With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory completing 50 years and Roald Dahl only two years short of his birth centenary, Kanika Sharma wishes the beloved writer a gloriumptious birthday and for treats has lined up piggery-jokery facts
Willy Wonka and Veruca Salt
About the Time-Twiddler and his works
1. In 1971, a real Willy Wonka wrote to Roald Dahl. He was a postman.
Willy Wonka and Veruca Salt Illustration courtesy/Quentin Blake
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2. The first draft of the Magic Finger was titled The Almost Ducks, and James and the Giant Peach was going to be called James and the Giant Cherry.
3. Roald Dahl wrote may of his books in a shed in his garden, sitting upon an old battered armchair. He balanced a specially designed writing board on his lap and wrote with an HB pencil on yellow legal pads.
Roald Dahl clicked on 11th December 1971. Pics/Getty
4. Prince of Pondicherry was the name of the Indian Prince who Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about. The prince asked Mr Wonka to build him an entire palace out of chocolate, and he did, but it melted in India’s heat.
American actor Patricia Neal smiles with her husband, Welsh-born author Roald Dahl and two of their children outside their farmhouse.
5. He wrote the screenplays for You Only Live Twice (the James Bond film) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Book cover of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of the most famous works of Dahl’s. PIC/Puffin Books
6. It has been said that Roald Dahl created more than 250 new words. Many of them appear in The BFG.
7. Dahl didn’t like the man with a beard. He thought of the concept for The Twits after deciding to do something against beards.
8. He did not start writing for children until he had children of his own.
9. He loved chocolate, but not chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream.
10. Dahl had two steel hips and underwent six operations on his spine.
Information courtesy: primaryfacts.com, funtrivia.com, dailedge.ie, buckscc.gov.uk. bbc.com
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