The Life of a Dahlian Author

Dahl was well into his fifth decade before he published James and the Giant Peach in 1961. His mother exposed him to Norse myths and nursery rhymes, which enchanted his world. He loathed the petty rules, the bullying and fagging, and the sadistic beatings. The roughness and rigour-morel of school came as an unpleasant shock. But it's the childhood reading that seems to be most important. Dahl himself was the child reader he conjured.