Storyteller

by Donald Sturrock

  4. Peter Persen, Conversation with the author, 06/10/07.

  5. The album belonged to Harald’s daughter Ellen and is now in the possession of his granddaughter Bryony.

  6. Bryony Dahl, Conversation with the author, 01/17/08.

  7. Marriage Settlement of Marie Baurin-Gressier—RDMSC RD 20/08.

  8. Felicity Dahl, Conversation with the author, 08/28/07.

  9. Bryony Dahl, Conversation with the author, 01/17/08.

  10. The house, in Fairwater Road, Llandaff, is now called Ty Gwyn.

  11. Ellen Dahl, remembered by her niece Bryony Dahl.

  12. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  13. Louise (Lou) Pearl, Conversation with the author, 09/05/08.

  14. Tessa Dahl, Conversation with the author, 10/22/07; Astri Newman, Conversation with the author, 10/15/07; and Else Logsdail, “Casseroled Ptarmigan” in Memories with Food at Gipsy House (London: Viking, 1991), p. 61.

  15. Margaret Edwards, Conversation with the author, 01/07/98.

  16. According to his sister Alfhild Hansen, he weighed 8 pounds, or about 3.6 kilos.

  17. J. Harry Williams, Letter to Roald Dahl, 10/02/76—RDMSC RD 16/1/2.

  18. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  19. J. Harry Williams, Letter to Roald Dahl, 10/02/76—RDMSC RD 16/1/2.

  20. Newspaper cutting found in Harald’s wallet—RDMSC RD 20/07.

  21. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  22. Louise (Lou) Pearl, Conversation with the author, 05/09/08.

  23. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  24. Boy, p. 21.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Journal of Harald Dahl (trans. Else Dahl), courtesy of Ophelia Dahl. This journal, once in the possession of Else Dahl, seems to have gone missing since her death. This is the only extract I have been able to trace.

  27. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  28. Ibid.

  CHAPTER THREE: Boy

  1. Roald Dahl, Charlie’s Chocolate Boy—WLC Box 23.

  2. Roald Dahl, The BFG (London: Jonathan Cape, 1962), p. 38.

  3. Roald Dahl, Matilda (London: Jonathan Cape, 1988), p. 10.

  4. Treasure Islands, Interview with Julia Eccleshere, BBC Radio 4, April 15, 1988.

  5. Memories with Food at Gipsy House, reprinted as The Roald Dahl Cookbook (New York: Penguin, 1996).

  6. Alfhild Hansen, Interviewed in A Dose of Dahl’s Magic Medicine, 09/28/86.

  7. Asta Anderson, Conversation with the author, 1997.

  8. Boy, p. 53.

  9. Ibid., p. 62.

  10. Bryony Dahl, Conversation with the author, 01/17/08.

  11. Glamorganshire County Record Office Probate Office, 05/20/20, to Oscar Dahl; Shipowner and Sofie Magdalene Dahl, widows Effects £158, 917 10s.

  12. Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach (New York: Knopf, 1960), pp. 1–2.

  13. Boy, p. 23.

  14. Roald Dahl, More About Boy (London: Puffin Books, 2008), p. 19.

  15. Ibid., p. 21.

  16. Boy, p. 35.

  17. Mrs. Ferris, quoted in Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994, cited hereafter as Treglown), p. 19.

  18. Boy, p. 33.

  19. Ibid., p. 46.

  20. Ibid., pp. 48, 71–72.

  21. John Cleese, Conversation with the author, 1999.

  22. Douglas Highton, Conversation with the author, 11/08/07.

  23. Boy, p. 71.

  24. Douglas Highton, Conversation with the author, 11/08/07.

  25. Ibid. See also Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/23/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/19.

  26. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/17/26—RDMSC 13/1/1/42.

  27. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/10/26—RDMSC 13/1/1/37.

  28. Boy, p. 103.

  29. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/23/25—RDMSC 13/1/1/1.

  30. Boy, p. 90.

  31. Roald Dahl, St. Peter’s School Report—RDMSC 13/2/1–51.

  32. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/29/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/39.

