Coordinates

55°45′06″N37°37′04″N

{{infobox england county | name

Buckinghamshire | image 150pxFlag of Buckinghamshire County Council | motto | map | status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county | origin Historic | region South East England | arearank Ranked 32nd | area_km2 1874 | adminarearank Ranked 33rd | adminarea_km2 1565 | adminhq Aylesbury; Milton Keynes | iso GB-BKM | ons 11 | nutscode | nuts3 UKJ13 | poprank Ranked | popestdate | pop | density_km2 | adminpoprank Ranked | adminpop | ethnicity 91.7% White4.3% S. Asian1.6% Black | council Buckinghamshire County Council; Borough of Milton Keyneshttp://www.buckscc.gov.uk/ ; http://www.miltonkeynes.gov.uk/ | mps Steve Baker (C) John Bercow (S) Cheryl Gillan (C) Dominic Grieve (C) Mark Lancaster (C) David Lidington (C) Iain Stewart (C) | subdivname | subdivmap | subdivs # South Bucks # Chiltern # Wycombe # Aylesbury Vale # Milton Keynes (Unitary) }}

Buckinghamshire ( or ; archaically the County of Buckingham; abbreviated Bucks) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe.

The area under the control of Buckinghamshire County Council, or shire county, is divided into four districts—Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe. The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and forms part of the county for various functions such as Lord Lieutenant but does not come under county council control. The ceremonial county, the area including Milton Keynes borough, borders Greater London (to the south east), Berkshire (to the south), Oxfordshire (to the west), Northamptonshire (to the north), Bedfordshire (to the north east) and Hertfordshire (to the east).

Sections of the county closer to London are part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which limits development. It is the location of the nationally important Pinewood Studios and Dorney Lake, which will be holding the rowing events at the 2012 Summer Olympics. It is also well known for the new town of Milton Keynes and the Chiltern Hills area of outstanding natural beauty.

History

The name Buckinghamshire is Anglo-Saxon in origin and means ''The district (scire) of Bucca's home''. ''Bucca's home'' refers to Buckingham in the north of the county, and is named after an Anglo-Saxon landowner. The county has been so named since about the 12th century; however, the county itself has existed since it was a subdivision of the kingdom of Mercia (585–919).

The history of the area, though, predates the Anglo-Saxon period and the county has a rich history starting from the Celtic and Roman periods, though the Anglo-Saxons perhaps had the greatest impact on Buckinghamshire: the geography of the rural county is largely as it was in the Anglo-Saxon period. Later, Buckinghamshire became an important political arena, with King Henry VIII intervening in local politics in the 16th century and just a century later the English Civil War was reputedly started by John Hampden in mid-Bucks.

Historically, the biggest change to the county came in the 19th century, when a combination of cholera and famine hit the rural county, forcing many to migrate to larger towns to find work. Not only did this alter the local economical picture, it meant a lot of land was going cheap at a time when the rich were more mobile and the leafy Bucks became a popular rural idyll: an image it still has today. Buckinghamshire is a popular home for London commuters, leading to greater local affluence; however, some pockets of relative deprivation remain.

Geography

The county can be split into two sections geographically. The south leads from the River Thames up the gentle slopes of the Chiltern Hills to the more abrupt slopes on the northern side leading to the Vale of Aylesbury, a large flat expanse of land, which includes the path of the River Great Ouse.

Waterways

Rivers

The county includes two of the four longest rivers in England. The River Thames forms the southern boundary with Berkshire, which has crept over the border at Eton and Slough meaning the river is no longer the sole boundary between the two counties. The River Great Ouse begins just outside the county in Northamptonshire and flows east through Buckingham, Milton Keynes and Olney.

Canals

The main branch of the Grand Union Canal flows through the county as do its arms to Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover (disused) and Buckingham (disused). The canal has been incorporated into Milton Keynes.

Landscape

The two highest points in Buckinghamshire are Haddington Hill in Wendover Woods (a stone marks its summit) at above sea level, and Coombe Hill near Wendover at .

Demography

The ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire consists of the area administered by Milton Keynes Borough Council as well as that administered by Buckinghamshire County Council. The ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Currently the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire is Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher and the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire is Amanda Nicholson. The ''Custos rotulorum'' has been combined with the duties of Lord Lieutenant since 1702.

