Storyteller

by Donald Sturrock

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

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

  42. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/20/34—RDMSC RD 13/1/9/40.

  43. Louise Pearl, Conversation with the author, 05/09/08.

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

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

  46. John Wilkinson, Conversation with the author, 10/18/07.

  47. Treglown, p. 36.

  48. Louise Pearl, Conversation with the author, 05/09/08.

  49. Felicity Dahl and Louise Pearl, Conversations with the author, 03/14/08 and 05/09/08.

  50. Roald Dahl, Going Solo (London: Jonathan Cape, 1986), p. 13.

  51. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/6.

  52. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/1.

  53. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/16/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/7.

  54. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/28/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/9.

  55. Going Solo, p. 32.

  56. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/08/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/15.

  57. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/02/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/31.

  58. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/11/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/45.

  59. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/26/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/26.

  60. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/13/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/49.

  61. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/21.

  62. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/25/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/13.

  63. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/05/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/27.

  64. Felicity Dahl, Conversation with the author, 03/10/10.

  65. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/19.

  66. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/05/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/27.

  67. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/19/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/28.

  68. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/28/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/39.

  69. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/02/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/31.

  70. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/09/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/32.

  71. Dahl, Letter to his mother and sisters, 11/25/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/13.

  72. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/25/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/13.

  73. Going Solo, p. 34.

  74. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/19.

  75. Going Solo, p. 34.

  76. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/14.

  77. Going Solo, p. 61.

  78. Charlie’s Chocolate Boy—First Draft, 1961—RDMSC RD 2/7/1.

  79. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/37.

  80. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/02/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/22.

  81. Dahl, Speech to Boys at Rapton, Nov. 21, 1975—RDMSC RD 6/1/1/25, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio interview with Terry Lane, 1989.

  82. Roald Dahl, Poison, in Collier’s magazine, June 3, 1950—RDMSC RD 4/18/5.

  83. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/58.

  84. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/27/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/52.

  85. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/26/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/29.

  86. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/13/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/51.

  87. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/37.

  88. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/16/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/33.

  89. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/17.

  90. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/05/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/27.

  91. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/38—RDMSC RD 14/3/16.

  92. Roald Dahl, Letter to Ann Watkins, 12/08/43—RDMSC RD 1/1/70.

  93. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/16/38—RDMSC RD 14/5/2/40.

  94. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/05/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/40.

  95. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/11/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/45.

  96. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/05/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/40.

  97. Winston Churchill, Speech to the House of Commons, Oct. 5, 1938.

  98. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/09/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/32.

  99. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/19/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/28.

  100. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/30/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/57.

  101. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/37.

  102. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/27/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/54.

  103. Report by Sir Mark Young to Malcolm MacDonald on measures taken after the outbreak of war, 09/15/39—Public Record Office, CO 323/1657/82.

  104. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/15/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/55.

  105. Roald Dahl, The Sword, Atlantic Monthly (August 1943), p. 79.

  106. Roald Dahl, Lucky Break, in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (London: Jonathan Cape, 1977), p. 220.

  107. Going Solo, pp. 71, 73.

  108. Ibid., pp. 79, 83.

  109. Ibid., p. 80.

  110. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/30/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/57.

  111. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/58.

  112. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/14/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/62.

  113. Ibid.

  114. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/18/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/63.

  115. Going Solo, p. 87.

  116. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/04/39—RDMSC RD 14/3/65.

  117. Going Solo, p. 94.

  118. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/14/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/3.

  CHAPTER SIX : A Monumental Bash on the Head

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

  2. See Derek O’Connor, “Roald Dahl’s Wartime Adventures,” Aviation History (January 2009).

  3. Going Solo, p. 96.

  4. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/20/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/7.

  5. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/26/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/8.

  6. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/24/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/20.

  7. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 02/20/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/7.

  8. Going Solo, p. 8, and Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/14/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/10.

  9. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/03/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/17.

  10. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/26/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/24.

  11. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 07/24/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/28.

  12. Going Solo, p. 98.

  13. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/28/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/32.

  14. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/17/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/19.

  15. Going Solo, p. 105.

  16. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/20/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/38.

  17. Going Solo, p. 105.

  18. Roald Dahl, Shot Down Over Libya, Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 1, 1942.

  19. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/20/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/38.

  20. Roald Dahl, Beware of the Dog, first published in Harper’s (October 1944); collected in Over to You, 1946; Collected Stories, (Everyman), p. 49.

  21. Going Solo, p. 112.

  22. Ibid., p. 113.

  23. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 1/20/40—RDMSC RD 14/4/38.

  24. Forced Landings and Flying Accident cards in RAF Museum, London, NW9.

  25. Going Solo, pp. 105–6.

  26. Letter to the author from Mr. G. Day, Ministry of Defence (Air Historical Branch), 07/23/07.

  27. Going Solo, p. 100.

  28. O’Connor, “Roald Dahl’s Wartime Adventures,” p. 46.

  29. Ophelia Dahl, Memories of My Father, unpublished MS.

  30. Roald Dahl, Letter to Barbara McDonald, 04/24/53, donated to Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre by her daughter, Deb Ford.