  33. Dahl, St. Peter’s School Report—RDMSC 13/2/1–51.

  34. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/02/29—RDMSC 13/1/4/16.

  35. Dahl, St. Peter’s School Report—RDMSC 13/2/1–51.

  36. Douglas Highton, Conversation with the author, 11/08/07.

  37. Roald Dahl, Interviewed for International School Publications, 03/06/79—RDMSC RD 12/1/10/1.

  38. Douglas Highton, Conversation with the author, 11/8/07.

  39. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/02/27—RDMSC 13/1/3/3.

  40. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/25/27—RDMSC 13/1/3/2.

  41. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/05/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/41.

  42. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/1/27—RDMSC 13/1/3/7.

  43. Roald Dahl, The Roald Dahl Diary (London: Jonathan Cape, 1991).

  44. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/29/25—RDMSC 13/1/2/16.

  45. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/29/25—RDMSC 13/1/1/16.

  46. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/14/26—RDMSC 13/1/1/31.

  47. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/03/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/40.

  48. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/27/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/28.

  49. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/13/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/30.

  50. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/05/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/20.

  51. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/10/29—RDMSC 13/1/4/08.

  52. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/21/26—RDMSC 13/1/1/37.

  53. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/13/27—RDMSC 13/1/3/11.

  54. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/06/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/23.

  55. Roald Dahl, Children’s Books (1988)—RDMSC RD 6/2/1/30 and 6/2/1/36.

  56. Roald Dahl, Examination Paper—RDMSC 13/1/2/32.

  57. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/06/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/24.

  58. Justin Wintle and Emma Fisher, The Pied Pipers (London: Paddington Press, 1974), p. 111.

  59. Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio, 10/27/79.

  60. Wintle and Fisher, The Pied Pipers, p. 60.

  61. Copy of Boy in the possession of Douglas Highton.

  62. Boy, pp. 97, 65.

  63. Ibid., pp. 113, 112, 114.

  64. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/106.

  65. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/28/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/23.

  66. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/20/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/18.

  67. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/13/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/25.

  68. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/08/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/39.

  69. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/24/29—RDMSC 13/1/4/10.

  70. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/29/29—RDMSC 13/1/3/09.

  71. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/17/29—RDMSC 13/1/5/14.

  72. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/25/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/28.

  73. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/09/29—RDMSC 13/1/5/18.

  74. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/24/26—RDMSC 13/1/2/6.

  75. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/07/26—RDMSC 13/1/1/29.

  76. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/17/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/35.

  77. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/05/28—RDMSC 13/1/3/20.

  78. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/01/29—RDMSC 13/1/4/17.

  79. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/03/27—RDMSC 13/1/2/34.

  80. Douglas Highton, Conversation with the author, 11/08/07.

  81. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  82. Asta Anderson, Conversation with the author, 1997.

  83. The Roald Dahl Diary, December.

  84. Else Logsdail, Conversation with the author, 1997.

  85. Asta Anderson, “Cauliflowers and Shrimps” in Memories with Food at Gipsy House, p. 106.

  86. Asbjørnsen’s collections had been published in Norway between 1883 and 1887; Moe’s collection was published in 1907.

  87. In Norwegian, the picture is known as Syg Kjae
rlighed. It was painted in 1893.

  88. Leif Østby, Theodor Kittelsen (Oslo: Dreyers Forlag, 1975).

  89. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  90. The Roald Dahl Diary.

  91. Boy, p. 79.

  92. Roald Dahl, Danny The Champion of the World (London: Jonathan Cape, 1975) p. 73.

  CHAPTER FOUR: Foul Things and Horrid People

  1. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  2. Denton Welch, Maiden Voyage (London: Routledge, 1943), p. 24.

  3. Thomas Arnold, Letter to the Rev. John Tucker, 03/02/1828.

  4. Cited in Alan Hamilton, “Children Say Farewell to Roald Dahl,” The Times, Nov. 30, 1990.

  5. Boy, p. 126.

  6. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1.

