13th September: Roald Dahl

On the anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl in 1916, here are 10 things about him you might not know:

1. His parents were Norwegian and named him after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian.
2. When he was a child, he was somewhat of a practical joker. At eight years old, he and four of his friends put a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, to annoy the "mean and loathsome" owner, Mrs Pratchett. This was known to the five boys as the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924". It got them all the cane at school, but many years later, the first blue plaque in honour of Roald Dahl was placed, not on his birthplace, but on the wall of the sweet shop, commemorating the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924". On another occasion he replaced the tobacco in his half–sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.
3. He didn't show early promise as a writer. His English teacher wrote on his report, "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended."
4. Dahl was 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall.
5. He was a flying ace in the second world war. Only three of the 16 men he trained with survived the war. He flew De Havilland Tiger Moths, Hawker Harts, Gloster Gladiators (the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF) and Hawker Hurricanes, training in Kenya and Iraq. On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the "Battle of Athens". On one occasion he had to crash land in a desert and was hospitalised for over three months.
6. After being invalided out of the Air Force, Dahl was persuaded to take up the post of assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington DC. He hated the job, but it was during this time his talent for writing was discovered. He met novelist C. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. When Forester read what Dahl had written, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.
7. He helped invent a valve to alleviate hydrocephalus, after his son developed the condition after an accident. The device became known as the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, and was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till. It was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.
8. His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore. The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. He also wrote stories for adults, which were usually quite dark and with a surprise twist at the end. His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name.
9. He used to write in a gypsy caravan in the grounds of his home.
10. When he died, he was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw.