The blog is going away but the reviews are not. You can find them here in the online print edition.
Home > ATLarts > Archives > 2008 > September > 11 > Entry
The eternal coolness of Roald Dahl
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sept. 13 is Roald Dahl’s birthday, and among his British fans it’s sometimes called Roald Dahl Day, so it is with exquisite timing that author Jennet Conant shows up at 8 tonight (Sept. 11) at the Atlanta History Center to read and sign her new book “The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington.”
To most, Dahl is the author of children’s books “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “James and the ˝Giant Peach,” two classics that alone cement his reputation for all time. But Dahl fans know that he also wrote wicked, dangerous, and sometimes even sexually kinky short stories. His novel “My Uncle Oswald” is delightfully strange and dirty.
But Conant focuses on the young Dahl, before he became a writer. Winston Churchill sends Dahl, a dashing young RAF flier, to Washington, D.C. in 1942 to essentially spy on the Americans. He joins Ian Fleming and Noel Coward as Brits who were serving as back channels and Churchill’s eyes and ears, sometimes trying to counter the isolationist sentiment that was strong here before Pearl Harbor.
Dahl, who had quite a reputation as a ladies’ man, became a good (and platonic) friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and through her gained the trust of her husband Franklin (who also realized Dahl’s purpose).
Also showing up in “The Irregulars:” Harry Truman, Walt Disney, J. Edgar Hoover, and plenty more colorful characters.
Whether you read “The Irregulars” or not, go find a paperback copy of Dahl’s short story collections “Tales of the Unexpected” or “Switch Bitch” and read a couple. You’ll never look at Willie Wonka the same again.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Comments