  7. Nancy Deuchar, Conversation with the author, 12/04/07.

  8. Tim Fisher, Conversation with the author, 09/17/07.

  9. Boy, p. 146.

  10. Sir Charles Pringle, Conversation with the author, 12/05/07.

  11. Rachel Drayson, Letter to the author, 10/20/07.

  12. Nancy Deuchar, Conversation with the author, 12/04/07.

  13. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/19/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/31.

  14. Graham Greene, A Sort of Life (London: Bodley Head, 1971), p. 72.

  15. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/147.

  16. Boy, pp. 143, 140, 128.

  17. Roald Dahl, Galloping Foxley in Collected Stories (New York: Knopf, 2006), p. 420.

  18. Tim Fisher, Conversation with the author, 09/17/07.

  19. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/154.

  20. Boy, p. 126.

  21. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/166.

  22. Ibid.—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/166–7.

  23. Ibid.—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/161.

  24. Ibid.—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/158.

  25. Ibid.—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/159.

  26. Tim Fisher, Conversation with the author, 09/17/07.

  27. Bookmark, BBC Television, 1985.

  28. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/160.

  29. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/156. Middleton was killed in a car crash in Assam in 1937, only four years after he left the school.

  30. Boy, p. 128.

  31. Galloping Foxley, p. 420.

  32. Boy, p. 129.

  33. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/151.

  34. Galloping Foxley, pp. 417–18.

  35. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  36. Repton School Reports—RDMSC RD 13/2/58–90.

  37. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/18/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/5/9.

  38. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/5/38.

  39. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/22.

  40. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/15/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/27.

  41. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/14.

  42. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/27.

  43. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/18.

  44. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/5/46.

  45. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/33.

  46. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/02/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/5/24.

  47. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/43.

  48. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  49. Nicholas Arnold, Conversation with the author, 01/16/08.

  50. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/26.

  51. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/01/32—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/39.

  52. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/32—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/15.

  53. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  54. Boy, p. 149.

  55. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/48.

  56. David Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” The Author, vol. CIII, no. 1 (Spring 1992), p. 24.

  57. Roald Dahl, Untitled speech about teaching English in schools, c. 1965—RDMSC RD 6/2/1/23.

  58. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/7.

  59. Roald Dahl, Nursery Rhymes—RDMSC RD 13/3/39.

  60. Roald Dahl, Dreams—RDMSC RD 13/3/3/23.

  61. Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” p. 24.

  62. He used it most publicly in a BBC Television interview with Sue Lawley—BBC, Wogan with Sue Lawley, 1988.

  63. Roald Dahl, Laughter—RDMSC RD 13/3/3/1.

  64. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/03/34—RDMSC RD 13/1/9/42.

  65. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/18/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/14.

  66. Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” p. 24.

  67. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/18/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/5/9.

  68. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/149.

  69. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/04/34—RDMSC RD 13/1/9/24.

  70. Boy—First Draft—RDMSC RD 2/23/1/155.

  71. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/10.

  72. Welch, Maiden Voyage, pp. 30, 66, 48.

  73. Ibid., pp. 55–56.

  74. Sir Charles Pringle, Conversation with the author, 12/05/07.

  75. Anna Corrie, Conversation with the author, 10/08/07.

  76. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/44.

  77. Nancy Deuchar, Conversation with the author, 12/04/07.

  78. Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” p. 24.

  79. James Methuen-Campbell, Denton Welch, Writer and Artist (London: Tartarus Press, 2002), p. 22.

  80. Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” p. 24.

  81. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/20.

  82. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/37.

  83. Dahl, Letter to his mother 05/07/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/35.

  84. Dahl, Letter to his mother 05/14/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/36.

  85. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/37.

  86. S. S. Jenkyns, Letter to Mrs. Dahl, 06/14/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/43.

  87. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/42.

  88. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  89. Nicholas Arnold, Conversation with the author, 01/16/08. Nicholas, one of Michael Arnold’s three sons, did not care to say what the subject of the argument had been.

