English author and illustrator
(1916-1990)

Biography
Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916. After his father's and his sister's death, his mother decides to move to England, in Llandaff.There he studied until he was 20 and then he moved to Africa where he works for Shell. Eager for adventures, he becomes pilot for Royal Air Forces during the Secong World War.

His meeting with C.S.Forester in Washington drove him to writing. For 15 years he wrote for adults. But thinking of his children, he began writing longer and funnier stories, which he published from 1960 on. His first two children's books (James and the Giant Peach, 1961, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 1964) were really successful.

Many other books, poems and plays appeared and made him one of the best-known writers for children all around the world. Between 1980 and 1990 more than eleven millions of his books were sold only in Great Britain. His main illustrator was the also famous Quentin Blake.

Roald Dahl was given the World Fantasy Award in 1983. He died on the 23rd November 1990.