSC RD12/1/16.
29 Roald Dahl, ‘Decisive Episodes of British Rule in India up to 1857’, school essay, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/17.
30 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, undated, RDMSC RD13/1/6/48.
31 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 621.
32 Ibid.
33 John Crommelin-Brown, Dies Heroica (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1918), p. v.
34 Ibid., p. 21.
35 See annotation to Roald Dahl, creative writing, ‘Getting the News’, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/16.
36 See annotation to Roald Dahl, ‘Laughter’, school essay, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/1.
37 See RDMSC RD6/2/1/23.
38 Roald Dahl to Jay Williams, undated (1980); Roald Dahl to Professor Brian Cox, Department of Education and Science, 2 June 1988, RDMSC RD2/6/88.
39 Dahl, ‘For Children’.
40 Roald Dahl, ‘An African Story’, 1945, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 63.
41 See RDMSC RD/12/1/27.
42 Roald Dahl, ‘Mr Billy Bubbler’, see RDMSC RD11/3/23/1-11.
43 Roald Dahl, ‘A Conversation with a Pavement Artist’, creative writing, c.1930s, RDMSC RD13/3/3/6; Dahl, Boy, p. 166.
44 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 581, note 42.
45 Dahl, My Year, p. 44.
46 RDMSC RD13/12/90.
47 Dahl, ‘For Children’.
48 Ibid.
Chapter 3: Fit and Tough
1 Roald Dahl, ‘Newfoundland Diary’, RDMSC RD13/5/1.
2 George Murray Levick, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 4 August 1939, p. 970.
3 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 85.
4 Ibid., p. 90.
5 Ibid., p. 88.
6 Ibid., p. 67.
7 Roald Dahl, ‘Newfoundland Diary’, 19 August 1934, RDMSC RD13/5/1.
8 Ibid., 18 August 1934.
9 Ibid., 26 August 1934.
10 Ibid., 20 August 1934.
11 Ibid., 26 August 1934.
12 Roald Dahl, in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’.
13 Dahl, Boy, p. 170.
14 See Lucy Hughes-Hallett, ‘Roald Dahl: Tall Storyteller’, Vogue, 1979.
15 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 30.
16 Roald Dahl, Going Solo (Puffin reprint, London, 1988), pp. 3, 23.
17 See Jeremy Treglown, ‘The Fantastic Mr Dahl’, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2016.
18 Western Mail, 10–15 December 1937.
19 Dahl, Going Solo, p. 5.
20 Ibid., p. 26.
21 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 106.
22 Ibid.
23 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, undated [January 1939], RDMSC RD14/3/19; Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 115.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Dahl, Boy, p. 247.
27 Dahl, Going Solo, p. 26.
28 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 105.
29 Dahl, Going Solo, p. 23.
30 Roald Dahl, The Minpins (Puffin reprint, London, 2017), p. 98.
31 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 120.
32 Roald Dahl, ‘Claud’s Dog’, 1953, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 519.
33 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 136.
34 Dahl, ‘An African Story’, p. 61.
35 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 154.
36 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 14 August 1940, RDMSC RD14/4/3; Roald Dahl, ‘Madame Rosette’, 1945, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 129.
37 Roald Dahl, ‘The Surgeon’, 1988, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 782.
38 Dahl, The Minpins, pp. 67, 83; Roald Dahl, ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, 1945, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 117.
39 Roald Dahl, ‘Beware of the Dog’, 1944, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 46.
40 Roald Dahl, ‘A Piece of Cake’, 1945, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 89.
41 Dahl, James and the Giant Peach, p. 101.
42 Dahl, ‘A Piece of Cake’, p. 92.
43 Dahl, Boy, p. 35.
Chapter 4: Stalky
1 Roald Dahl, ‘Cinderella’, Revolting Rhymes (Jonathan Cape, London, 1982).
2 See Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 17 April 1943, RDMSC RD14/5/2/11.
3 Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at Gipsy House, p. 66.
4 Tom Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine (Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2016), p. 55.