Aylesbury, BuckinghamHigh Wycombe, Marlow, BuckinghamshireAmersham, CheshamBeaconsfield, Burnham, Buckinghamshire N/AMilton Keynes, Newport Pagnell N/A

+ Buckinghamshire Districts	District	Main Towns	Population (2006 estimate)	Population (2007 estimate)	Population (2008 estimate)	Area	Population Density (2008)	'''Population Estimate 2026
Aylesbury Vale	|	172,000	174,100	176,000	902.75 km²	195/km²	213,000
Wycombe (district)	Wycombe	Marlow||	161,300	161,400	161,500	324.57 km²		498/km²	165,000
Chiltern (district)	Chiltern	|	90,300	90,800	90,900	196.35 km²	463/km²	89,000
South Bucks	Burnham||	63,700	64,300	64,800	141.28 km²	459/km²	63,800
TOTAL Non-Metropolitan	|	487,300	490,600	493,200	1565 km²	315/km²	530,800
Milton Keynes (borough)	|	224,800	228,400	232,200	308.63 km²	752/km²	323,146
TOTAL Ceremonial	|	712,100	719,000	725,400	1874 km²	387/km²	853,946

Population figures for 2006 from the Office for National Statistics as are figures for 2007 estimates and 2008. See List of English districts by population for a full list of every English district.

As can be seen from the table, the Vale of Aylesbury and borough of Milton Keynes have been identified as growth areas, with a population surge of almost 50,000 people in Aylesbury Vale between 2006 and 2026 and 100,000 people in Milton Keynes within twenty years. The population of Milton Keynes is expected to reach almost 350,000 by 2031.

Politics

At present, the county has two top-level administrations: Buckinghamshire County Council, which administers about four fifths of the county (see map above) and the Borough of Milton Keynes, a unitary authority, which administers the remaining fifth. There are four district councils that are subsidiary to the county council: Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe.

Buckinghamshire County Council

The county council was founded in 1889 with its base in new municipal buildings in Walton Street, Aylesbury (which are still there). In Buckinghamshire, local administration is run on a two-tier system where public services are split between the county council and a series of district councils.

In the 1960s the council moved into new premises: a 15-storey tower block in the centre of Aylesbury (pictured) designed by architect Thomas Pooley. Said to be one of the most unpopular and disliked buildings in Buckinghamshire, it is now a Grade II listed building.

In 1997 the northernmost part of Buckinghamshire in Milton Keynes Borough separated to form a unitary authority; however for ceremonial and some other purposes Milton Keynes is still considered to be part of Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire County Council is a large employer within the County and provides a great variety of services, including education (schools, adult education and youth services), social services, highways, libraries, County Archives and Record Office, County Museum and Roald Dahl Children's Gallery in Aylesbury, consumer services and some aspects of waste disposal and planning.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Buckinghamshire County Council features a white swan in chains. This dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period, when swans were bred in Buckinghamshire for the king's pleasure. That the swan is in chains illustrates that the swan is bound to the monarch, an ancient law that still applies to wild swans in the UK today. The arms were first borne at the Battle of Agincourt by the Duke of Buckingham.

Above the swan is a gold band, in the centre of which is Whiteleaf Cross, representing the many ancient landmarks of the county. The shield is surmounted by a beech tree, representing the Chiltern Forest that once covered almost half the county. Either side of the shield are a buck, for Buckingham, and a swan, the county symbol.

The motto of the shield says ''Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum''. This is Latin and means 'no stepping back'.

Flag

The traditional flag of Buckinghamshire, which flies outside County Hall in Aylesbury, comprises red and black halves with a white swan. The flag takes the county emblem which is on the county shield.

Demographics

Today Buckinghamshire is ethnically diverse, particularly in the larger towns. At the end of the 19th century some Welsh drover families settled in north Bucks and, in the last quarter of the 20th century, a large number of Londoners in Milton Keynes. Aylesbury has a sizeable Italian population, Chesham has a sizeable asian minority, and Amersham has a large Polish community dating from World War II. Amersham is twinned with Krynica-Zdrój in Poland. High Wycombe is the most ethnically diverse town in the county, with large Asian and Afro-Caribbean populations. There is also a Polish and Eastern European community. During the Second World War there were many Polish settlements in Bucks, Czechs in Aston Abbotts and Wingrave, and Albanians in Frieth. Remnants of these communities remain in the county.

Economy

Buckinghamshire has a modern service-based economy and is part of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire NUTS-2 region, which was the seventh richest subregion in the European Union in 2002. The southern part of the county is a prosperous section of the London commuter belt. The county has fertile agricultural lands, with many landed estates, especially those of the Rothschild banking family of England in the 19th century (see Rothschild properties in England). Manufacturing industries include furniture-making (traditionally centred at High Wycombe), pharmaceuticals and agricultural processing.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Buckinghamshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds sterling (except GVA index).

Regional Gross Value Added6,0088,3899,171

Year	|	Agriculture	Industry	Services	GVA index per person
1995	|	60	1,746	4,201	118
2000	|	45	1,863	6,481	125
2003	|	50	1,793	7,328	118

In a recent nationwide survey, Buckinghamshire had the highest quality of life in the country, having the highest life expectancy and best education results.

Places of interest

Buckinghamshire is most notable for its open countryside and natural features, including the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the River Thames. The county is also home to a large quantity of historic houses, some of which are open to the public through the National Trust such as Waddesdon Manor, West Wycombe Park and Cliveden and others which still act as private houses such as the Prime Minister's country retreat Chequers.

Buckinghamshire is also famous as the home of various notable people from history in whose honour tourist attractions have been established. The most notable of these is the author Roald Dahl who included many local features and characters in his works.

There are various notable sports facilities in Buckinghamshire from Adams Park in the south to the National Hockey Stadium and stadium:mk in the north, and the county is also home to the world famous Pinewood Studios. For a full list of tourist attractions and places of interest see Places of interest in Buckinghamshire.

Transport

Roads

Buckinghamshire (including Milton Keynes) is served by four motorways, although two are on its borders:

M40 motorway: cuts through the south of the county serving towns such as High Wycombe and Beaconsfield

M1 motorway: serves Milton Keynes in the north

M25 motorway: passes into Bucks but has only one junction (J16-interchange for the M40)

M4 motorway: passes through the very south of the county with only J7 in Bucks

Four important A roads also enter the county (from north to south):

A5: serves Milton Keynes

A41: cuts through the centre of the county, serving Aylesbury

A40: parallels M40 through south Bucks and continues to central London

A4: serves Taplow in the very south

Road travel east–west is good in the county because of the commuter routes leaving London for the rest of the country. There are no major roads that run directly between the south and north of the county (e.g. between High Wycombe and Milton Keynes).

Rail

Buckinghamshire has four main lines running through it:

West Coast Main Line: in the north, with stations serving Milton Keynes

Great Central Main Line: now the London to Aylesbury Line, it serves Aylesbury and other settlements along the A413 towards London

Chiltern Main Line: serves the towns along the M40 motorway including High Wycombe and Beaconsfield

Great Western Main Line: runs through Slough. Slough is now in Berkshire, but the line enters Bucks twice, on either side of Slough, with Taplow and Iver both having stations in Buckinghamshire.

There are the following additional lines:

Princes Risborough to Aylesbury Line: a single track branch, it connects the Chiltern Main Line to the Aylesbury Line.

Marston Vale Line: between Bletchley and Bedford

Marlow Branch Line: between Marlow, Bourne End and Maidenhead.

The county once had an extensive network of Metropolitan Railway services, from the current Amersham terminus right into central Bucks at Verney Junction. That station is now closed but may one day re-open as part of the Varsity Line scheme for trains between Oxford and Bedford.

The main train operating companies are Chiltern Railways, Virgin Trains and London Midland, First Great Western and London Underground. From 2017, Iver will have Crossrail services.

