Weekly Geeks is a weekly book blog community event where participating blogs complete a book- or blog-related activity posted and hosted by Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf. This week’s activity:
1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.
- He was born in Wales on September 13, 1916
- He kept a diary from the age of eight – which he hid in a tree so his sisters couldn’t read it
- His high school English teacher deemed him to be “quite incapable of marshalling his thoughts on paper”
- He was a pilot for the Royal Air Force during World War II
- There are now speculations that he was a spy for the British
- C.S. Forester (also a rumored spy) gave Dahl his first writing gig – a story about the war for the Saturday Evening Post
- Though best known for his children’s stories, he published numerous well-received short stories and two novels for adults; “Lamb to the Slaughter” is probably his most famous short story
- Dahl, like J.K. Rowling, came up with the plots to his children’s stories by telling stories to his own children
- He wrote in his own little writing hut
- Dahl’s first wife was Patricia Neal, the Oscar-winning actress; they had five children
- His oldest daughter, Olivia, died from complications after a bout with the measles
- His son, Theo, was brain damaged in a car accident when he was four-months old
- Dahl and two of his friends invented the Dahl-Wade-Till valve, which helped Theo recover and was used widely in the medical field
- Patricia had a series of strokes at age 39, and she made a full recovery under Dahl’s care
- His passions included orchids, paintings, chocolate, and conkers
- In 1990, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder: Myelo-dysplastic anaemia
- He died on November 23, 1990 at the age of 74
Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors of all time. And he certainly had an interesting life. Did you know all of that about him?
{ 2 comments }
He’s a favourite of mine too, and though I’ve read his autobiographies there were many things I didn’t know! Thanks for sharing, Jessica.
Lots of really interesting stuff there! Sad things too. Great job!
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