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147 13 RoaldDahl And I am sure I was a fool to marry you—an old dangling bachelor who was single at fifty, only because he could never meet anyone who would have him. —Lady Teazle, The School for Scandal Roald (pronounced Roo-ahl, silent d) Dahl was born to Norwegian-born parents on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, Wales. He was given no middle name at birth. His father, Harald, was a co-owner of a ship-brokering business near Cardiff. Harald’s first wife, Marie, had died at the age of twenty-nine in 1907, and for four years Harald was a widower with two small children, Ellen (born in 1903) and Louis (born in 1904). He met his second wife, Sofie Magdelene Hesselberg (born in 1885), on a vacation in Norway. Besides Roald, Sofie and Harald had four other children, all girls: Astri (born in 1912), Alfhild (born in 1914), Else (born in 1917), and Asta (born in 1920). In February 1920, seven-year-old Astri died of appendicitis; Harald died of pneumonia shortly afterward, on April 11. Sofie, pregnant again, sold the family home in Ty Mynydd and moved her two stepchildren, now teenagers , and her own children back to Llandaff. That fall, she gave birth to her last child, Asta. His mother’s only son, Roald was nicknamed “the Apple” (of his mother’s eye).1 Sofie seldom showed physical warmth toward her children, though they knew she loved them. Perhaps Roald felt himself something of a loner, which may explain the many single-child experiences he would later write about in his children’s books. But he had a fertile imagination and was encouraged and spoiled by his mother, a nurse who adored him, and his large family. Roald graduated from Repton Public School in Derby in 1934 and went Facing page: Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl in front of Gipsy House, circa 1962. Patricia’s favorite picture of the two of them together. From the Patricia Neal Collection. Shearer฀book.indb฀฀฀147 3/16/2006฀฀฀12:15:45฀PM 148 Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life to work for the Shell Oil Company in London, transferring to the East Africa branch office in 1938. When Britain entered World War II, Dahl became a fighter pilot with the 80 Squadron for the Royal Air Force, training in Nairobi, Kenya. On September 19, 1940, Dahl’s Gloster Gladiator, a plane he had never flown before, ran low on fuel over Libya. Dahl crash landed the plane in the desert near Mersa Matruh and struck a boulder. The impact smashed his nose back into his head and fractured his skull. He subsequently spent several months in Alexandria, Egypt, recovering from his injuries. Dahl returned to England in July 1941. While in London that fall he sought out the artist Matthew Smith. The two became friends, and Smith is one of the many artists whom Dahl befriended over the course of the next several decades. Ordered to Glasgow to board a ship for Canada, Dahl met another RAF pilot, Douglas Bisgood, during the crossing. Dahl and Bisgood exchanged stories about gremlins—elves with unnatural powers—who were frequently blamed for aircraft mishaps during flight missions. Upon arrival in North America, Dahl traveled to Washington, D.C., as an assistant air attaché with the British Embassy. There he met author C. S. Forester , who became his mentor; Forester encouraged Dahl to become a writer. Sharing a house in Georgetown with future advertising giant David Ogilvy, Dahl also befriended Eton graduate Ivar Bryce, who was a good friend of British writer Ian Fleming. Dahl, Bryce, and Ogilvy became associated with such important figures as columnist Drew Pearson, reporter Ralph Ingersoll, and Vice President Henry Wallace’s close friend, newspaper owner Charles Marsh. Dahl was considered by his friend Creekmore Fath as “one of the biggest cocksmen in Washington.”2 The arrogantly handsome Dahl was very appealing to the opposite sex. Both Claire Boothe Luce, the playwright wife of Time magazine publisher Henry Luce, and Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers bestowed expensive gifts on Dahl from such jewelers as Tiffany’s. But some acquaintances believed Dahl, raised in a household of doting females, actually hated women. Invited to Hollywood because of his reputation in the nation’s capital as a teller of tall tales, Dahl was pressed to create a story about the gremlins he had talked about so engagingly. The first draft of his...

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