  90. Boy, p. 131.

  91. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  92. Boy, p. 132.

  93. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  94. Asta Anderson and Else Logsdail, Conversation with the author, 01/03/98.

  95. Boy, p. 132.

  96. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/15/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/42.

  97. Boy, p. 132.

  98. The book is now in the Repton School Archives.

  99. Roald Dahl, Speech to Boys at Repton, Nov. 21, 1975—RDMSC RD 6/1/1/25.

  100. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/32—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/15.

  101. Dahl, Speech to boys at Repton, Nov. 21, 1975—RDMSC RD 6/1/1/25.

  102. John Bradburn, Letter to The Daily Telegraph, 05/06/88.

  103. Boy, p. 148.

  104. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/07/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/35.

  105. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/30—RDMSC RD 13/1/6/17.

  106. Else Logsdail, Conversation with the author, 01/03/98.

  107. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/04/34—RDMSC RD 13/1/9/24.

  108. Ben Reuss, Conversation with the author, 02/09/98.

  109. Ophelia Dahl, Conversation with the author, 03/18/08.

  110. Letter from B. L. L. Reuss quoted in Treglown, p. 31.

  111. Dahl, Repton School Report (Summer 1934)—RDMSC RD 13/2/90.

  CHAPTER FIVE: Distant Faraway Lands

  1. Roald Dahl, Newfoundland Journal—“The Long March”—RDMSC RD 13/5/1.

  2. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/13/34—RDMSC RD 13/1
/9/57.

  3. Dennis Clarke, Public School Explorers in Newfoundland (London: Putnam, 1935).

  4. Dahl, Newfoundland Journal—“The Long March”—RDMSC RD 13/5/1.

  5. Dahl, Newfoundland Journal—RDMSC RD 13/5/2.

  6. Dennis Pearl, Conversation with the author, 01/03/98.

  7. Dahl, Newfoundland Journal—RDMSC RD 13/5/2.

  8. Dahl, Newfoundland Journal Notes—RDMSC RD 13/5/1.

  9. Boy, p. 154.

  10. Memoir of Mr. MacPherson, Outpost Archive Centre, Shell/BP, The Hague.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/14/36—RDMSC RD 14/2/8.

  13. Antony Pegg quoted in Treglown, p. 33.

  14. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/32—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/32.

  15. Alfhild Hansen, Conversation with the author, 08/07/92.

  16. Alexandra Anderson, Conversation with the author, 11/14/07.

  17. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/31—RDMSC RD 13/1/7/20.

  18. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/9/4.

  19. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/32—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/14.

  20. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/40.

  21. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/33—RDMSC RD 13/1/8/52.

  22. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/35—RDMSC RD 14/2/1.

  23. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/13/35—RDMSC RD 14/2/2.

  24. Roald Dahl, Double Exposure, unpublished sketch (c. 1938)—RDMSC RD 9/1.

  25. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/13/35—RDMSC RD 14/2/2.

  26. Boy, p. 155.

  27. Roald Dahl, Speech for Sunday Express Book Award, 11/29/89—RDMSC RD 6/1/2/35.

  28. Roald Dahl, “A Book That Changed Me,” The Independent, July 15, 1990—RDMSC RD 6/2/1/39.

  29. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/03/29—RDMSC RD 13/1/4/07.

  30. Roald Dahl, Article for the 50th anniversary of Dartford Golf Club—RDMSC RD 6/2/1/43.

  31. Treglown, p. 34.

  32. In a letter to his mother from Tanganyika dated October 16, 1938, Roald boasts that with a handicap of two he may well be the best player in the territory—RDMSC RD 14/3/07.

  33. Dennis Pearl, Conversation with the author, 01/03/98.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ophelia Dahl, Conversation with the author, 03/17/08.

  36. Treglown, p. 37.

  37. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/14/36—RDMSC RD 14/2/7.

  38. Dennis Pearl, Conversation with the author, 01/03/98.

  39. Atkins, “Writers Remembered: Roald Dahl,” p. 24.