Roald Dahl: writer, inventor, historian, fighter pilot and spy

Born on this day, in 1916, in Cardiff, Roald Dahl lived an eventful life until his death in 1990.

(Roald Dahl's grave in Buckinghamshire, England. Picture: MilborneOne)

Now each year people celebrate the life and work of this eccentric man, who was much more than just a bestselling writer.

Who was Roald Dahl?

Roald Dahl is best known for being a writer and storyteller, with a huge collection of bestselling children’s books.

From Big Friendly Giants to Fantastic Foxes, from Giant Peaches to Chocolate Factories, Roald Dahl has published a huge array of work on the wild and the wacky.

(Roald Dahl at Hythe School in1979)

But did you know Roald Dahl also wrote stories for adults? Unlike his children’s books, these strictly-for-adult books are of a darker, more twisted nature.

Roald Dahl was also a fighter pilot and MI6 spy during World War Two, a chocolate historian and the inventor of a contraption which helped thousands of children.

A fighter pilot and a spy?

Following on from his education, Roald Dahl travelled to Canada and East Africa where he worked for an oil company.

When World War Two broke out, in 1939, Roald Dahl enlisted in the Royal Air Force aged 23.

A year later, in September 1940, his Gladiator crash-landed in the Western Desert and he spent six months in Alexandria recovering from injuries to his head, nose and back.

Once he recovered, Roald Dahl took part in the Battle of Athens, later posting to Washington where he supplied intelligence to MI6.

Okay, but a chocolate historian?

(Picture: Marcus Quigmire)

Yes, Roald Dahl could give Willy Wonka a run for his money with his quirkiness and love for chocolate – he dedicated a whole chapter to it in The Roald Dahl Cookbook.

This love is traced back to when Roald Dahl went to Repton School, in South Derbyshire, from 1930 to 1934, which he writes of in his autobiography Boy.

During his time at Repton he, among other classmates, tasted and rated Cadbury products before they went on sale.

This inspired his History of Chocolate – a timeline of the ‘seven glorious years’ of chocolate between 1930 and 1937, and may have inspired the hugely successful book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

What did Roald Dahl invent?

Roald Dahl helped to invent a cerebral shunt which helped thousands of children in need.

The Wade-Dahl-Till valve was a collaboration of work between Roald Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till.

In 1960 Roald Dahl’s then four-month old son, Theo, was hit by a cab which shattered his skull. He needed surgery and the traditional shunt, used to drain fluid from his brain, kept getting blocked.

The trio worked together to invent a shunt that combated this issue.

By the time it was ready Theo no longer had need for it, but the device helped thousands of children before medicine advanced further.