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!

Happy 90th, Roald!

If Roald Dahl were alive today, he'd be 90. Any excuse for a party!

Here's what you should do to celebrate, according to the Roald Dahl Day Challenge website:

1. Wear something yellow – it was Roald's favourite colour!
2. Wear one or more items of clothing backwards.
3. Drop "gobblefunk" into your conversations (the unique language created by Roald and most commonly used bythe BFG).
4. Swap a Roald Dahl book with a friend.
5. Talk backwards.
6. Tell a silly joke – Roald loved swapping these with his kids.
7. Play an "unexpected" prank.
8. Give someone a treat – Roald was a great believer in treats, whether it was a bar of chocolate or a lovely surprise.
9. Write your own revolting rhyme.
10. Make up an Oompa Loompa dance and get all your friends to join in!

If you suceed in carrying out these tasks, you can print out your own certificate at the website! Good luck and let me know how you score.

(Carry a hard copy of this post in your pocket so you have an alibi if anyone wants to cart you off to the funny farm for Oompa Loompaing in the office.)

Now, me. I'm a huge Roald Dahl fan. I love his kids books (too good for children) but even more so his short stories. So clever. So nicely nasty. (If you've never read them, seek out his Tales of the Unexpected.)

Jeremy Treglown pays tribute to the master of the twisty tale in the Guardian.

Meanwhile, our Ted threatens guerilla-like readings of the good stuff in a bookshop near you. And the British Council and Times are celebrating the event in style.

Tickled by Sperm Stealers

Last night our book club met to discuss Roald Dahl's My Uncle Oswald. It's not often that our book of the month is such an enjoyable romp, an effortless breeze, as this fable tale for grown ups about a scam to steal sperm from the greatest minds of the early C20th.

It lead us to chat about sperm banks and genetics and how cows are artificially inseminated (thanks Gene Girl for the scientific imput and for raising the tone of the discussion) and whether Oswald's scenario was every woman's fantasy as well as every man's (thanks Jessica and Kumar for lowering it again).

"Well, wouldn't you do Einstein if you had the chance?" was put to the vote and proved that women will try to optimize the biological advantages for their offspring.

I told them about a very good book I'd read on the subject: Sperm Wars by Robin Baker.

Among the fun stuff Baker says: 10 per cent of children are not fathered by their "fathers", less than 1 per cent off a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything - the rest is there to fight off other men's sperm, "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others, and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner.

See? And you thought we bookish types were boring!

Our book club is now at optimum size - we have around 10-12 keen people turn up usually and we're all comfortable with each other.

Fiona Wan joined us a few months ago to see how such a group works and has now set up her own group which has its first meeting tomorrow night. She's looking for members, so if you live in the KL area and have always wanted to talk books and make new friends along the way, contact her at fwmching@gmail.com or through her Yahoo group.