Roalddahl biography

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, in 1916. His Norwegian parents Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl named him after the explorer Roald Amundsen.

At the age of three, Roald's seven-year-old sister Astri died, just weeks before his father succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 57.

Roalddahl biography

Harald wanted his children educated in British schools, so Sofie remained in the country to bring up her six children.

At the age of nine Roald was sent to the Cathedral School in Llandaff, which was a largely unhappy time.

Thereafter he was sent to a series of private schools, where he developed interests in literature and photography.

Although his mother expected him to attend university, after school he joined the Shell oil company, where from 1938 he worked in the east African republic of Tanganyika (later Tanzania).

During World War Two he served as a fighter pilot, a period documented in another autobiography, Going Solo (1986).

A near fatal crash in nor