Happy Roald Dahl Day everyone!

Today is the birthday of the beloved children’s author Roald Dahl, and what better way to celebrate than to share some of my favourite books?

Fantastic Mr Fox

I was in total awe of Mr Fox when I was little. I thought he was the bravest and cleverest fox in the world! And indeed he must be to escape the terrible shovels and tractors that horrible farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean use to try and dig him out of his hole. I discovered the magic of Fantastic Mr Fox again as an au pair in Italy, reading it with a fascinated young boy called Marco. Oh the joy of sharing one of your favourite books!

Matilda 

What young book lover couldn’t love Matilda? And what young book lover wouldn’t want to be Matilda? It’s not just her incredible reading skills (by the age of four years and three months she had already read every children’s book in her library!), it’s also the fact that she can make things move just by looking at them! With a cast of disgustingly awful characters, one of them being the scariest head teacher imaginable, this is one of Roald Dahl’s most beloved books.

Danny, the Champion of the World

It’s been a long, long time since I read Danny, the Champion of the World, but when I was younger I had the audio book and would listen to it over and over again. I never got bored of Danny’s father’s brilliant methods to poach pigeons and thought their night-time excursions to Hazell’s wood were terrifyingly tense. Even at a young age, I found the relationship between Danny and his father very touching and although full of laughter and fun, this book seemed to be much more serious than other children’s books.

The Twits

What a nasty, horrible, revolting couple The Twits are! I was delighted with how disgusting this book was. In fact, I remember squealing with a delighted horror at the descriptions of Mr Twit’s beard and the food that sometimes got caught there. There’s nothing pleasant about Mr and Mrs Twit and when they do finally get their comeuppance it’s hard not to cheer aloud!

George’s Marvellous Medicine

Probably what makes me love George’s Marvellous Medicine so much is because my granny used to hate it! We once listened to the audio book in the car on a family outing and she was very unimpressed. This is one of those books that really gets children’s imagination flowing. I’m sure I can’t be the only one that attempted my own version of the marvellous concoction? I never tried to feed it to my granny though…

Do you have any special Roald Dahl memories from your childhood?