  31. Roald Dahl, A Piece of Cake (1942) in Collected Stories, pp. 129–30.

  32. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/29/41—RDMSC 14/4/44.

  33. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 01/02/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/42.

  34. Lesley O’Malley (née Pares), Conversation with the author, 1998.

  35. Dahl, Letter
to his mother, 02/17/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/46.

  36. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/07/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/48.

  37. Going Solo, p. 118.

  38. Roald Dahl, Interviewed by Peter Lennon in The Times, Dec. 12, 1983.

  39. See Ophelia Dahl, Memories of My Father, unpublished MS.

  40. See Ryan Hall, Richard C.W. Hall, and Marcia J. Chapman, “Definition, Diagnosis and Forensic Implications of Postconcussional Syndrome,” Psychosomatics, 46 (June 2005), pp. 195–202.

  41. James and the Giant Peach, p. 95.

  42. The Minpins (London: Jonathan Cape, 1991), p. 41.

  43. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, p. 116.

  44. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 03/07/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/48.

  CHAPTER SEVEN : David and Goliath

  1. Roald Dahl, Address Book—RDMSC AC 1/185.

  2. “Jonah” Jones, C.O. of 84 Squadron, cited in T. H. Wisdom, Wings Over Olympus: The Story of the Royal Air Force in Libya and Greece (1942), p. 169.

  3. Roald Dahl, Katina, Collected Stories, pp. 26–27.

  4. Going Solo, (FSG), p. 122.

  5. Ibid., p. 123.

  6. Roald Dahl, The Ginger Cat, unpublished short story, 1945—RDMSC RD 5/14/1–3.

  7. Going Solo, p. 123.

  8. Ibid., pp. 124, 130, 128.

  9. Ibid., p. 124.

  10. Roald Dahl, Death of an Old, Old Man, Collected Stories, p. 87.

  11. Going Solo, p. 134.

  12. James Oswald Gale, Unpublished Memoirs. Flight Lieutenant Gale was Equipment Officer for 33 Squadron. He remained in the RAF after the war, rising to the rank of air commodore.

  13. Keith Skilling, quoted in Wikipedia article on flying Hawker Hurricanes, August 2008.

  14. Going Solo, p. 134.

  15. Dahl, Letter to Roger Burlingame, 04/28/45—RDMSC RD 1/1/1/200.

  16. Roald Dahl, Letter to Harold Matson, 05/13/42—RDMSC RD 1/1/1/3.

  17. Katina, p. 37.

  18. Going Solo, p. 152.

  19. Interview with Vernon “Woody” Woodward of 33 Squadron, quoted in Hugh Halladay, Woody: A Fighter Pilot’s Album (Toronto: Canav Books, 1987).

  20. Gale, Unpublished Memoirs.

  21. Christopher Buckley, Greece and Crete 1941 (London: HMSO, 1952), p. 97.

  22. Going Solo, p. 169.

  23. Katina, p. 42.

  24. Going Solo, p. 172.

  25. Katina, p. 43.

  26. Gale, Unpublished Memoirs.

  27. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/06/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/52.

  28. Going Solo, p. 201.

  29. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/15/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/54.

  30. Going Solo, pp. 187–88.

  31. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/28/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/57.

  32. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/20/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/56.

  33. Going Solo, pp. 193–94, 198.

  34. Ibid., p. 199.

  35. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/28/41—RDMSC RD 14/4/57.

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

  37. Roald Dahl, “My Time of Life,” The Sunday Times, Oct. 4, 1986.

  38. Going Solo, p. 208.

  39. Alexandra Anderson and Louise Pearl, Conversations with the author, 11/14/07 and 05/09/08.

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

  41. Roald Dahl, Searching for Mr. Smith, 1979, Browse & Darby Catalogue, 1983.

  42. Bookmark, BBC Television, 1985.

  CHAPTER EIGHT: Alive but Earthbound

  1. Roald Dahl, Letter to John Logsdail, 06/08/40—in possession of Louise Pearl.

  2. Elizabeth Bowen, “London 1940,” in Collected Impressions (London: Longmans Green & Co., 1950).

  3. Else Logsdail and Asta Anderson, Conversations with the author, 01/03/98.

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

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Astri Newman, Conversation with the author, 10/15/07.

  8. Pat Brazier, Conversation with the author, 10/04/09.

  9. Jeremy Lang, Conversation with the author, 12/01/08.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Pauline Hearne, Letter to the author, 09/12/09.

  12. Roald Dahl, The Gremlins (New York: Walt Disney/Random House, 1943).

  13. Barry Farrell, Pat and Roald (London: Hutchinson, 1970), p. 68, and Wintle and Fisher, The Pied Pipers, pp. 102–3.

  14. Wintle and Fisher, The Pied Pipers, p. 103.

  15. William Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 1976, p. 169.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Roald Dahl, Notes to prospective biographer Stephen Roxburgh—HRCH KNOPF.

  18. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/14/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/1.

  19. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/21/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/2.

