Tales of the Unexpected

It was quite amazing today to see the picture of young Ted getting his book signed all those years ago by Roald Dahl. He still looks a big fan (right).

Rouwen Lim in Starmag interviews local readers about their own encounters with Dahl's books including a couple of other friends - Janet Tay and Lansell Tadevin, in conjunction with celebrations the annual Roald Dahl Day. (If you bought the print version of the Star, you'll also find a couple of tasty discount vouchers.)

Rouwen had asked me to write about Dahl too, but by the time I had recovered enough from the bad stomach thingy that began last weekend, I guess the deadline had passed. Here 'tis anyway :

My introduction to Roald Dahl was finding one of his collections of short fiction, Kiss Kiss, in a bookshop in the early '70's. I loved this book so much I read his other collections as well. I still don't think that anyone can better Dahl in the genre of twisty tailed short stories. Later, I can remember a television series based on the stories - Tales of the Unexpected*.

I came across his children's books when I started teaching in Birmingham schools as they were popular class readers. I have a particular fondness for Matilda which I read aloud to my niece Lauren and think I enjoyed more than she did!

*Thinking about this sent me on a nostalgia trip to YouTube where I found one of the episodes, Flypaper. Here's Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Enjoy!