Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (1916 to 1990) was a British author who wrote popular children's literature and short stories, and also worked as a poet and screenwriter. Born in Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, he spent most of his life in England and served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot and later an intelligence officer before rising to prominence as a writer in the 1940s. His children's books, among them James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, are known for an unsentimental, macabre and often darkly comic mood, with villainous adults set against kindhearted child characters. His short stories for older readers, collected in volumes such as Tales of the Unexpected, are known for their unexpected endings. His books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, and he received the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.