5 Ibid.
6 Roald Dahl, ‘Zodiac’, RDMSC RD2/33/7.
7 Dahl, Boy, p. 190.
8 Felicity Dahl, letter to The Times, 1990, RDMSC RD 1/6/5.
9 Dahl, Boy, p. 206.
10 Dahl, Going Solo, pp. 150, 151.
11 See The Sunday Times, 4 October 1986.
12 See Levin, YOU Magazine, 24 April 1983.
13 Pat Brazier, ‘Memories of Roald Dahl’, September 2018, RDMSC RD 4/4/40.
14 Dahl, Going Solo, p. 210.
15 Ibid., pp. 188–9; Jennet Conant, The Irregulars (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2008), p. 16.
16 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love (Penguin reprint, London, 1989), p. 5.
17 Dahl, The Minpins, p. 92.
18 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 172.
19 Ibid., p. 173.
20 Conant, The Irregulars, p. 16.
21 Roald Dahl, Ideas Book 2, RDMSC RD11/2.
22 Dahl, ‘Lucky Break’, p. 644.
23 Ibid., pp. 641, 642.
24 Ibid., p. 644.
25 Ibid., pp. 644–5.
26 Roald Dahl, ‘Shot Down Over Libya’, Saturday Evening Post, 1 August 1942, p. 38.
27 Dahl, Boy, p. 230.
28 Roald Dahl to Professor Brian Cox, Department of Education and Science, 2 June 1988, RDMSC RD2/6/88.
29 Dahl, Boy, pp. 223–4.
30 Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald (Penguin reprint, London, 1980), p. 9.
31 Dahl, Boy, p. 227.
32 Ibid.
33 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 58; Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 173.
34 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 63; Dahl, My Year, p. 53.
35 Dahl, Boy, p. 226; Dahl, The Minpins, pp. 36–7.
36 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 182.
37 Dahl, Boy, p. 231.
38 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 247.
39 Dahl, Boy, p. 227.
40 Kilmarnock Herald & North Ayrshire Gazette, 17 May 1946.
41 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 176.
42 Ibid., p. 182.
43 Roald Dahl, The Gremlins (Walt Disney/Random House, 1943).
44 Sheila St Lawrence to Roald Dahl, 5 June 1957, RDMSC RD1/1/3/282.
45 Dahl, Boy, p. 237.
46 Ibid.
Chapter 5: The Perfect Spy?
1 Roald Dahl interview, Wogan, BBC1, December 1984.
2 The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl, documentary, BBC2, 2016.
3 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 17 June 1943, RDMSC RD14/5/2/19.
4 Ibid., RDMSC RD14/5/2/20; Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 228.
5 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 217.
6 Conant, The Irregulars, p. 32; William Stephenson to Roald Dahl, 20 June 1945, RDMSC RD15/5/2.
7 Felicity Dahl, in The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl.
8 Ibid.
9 Roald Dahl, ‘Someone Like You’, 1944, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 186.
10 Felicity Dahl, in The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl.
11 Dahl, Boy, p. 261.
12 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 319.
13 Dahl, Ideas Book 1; Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 73.
14 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 53.
15 Ibid., p. 54.
16 Dahl, My Uncle Oswald, p. 31; see Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 23.
17 Treglown, Roald Dahl, pp. 53, 71.
18 Dahl, Boy, p. 265; Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 232.
19 Dahl, Boy, p. 256.
20 Conant, The Irregulars, p. 248.
21 Sturrock, Storyteller, pp. 228–9.
22 Ibid., p. 336.
23 Roald Dahl, Boy, p. 269.
24 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 73.
25 Ibid., p. 77.
26 Dahl, Boy, p. 247.
27 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 273.
28 Dahl, Ideas Book 1.
29 Roald Dahl, ‘The Soldier’, 1953, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 477.
30 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 327.
31 Ibid., p. 280.
32 See The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl.
33 Dahl, ‘Claud’s Dog’, p. 582.
34 Roald Dahl, notes on ‘Mary Honey’, RDMSC RD11/3/1/1-8.
35 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 18 March 1951, RDMSC RD14/5/6.
36 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 302.
Chapter 6: My Lady Love, My Dove
1 Roald Dahl, ‘My Lady Love, My Dove’, 1952, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 347.
2 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, undated, RDMSC RD14/5/6.
3 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, ‘Thursday evening’, undated, RDMSC RD14/5/6; and Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 18 December 1951, RDMSC RD14/5/6.
4 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 23 October [1951?], RDMSC RD14/5/6.
5 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 9 May 1951, RDMSC RD14/5/6.
6 Roald Dahl, ‘For “The Architectural Digest”’, typescript, July 1980, RDMSC RD06020116.
7 Roald Dahl, ‘Nunc Dimittis’, 1953, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 370.
8 Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at Gipsy House, p. 67.
9 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 314.
10 Roald Dahl, ‘Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat’, 1959, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 114.
11 Roald Dahl, ‘Princess Mammalia’, 1986, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 734.
12 Patricia Neal, interviewed in the Guardian, 6 January 1971.
13 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 316.
14 Patricia Neal, interviewed in the Guardian, 6 January 1971.
15 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 317.
16 Ibid., p. 321.
17 Roald Dahl, speech at Tessa Dahl’s wedding, 28 February 1981, RDMSC RD6/1/2/18.
18 See Nadia Cohen, The Real Roald Dahl (Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2018), p. 91.
19 Patricia Neal, interviewed in the Guardian, 6 January 1971.
20 Sturrock, Storyteller, pp. 332–3.
21 Patricia Neal, interviewed in the Guardian, 6 January 1971.
22 Quoted in Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, pp. 88–9.
23 Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1973; Puffin reprint The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr Willy Wonka, 2001), p. 215.
24 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 115.
25 Dahl, My Year, p. 40.
26 Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World, p. 107.
27 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 7.
28 Brazier, ‘Memories of Roald Dahl’.
29 Dahl, ‘For “The Architectural Digest”’.
30 Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World, p. 106.
31 Roald Dahl, ‘Parson’s Pleasure’, 1958, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 20.
32 Manchester Evening News, 29 April 1954.
33 Roald Dahl, ‘William and Mary’, 1960, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 231.
34 Ibid., p. 230.
35 Roald Dahl, ‘General Idea for Play in Three Acts’, 8 December 1954, RDMSC RD11/3/7.
36 The Stage, 7 October 1954.
37 Roald Dahl, ‘The Wish’, 1953, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 475.
38 Dahl, The BFG, p. 30; Roald Dahl, ‘Pig’, 1960, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 137.
39 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 96.
40 Patricia Neal, As I Am (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1988), p. 190.
41 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 346.
42 See Ian Crouch, ‘Roald Dahl’s Hut and the Case of the Dippy Adults’, The New Yorker, 13 September 2011.
43 Alfred Knopf to Roald Dahl, 26 April 1957, RDMSC RD1/1/3/274/1.
44 Roald Dahl, interview, Pebble Mill at One, BBC1, 1982.
45 Aberdeen Evening Express, 2 June 1960.
46 Roald Dahl, Introduction, Fear, p. 11.
47 Ibid., p. 1.
48 Ibid., p. 10.
49 Sheila St Lawrence to Roald Dahl, 27 June 1957, RDMSC RD1/1/3/283.
50 Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at Gipsy House, p. 226.
51 Else Logsdail (sister), quoted in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’.
52 Dahl, ‘For “The Architectural Digest”’.
53 Roald Dahl, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, Revolting Rhymes (Jonathan Cape, London, 1982).
Chapter 7: Marvellous Medicine
1 Sheila St Lawrence to Roald Dahl, 5 June 1957.
2 Alfred Knopf to Roald Dahl, undated, RDMSC RD1/1/3/274/1.
3 Dahl, Ideas Book 1.
4 Dahl, Ideas Book 2.
5 See RDMSC RD11/3/21/2.
6 See RDMSC RD11/3/11.
7 Sheila St Lawrence to Roald Dahl, see Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 364; ‘cherry’, see RDMSC RD1/1/3/282.
