But I Smile Anyway…

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

The BFG!

George’s Marvellous Medicine!

The Twits!

The Witches!

Oh I could go on!

I loved Roald Dahl! I am sure pretty much all of us would have been in some contact with Dahl’s work, whether it be by reading, or watching certain rather popular films! And the wonderful illustrations by Quentin Blake.

I was actually a late started in getting into the actual books. I loved to watch Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, with the Oompa Loompas and all the funny characters, but I never realised it was a book first! Then at school we read George’s Marvellous Medicine and my literary world was expanded, yet again to a wealth of literature!

I didn’t get to read all his books then, but again, book slave that I am, I bought the set for my kids, and added where I found extras!

Roald Dahl Books

But a couple of books we all read as youngsters, and which I find rather gruesome and funny to date were the Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts Poetic Short Story books!

Poetry Perfection!

Again, when I saw them on offer, I had to get them for my children, how can you grow up and not have a dash of Roald Dahl in your life?!

Talking of a ‘dash’, did you know there is even a recipe book to go with these books?

Cooking with Dahl! (and I don’t mean lentils!)

And where there’s Dahl, there has to be Blake, who can forget his great Mr Magnolia book, and Mrs Armitage stories!

Quentin Blake’s efforts!

There are a few now that have been made into movies, and obviously we saw the remake of Willy Wonka recently, which I can proudly say my brother is actually in! He was part of the production team so his name is in the credits and he was asked to step in as an extra too!  He got to meet Johnny Depp – swoon! but didnt’ get me his autograph! Bah! More recently, a lesser known book, Esio Trot, was made into a tele-film with Dame Judy Dench, and Dustin Hoffman!

I am now familiar with most of his texts as I have read them with my kids, and I loved every minute of reading to them! Now, as they are getting older, they pick books like these themselves to read silently, and I am so happy to see that!

Which Roald Dahl book was your favourite?
Read part 1 here.
Read part 2 here