He was a prolific reader, and began writing at an early age, keeping a private journal starting at the age of eight. His school experiences left him miserable. Recording the events helped him lay the groundwork for his later stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. For example, there was a factory nearby that made the famous Cadbury chocolates, and allowed children to sample their newest chocolate confections.

At the age of 18, he skipped going to college, to instead go on the Public Schools Exploring Society expedition to Newfoundland. Then, at the age of 23 he joined the Royal Air Force, when WWII broke out.

In 1943, Dahl’s first children’s book was published. It was a picture book called The Gremlins, which had been commissioned by Walt Disney as a book version of a movie script. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was highly impressed by the book, and quickly befriended the writer. More children’s stories were not penned until the 1960’s, after he had his own children. He used to tell his daughters stories at night, and these later became beloved books.

Instead, Dahl focused on writing short stories for adults, publishing them in magazines such as New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, and Atlantic Monthly.

* Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

* Boy

* Going Solo

* The Great Mouse Plot

* My Year

* Over to You

* Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes

* Roald Dahl’s Even More Revolting Recipes

* Someone Like You

* Sometime Never

* Switch B***h

* My Uncle Oswald

* The BFG

* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

* Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

* Danny the Champion of the World

* Dirty Beasts (poetry)

* The Enormous Crocodile

* Esio Trot

* Fantastic Mr. Fox

* George’s Marvelous Medicine

* The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

* The Gremlins

* James and the Giant Peach

* Kiss Kiss

* The Magic Finger

* Matilda

* The Minpins

* Rhyme Stew (poetry)

* Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (poetry)

* Tales of the Unexpected

* The Twits

* The Vicar of Nibbleswicke

* The Witches

* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

* Matilda

* The Witches

* Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

* Fantastic Mr. Fox

* Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – While the story was written by Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for this classic movie.