8 Dahl, ‘For Children’.
9 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 124.
10 See RDMSC RD11/3/23/4 and 11/3/23/10.
11 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 19; see Tessa Dahl, ‘You Can Love but You’d Better Not Touch’, YOU Magazine, 1990, RDMSC RD/12/2/11/1.
12 Roald Dahl, ‘A Note on Theo’s Accident’, RDMSC RD11/2.
13 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 28.
14 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 84.
15 Ibid., p. 86.
16 Alfhild Hansen (sister), quoted in ‘A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine’.
17 Roald Dahl to Michael Farmer, undated, RDMSC RD11/1/72.
18 Patricia Neal, Liverpool Echo, 7 May 1964.
19 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 157.
20 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 97.
21 Roald Dahl, ‘Measles: A Dangerous Illness’, open letter written for Sandwell Health Authority, 1986.
22 Roald Dahl, ‘Only This’, 1944, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 38.
23 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 388.
24 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 19.
25 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 387.
26 Ibid., p. 391.
27 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 106.
28 Roald Dahl, ‘Yesterday Was Beautiful’, 1945, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume One, p. 81.
29 Roald Dahl, The Missing Golden Ticket (Puffin, London, 2010), p. 37.
30 Dahl, ‘A Note on Writing Books for Children’.
31 Dahl, Ideas Book 1.
32 Roald Dahl to Alfred Knopf, 11 January 1975, see Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 470.
33 Buckinghamshire Examiner, 10 April 1964.
34 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 407.
35 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 145.
36 Ibid., p. 148.
37 Roald Dahl to Ray Russell, undated [January/February 1965], private collection.
Chapter 8: Critical Condition
1 Liverpool Echo, 20 February 1965.
2 Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1965.
3 Daily Mirror, 19 February 1965.
4 Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at Gipsy House, p. 225.
5 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 134.
6 Sturrock, Love from Boy, p. 289.
7 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 139.
8 Blanche Campbell to P. L. Travers, undated [c.1971], private collection.
9 Liverpool Echo, 22 May 1965.
10 Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 140.
11 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 411.
12 Roald Dahl to Sofie Magdalene Dahl, 16 March 1965, RDMSC 14/5/11/12.
13 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 432.
14 Ibid., pp. 420, 416.
15 Ibid., p. 417.
16 Ibid., p. 418.
17 Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox, pp. 19, 77.
18 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 419.
19 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 71; Tessa Dahl, Daily Mail, 11 August 2012.
20 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 421.
21 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 167.
22 Dahl, The BFG, p. 45.
23 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 185.
24 Patricia Neal, interviewed by Peter Lennon, The Irish Times, 3 August 1996.
25 Roald Dahl to ‘Dear Duke’, 15 August 1966, private collection.
26 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 161.
27 Roald Dahl to Blanche Campbell, 9 June 1967, private collection.
28 See Steven Jay Rubin, The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia (Chicago Review Press reprint, 2020).
29 See Roald Dahl, The Twilight Zone magazine, February 1983.
30 Roald Dahl to Blanche Campbell, 10 January 1968, private collection.
31 Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox, p. 36.
32 Ibid., p. 77.
33 Ibid., p. 19.
34 Tessa Dahl, Daily Mail, 11 August 2012.
35 Ibid.; New York Post, 28 July 1973; Solomon, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine, p. 171.
36 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 168.
37 Ibid., p. 174.
Chapter 9: Such Dazzling Loveliness
1 Stephen Michael Shearer, Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life (University Press of Kentucky paperback, 2021), p. 273.
2 Patricia Neal, quoted in The Australian Women’s Weekly, 15 December 1971.
3 Roald Dahl to Blanche Campbell, 17 October 1971, private collection.
4 Roald Dahl to Robert Newman, undated [c.1971], private collection.
5 Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, pp. 101–2.