  20. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/14/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/1.

  21. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/21/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/2.

  22. Quoted in Treglown, p. 56.

  23. Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), p. 111.

  24. Time magazine, April 7, 1941.

  25. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/13/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/4.

  26. Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid, p. 169.

  27. Treglown, p. 56.

  28. Lucky Break, p. 225.

  29. Ibid., p. 229.

  30. At the time, Dahl calculated $300 was worth about £76—Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/13/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/4.

  31. Harold Matson, Letter to Katherine Swan, 05/11/42—RDMSC RD 1/1/1.

  32. Lucky Break, p. 229.

  33. The earliest surviving MS dates from 1945, when he rewrote the story for inclusion in his collection of stories Over to You.

  34. Going Solo, p. 101.

  35. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/07/42—RDMSC 14/5/1/11.

  36. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/13/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/4.

  37. Lucky Break, p. 227.

  38. Dahl, Shot Down Over Libya, Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 1, 1942.

  39. Lucky Break, p. 233.

  40. He did so, for example, in a letter to Thomas Beck, the editor of Collier’s magazine, in August 1942—RDMSC RD 1/4/8.

  41. For example, Wintle and Fisher in The Pied Pipers, p. 102.

  42. Boy, p. 160.

  43. Going Solo, p. 101.

  44. Dahl, Letters to his mother, 05/13/42 and 06/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/4 and RD 14/5/1/5.

  45. Information supplied by Astri Newman.

  46. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/04/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/17.

  47. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/15/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/24.

  48. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/20/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/18.

  49. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/15/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/24.

  50. In a letter to his mother, Roald described Travers as “about the dirtiest little man I have ever met, but extremely nice and terribly funny”—09/04/42—RDMSC 14/5/1/14.

  51. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 12/15/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/24.

  52. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 04/21/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/2.

  53. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/07/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/10.

  54. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 05/13/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/4.

  55. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 08/07/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/10.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Roald Dahl, Letter to James Beck, 08/20/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/8.

  58. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/22/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/6.

  CHAPTER NINE: A Sort of Fairy Story

  1. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/22/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/6.

  2. Roald Dahl, Gremlin Lore—RDMSC RD 2/1/1.

  3. Aubrey Morgan, Letter to Air Commodore William Thornton, 08/21/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/9.

  4. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 06/22/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/6.

  5. Walt Disney, Cable to Sidney Bernstein, 07/14/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/5.

  6. Ibid.


  7. Roald Dahl, Letter to William Teeling, 11/30/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/74.

  8. Internal Disney Memo quoted in Jim Korkis, “The Trouble with Gremlins,” Hogan’s Alley Magazine, 15.

  9. Roald Dahl, Letter to Jim Bodrero, 08/03/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1.

  10. Roald Dahl, Letter to Thomas Beck, 08/20/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/8.

  11. Vernon MacKenzie, Memorandum to Aubrey Morgan, 08/20/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/10.

  12. Harold Matson, Telegram to Roald Dahl, 09/01/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/18.

  13. Roald Dahl, Letter to John Rose, 08/25/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/12.

  14. John Rose, Letter to Roald Dahl, 08/27/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/17.

  15. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/04/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/17.

  16. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 09/04/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/14.

  17. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/04/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/17.

  18. Quoted in Korkis, “The Trouble with Gremlins.”

  19. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/10/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/20.

  20. Roald Dahl, Letter to Sol Rosenblatt, 10/01/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/46.

  21. Korkis, “The Trouble with Gremlins.”

  22. Charles Solomon, The Disney That Never Was (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 50.

  23. Leonard Maltin, Introduction to The Gremlins (Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2006).

  24. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 10/01/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/16.

  25. Douglas Bisgood, Letter to Walt Disney, 09/20/42, quoted in Korkis, “The Trouble with Gremlins.”

  26. Walt Disney, Letter to Roald Dahl, 10/01/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/48.

  27. Roald Dahl, Letter to Walt Disney, 10/07/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/52.

  28. Roald Dahl, Letter to Walt Disney, 09/02/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/21.

  29. Roald Dahl, Letter to Edmond Witalis, 09/30/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/45.

  30. Roald Dahl, Letter to Walt Disney, 09/02/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/21.

  31. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/27/42—RDMSC RD 4/5/1/21. Brooks (1915–1995) went on to become the first American female civilian to travel to the Pacific theater of war, eventually marrying the politician Torbert Macdonald, who had once been John F. Kennedy’s roommate.

  32. Roald Dahl, Notes on Visiting Los Angeles 06/24/43—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/139.

  33. Bill Justice, Justice for Disney (Dayton, OH: Tomart Publications, 1992), quoted in Korkis, “The Trouble with Gremlins.”

  34. Dahl, Letter to his mother, 11/27/42—RDMSC RD 14/5/1/21.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Roald Dahl, Letter to Walt Disney, 10/07/42—RDMSC RD 1/4/1/52. This was an impasse that was never resolved. In the published version of the book, the text refers to the gremlins wearing “green derbys,” or bowler hats, but all the drawings show them in flying helmets.