Boy: Tales of Childhood - Roald Dahl

A long time ago, in 1916, a little boy was born to Norwegian parents living in South Wales. His father was a successful businessman, but idiosyncratic to say the least. He wanted his children to have an appreciation of beauty, so before they were born he spent hours taking his pregnant wife on "glorious walks" to take in the natural splendour of the countryside. In this way he hoped that the wonder of nature and an appreciation of it would somehow be transmitted to his unborn child. The little boy's father had only one arm, but got along just fine with the aid of various ingenious gadgets he'd ... more

November 1990 was a sad time for England. Not because the country’s two largest satellite broadcaster, Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting joined to form BSkyB, nor because we lost Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. In fact, it was as far removed from these two incidents as you could possibly imagine. On 23rd November 1990, aged 74, Roald Dahl, creator of several of the world’s most engaging children’s books died as a result of a rare blood disorder called Myelo-dysplastic. In doing so, we lost a great talent whose imagery and imagination live on forever in books such as Charlie and The ... more

As an English Teacher, I come across all manner of extracts from assorted novels in textbooks - selected paragraphs of Potter, or snippets of Orwell and Huxley chosen for some part of the language they contain. However, no author seems to feature as regularly as Roald Dahl; perhaps it's because his books are especially accessible, or perhaps there's something essentially English in character about his writing. In any case, I always enjoy coming across Dahl's work wherever I find it - even stories I've read dozens of times before are still delightfully funny, clever and fresh. Boy is the first ... more

“Boy” is an autobiography by Roald Dahl and describes his eventful childhood. The book describes his holidays to Norway, his schooldays and his family history. It describes his eventful everyday life and the unusual adventures within it. The book begins in an exciting fashion as it describes his very unusual upbringing and members of his family. The main character is obviously Roald Dahl himself as it is an autobiography and subsequently the book is written in the first person. However, other characters that appear quite a lot include his friends, his family – his mother, ancient-sister ... more

I love this book so much, I made my older sister go out and buy it for me straight away!!(Much to her distress!!) It is the interesting account of Roald Dahl's childhood, filled with facts and photographs, so you can really imagine yourself living there. I have read most of Roald Dahl's books, but this will always be my favourite because it's the only one in which we actually meet him, and discover his past, and live through his childhood with him. I strongly recommend this to anyone yound at heart!! ... more