6 Dahl, Ideas Book 2.
7 Dahl, My Uncle Oswald, p. 89.
8 Tessa Dahl, Working for Love, p. 85.
9 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 462.
10 Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World, p. 17.
11 Dahl, ‘The Author’s Eye’ notebook, RDMSC.
12 Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World, pp. 178–9.
13 Roald Dahl to ‘Miss Hoko’, Apanui School, Whakatane, New Zealand, 19 June 85.
14 Roald Dahl, Bedtime Stories radio interview, 1970.
15 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 470.
16 Roald Dahl, ‘The Swan’, 1977, reprinted in The Complete Short Stories Volume Two, p. 508.
17 Roald Dahl, introduction to ‘My Lady Love, My Dove’, Tales of the Unexpected, series 2, episode 8, 19 April 1980.
18 Dahl, My Uncle Oswald, p. 56.
19 Ibid., p. 195.
20 Patricia Neal, Daily Mirror, 7 October 1981.
21 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 479.
22 Ibid., p. 497.
23 Dahl, speech at Tessa Dahl’s wedding.
24 Tessa Dahl, Daily Mail, 11 August 2012.
25 Dahl, speech at Tessa Dahl’s wedding.
26 Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl: In His Own Words, Radio 4, 2016.
27 Sophie Dahl, in ibid.
28 Roald Dahl, George’s Marvellous Medicine (Puffin reprint, London, 1982), p. 2.
29 Ibid., p. 103.
30 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 508.
31 Ibid., p. 552.
32 Dahl, The BFG, p. 40.
33 Ibid., p. 120.
34 See Levin, YOU Magazine, 24 April 1983.
Chapter 10: We So Loved Being With You
1 Roald Dahl to Anna Bingham, 28 January 1985, RDMSC RD1/6/9/2.
2 Dahl, The Witches, p. 9.
3 Ibid., p. 189.
4 Dahl, The Missing Golden Ticket, p. 59.
5 Roald Dahl to Professor Brian Cox, 2 June 1988, RDMSC RD1/6/13.
6 Roald Dahl, ‘The Author’s Eye’ notebook, RDMSC.
7 Roald Dahl, letter to the editor of The Times, 15 September 1983.
8 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 308.
9 Ibid., p. 511.
10 Roald Dahl, letter to the editor of The Times, 7 February 1990.
11 Roald Dahl to Angela Levin, 24 April 1983, RDMSC RD12/1/16.
12 Tessa Dahl, ‘You Can Love but You’d Better Not Touch’.
13 See the Observer, 9 November 2008.
14 Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 235.
15 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 479.
16 Dahl, The Witches, pp. 30, 35–6.
17 Dahl, Ideas Book 1.
18 Roald Dahl, ‘On Writing Matilda’, RDMSC RD/6/1/2/30.
19 Dahl, Matilda, p. 35.
20 Roald Dahl to Kenneth Baker, 21 November 1988.
21 See Levin, YOU Magazine, 24 April 1983.
22 Roald Dahl to Goodrich Community Primary School, East Dulwich, 28 April 1983.
23 Roald Dahl to ‘Amy’, 10 February 1989, private collection.
24 The Times, 27 December 2020.
25 Roald Dahl to Mrs Stafford, undated [1989], RDMSC RD1/6/18.
26 Roald Dahl, Introduction to the Roald Dahl Newsletter, written August 1990, RDMSC RD6/2/1/40.
27 Ibid.
28 Sturrock, Storyteller, p. 561.
29 Dahl, ‘Dahl Diary’.
30 Felicity Dahl, undated letter [1991], RDMSC RD1/6/10.
31 Tessa Dahl, ‘You Can Love but You’d Better Not Touch’.
32 Kiera O’ Brien, The Bookseller, 22 July 2016.
33 See Guardian, 6 November 2018.
34 Mark Kleinman, Sky News, 22 September 2021.
35 Dahl, ‘Nursery Rhymes’.