Roald Dahl Day

Roald Dahl is the best-known 20th-century author for his imagination and children’s stories such as Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James, and the Giant Peach. Although, they are not your typical children’s books and can often take twists and turns with dark humour.

But did you know that James and the Giant Peach originally started off with a cherry?

Roald Dahl always had a spirit for adventure and even became an aircraftman in 1939 for the Royal Air Force. This inspired some of the characters and locations, like his family home in Buckinghamshire.

Dahl depicts heroic and villain protagonists from The Witches to Mr and Mrs Twit, to Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are brought to life with humorous vocabulary that turns them into mischievous characters. Dahl played around with new words and names such as the Oompa-Lumpas featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Not only did Roald Dahl write children’s books, but between also wrote gruesome adult fiction; Sometime Never, Pig and Tales of the Unexpected!

But have you ever wondered who also illustrates the characters in the books?

Sir Quentin Blake is an illustrator and is most known for illustrating Roald Dahl’s stories. His first illustration was for Punch magazine before designing children’s books. Blake worked with Dahl in the 1970s and illustrated the Enormous Crocodile.

For Roald Dahl’s stories, Blake uses black ink and a fountain pen to create scratchy, inky and blotted designs. He usually begins with a gesture or facial expression like this example of the Charlie, the lucky finder of the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: