Later in the war Roald Dahl was sent to America. Roald wrote about these experiences in his books Boy and Going Solo. Tragically of the 20 men in his squadron, Roald Dahl was one of only three to survive. But being nearly two metres tall he found himself squashed into his fighter plane, knees around his ears and head jutting forward. With the outbreak of the Second World War Roald Dahl joined the RAF. In Africa he learnt to speak Swahili, drove from diamond mines to gold mines, and survived a bout of malaria where his temperature reached 105.5 degrees (that's very high!). He seems incapable of marshalling his thoughts on paper!' After finishing school Roald Dahl, in search of adventure, travelled to East Africa to work for a company called Shell.
When he was at school Roald Dahl received terrible reports for his writing - with one teacher actually writing in his report, 'I have never met a boy who so persistently writes the exact opposite of what he means. ‘Which child,’ she says to herself all day long, ‘exactly which child shall I choose for my next squelching?’ Continue reading here… Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessperson or driving round in a fancy car (and she could be doing any of these things), her mind will always be plotting and scheming and churning and burning and whizzing and phizzing with murderous bloodthirsty thoughts. It is all she thinks about the whole day long. Her passion is to do away with them, one by one. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ORDINARY JOBS.Ī real witch hates children with a red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and red-hot than any hatred you could possibly imagine.Ī real witch spends all her time plotting to get rid of the children in her particular territory. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. The most important thing you should know about REAL WITCHES is this. For many children it may be daunting to see page after page of purely just text.In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black coats, and they ride on broomsticks.īut this is not a fairy tale. This made reading The Witches a lot more appealing than if it were just block text. There are a variety of emotions felt with every paragraph but the way that the humour is incorporated in with the excitement, fear and danger is superb.Īnother factor which adds to the enjoyment of this book is the way in which the text is laid out simple and larger than your average novel. The way that she is written is so convincing and the way other characters react to her, with the utmost fear and admiration is hilarious to follow.
My personal favourite is the Grand High Witch. From the snotty nosed hotel owner, to the fat kid that never stops eating. The excellent imagination of Roald Dahl certainly makes the plot and characters very convincing, especially for those readers who are too young to know that those type of witches do not exist, although I can not be one hundred percent sure after reading this masterpiece.Īlong the way we meet some magnificent characters. To describe the story as powerful may be an exaggeration in terms, the story however is extremely enjoyable, and I do believe that all sorts of children of different ages would agree. Even though he is a mouse for the last three quarters of the book, a plan is concocted with his grandmother to destroy all of the witches and save the British children from extinction.
She catches the child ear wigging and turns him into a mouse, with the help of a secret potion he did however hear their plans to destroy all the children of England before this cruel incident. The story revolves around a grandmother and her grandson who have been unfortunate enough to stumble upon an annual meeting of witches at a hotel, hosted by the ever terrifying, Grand High Witch'. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the story unfold, meeting all of the characters and learning for myself just how far the imagination can be stretched. That interest stayed with me right up until the last page. This book was an absolute pleasure to read, from the offset it catches your interest with its vivid description of the witches that you will meet later on in the story, told as though they could be sat right next to you as you are reading. Published by, Jonathan Cape Ltd, Thirty Two, Bedford Square, London.
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