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Roald Dahl's Autobiography #1

Boy: Tales of Childhood

roald dahl quentin blake

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In Boy, Roald Dahl recounts his days as a child growing up in England. From his years as a prankster at boarding school to his envious position as a chocolate tester for Cadbury's, Roald Dahl's boyhood was as full of excitement and the unexpected as are his world-famous, best-selling books. Packed with anecdotes—some funny, some painful, all interesting—this is a book that's sure to please.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1984
Series
Roald Dahl/s Autobiography

This edition

Format
176 pages, Paperback
Published
April 5, 2001 by Puffin Books
ISBN
9780141311401
ASIN
0141311401
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl

    Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, spy, and fighter pilot. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl was born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, and he served in the Royal Ai...

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About the author

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roald dahl

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Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors.

Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $900, and propelled him into a career as a writer. Its title was inspired by a highly inaccurate and sensationalized article about the crash that blinded him, which claimed he had been shot down instead of simply having to land because of low fuel.

His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach.

He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories and they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His stories also brought him three Edgar Awards: in 1954, for the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, for the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, for the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
HappyLilWhale
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Following the adolescence time period in the life of child author Roald Dahl. It's mostly him recalling events and stories of what he went through... much of which makes me glad I grew up in the time period I did, with technology, medical advances, etc.

Ranging from the loss of a sibling and his father, to boarding school, to working for the Shell Oil Company in Africa and ultimately fighting in The Great War, it seems Dahl lived an interesting life to say the least. It's easy to see how his experiences influenced his storytelling.
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Smurphinator
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A lot of adventures and quite a few frights for a boy in British public school in the 1920’s and 1930’s. I was surprised that Dahl would so vividly and directly recount the brutality of his headmaster, since the man (Geoffrey Fisher) later became Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned Queen Elizabeth II. The quote was rather sad: “It was all this, I think, that made me begin to have doubts about religion and even about God. If this person, I kept telling myself, was one of God’s chosen salesmen on earth, then there must be something very wrong about the whole business” (146).
Much of it is joyful and funny, though, and the episodes that inspired scenes from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were instantly recognizable. I loved his recounting of summer visits to his mother’s extended family in Norway - the food, the traditions, the scenery, and even the prank played on his sister’s fiancee. His enthusiasm at the end for his first adult job, in East Africa, is infectious - you get a real sense of the thirst for adventure, activity, and new experiences that the young Dahl brought with him from childhood into adulthood. And the book certainly gives you a sense of his close-knit family and his love for his mother, and hers for him.
A very readable coming-of-age story, complete with photographs and scraps from his letters home that fill in the narrative and convey a wonderful sense of the time and place.
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lazy_Modifier
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This is a good little book - quite a historical artefact now as Dahl, writing in the mid-80´s, talks about events which are taking place about 100 years ago from today. He´s a very clear, cutting writer, with plain yet highly original style. This is mostly because of he sticks to writing about what HE finds interesting - caning, for example, which is described over and over in great detail. As he says, he is revolted by it - especially luxuriating in describing the ritual his Repton headmaster would go through when caning a child - making them bend over his sofa as he alternated between caning their bare buttocks and smoking his pipe. This man, as Dahl explains, went on to become a Bishop and then Archbishop of Canterbury. Elsewhere he describes his Norwegian heritage, the removal of his adenoids (at home, without anaesthetic) and a filthy-nailed sweetshop harridan.

My favourite passage comes late in the book, when he compares the life of the businessman he was then - working for Shell - with the writer he would later be.

"The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn´t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it."

Amen.
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subishiro
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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It is a collection of memories arranged by age, which left their mark on a great storyteller and an inexhaustible Indiana Jones-like adventure seeker.
Only when he reaches adolescence in the book does he begin to make value judgments about what happens to him. He recounts his childhood with the child's feelings, not with the adult's interpretation.
He recounts his disbelief when he saw that the person who became Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned the current queen of the UK was the same unknown school principal that he suffered, who punished his students with viciousness close to sadism, and how that distances him from a religion that delivers fierce punishments while proclaiming love.
The other thing this book does is get the child in all of us to flap freely. We recognize in real people unforgettable characters from his stories. We are just one-step away from being ourselves who imagine the passage from reality to fantasy in books like Matilda, the Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It blends the everyday with the world of fantasy, and of all the reasons I can think of to enjoy a good book, this is probably one of the best.
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Jimanime
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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"A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it."
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babysaki
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Dahl is as charming and child-friendly as always. In his accounts of taste-testing free Cadbury and Nestle samples you can see the germs of his ideas for Charlie. And Matilda echoes the beatings Dahl and his friends used to get at school from some of his teachers. There is even a nod to The Twits in the form of the disgusting sweet shop lady with food all down her dress.

Off to add all Dahl’s adult books to my list now!
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Fabe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I read this in year 7 for English and I loved it.

Me, I normally hate school books. But this one was different, I really liked this one. It was just so interesting. I can still remember half the stuff that happened in the book. That is how much it stuck with me. I recommend this to fans of Roald Dahl and even non fans, this book is different from all his other work.



Good different...

I still recommend it, the things that happen and how he describes it is just...



That is the only word to describe the book.

Such a sparkly review...
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sgaze
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I love reading nonfiction, especially autobiographies. This book was not just any autobiography but a book about Roald Dahl's childhood. Growing up I loved the book Matilda and enjoyed James and the Giant Peach and the BFG and now as an adult I am making it my goal to read all his books. I just set this goal a couple weeks ago and have read this book and The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.

Roald Dahl told fascinating stories about his childhood up the the age of 18. He explained his extreme love of chocolate and his fear of most of his teachers. I believe these two factors were huge for his writings and stories.

I really enjoyed Roald's autobiography, that he swears wasn't one and I suggest it to anyone that enjoys him as a writer.
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