Settlements

+ Largest Towns in Ceremonial Buckinghamshire (2001 census)	Town !! Population !! District !! Notes
! Milton Keynes	184,506	Milton Keynes (borough)	Unitary Authority since 1997. Population includes Newport Pagnell
! High Wycombe	92,300		Includes suburbs of Downley and Hazlemere. The High Wycombe Urban Area population is 118,229
! Aylesbury	56,392	Aylesbury Vale	County town of Buckinghamshire. Population of Aylesbury Urban Area (including Stoke Mandeville and Bierton) is 69,021
! Amersham	21,470
! Chesham	20,357	Chiltern
Marlow, Buckinghamshire>Marlow	17,522	Wycombe
! Buckingham	12,512	Aylesbury Vale	Historically the county town of Buckinghamshire
! Beaconsfield	12,292	South Bucks
! Princes Risborough	8,121	Wycombe
! Wendover	7,385	Aylesbury Vale
Olney, Buckinghamshire>Olney	6,032	Milton Keynes
Winslow, Buckinghamshire>Winslow	4,519	Aylesbury Vale

For the full list of towns, villages and hamlets in Buckinghamshire, see List of places in Buckinghamshire. Throughout history, there have been a number of changes to the Buckinghamshire boundary.

Education

See ''List of schools in Buckinghamshire and List of schools in Milton Keynes''

Education in Buckinghamshire is governed by two Local Education Authorities. Buckinghamshire County Council has a completely selective education system where pupils transfer to either a grammar school or secondary modern school depending on how they perform in the 11 plus test and on their preferences. Pupils who do not take the test can only be allocated places at secondary modern schools. There are 9 independent schools and 34 maintained (state) secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges in the county council area. The unitary authority of Milton Keynes operates a comprehensive education system. There are 8 maintained (state) secondary schools, in the borough council area. Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes are also home to the University of Buckingham, Buckinghamshire New University, the Open University and the University Centre Milton Keynes.

Notable people

Buckinghamshire has been the birth place and/or final resting place of several notable individuals. Saint Osyth was born in Quarrendon and was buried in Aylesbury in the 7th century while at about the same time Saint Rumwold was buried in Buckingham. From the medieval period Roger of Wendover was, as the name suggests, from Wendover and Anne Boleyn also owned property in the same town. It is said that King Henry VIII made Aylesbury the county town over Buckingham because Boleyn's father owned property there and was a regular visitor himself. Other medieval residents included Edward the Confessor who had a palace at Brill and John Wycliffe who lived in Ludgershall.

From a slightly later period Buckinghamshire became home to some notable literary characters. Edmund Waller was brought up in Beaconsfield and served as Member of Parliament for both Amersham and Wycombe. Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary spent some time living in Marlow, attracted to the town by their friend Thomas Love Peacock who also lived there. John Milton lived in Chalfont St Giles and his cottage can still be visited there and John Wilkes served as Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. Much later literary characters include Jerome K. Jerome who lived at Marlow, T. S. Eliot who also lived at Marlow, Roald Dahl who lived in Great Missenden, Enid Blyton who lived in Beaconsfield and Edgar Wallace who lived in Bourne End and is buried in Little Marlow. Modern-day writers from Bucks include Terry Pratchett who was born in Beaconsfield, Tim Rice who is from Amersham and Andy Riley who is from Aylesbury.

During the Second World War a number of politicians and world leaders from Europe came to England to seek exile. Due to its proximity to London various locations in Buckinghamshire were selected to house dignitaries. President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia lived at Aston Abbotts with his family while some of his officials were stationed at nearby Addington and Wingrave. Meanwhile Władysław Sikorski, military leader of Poland, lived at Iver and King Zog of Albania lived at Frieth. Bucks is also notable for another exile, although this one much earlier: King Louis XVIII of France lived in exile at Hartwell House from 1809 to 1814.

Also on the local political stage Buckinghamshire has been home to Nancy Astor who lived in Cliveden, Frederick, Prince of Wales who also lived in Cliveden, Baron Carrington who lives in Bledlow, Benjamin Disraeli who lived at Hughenden Manor and was made Earl of Beaconsfield, John Hampden who was from Great Hampden and is revered in Aylesbury to this day and Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery who lived at Mentmore. Also worthy of note are William Penn who believed he was descended from the Penn family of Penn and so is buried nearby and the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who has an official residence at Chequers. Finally John Archdale colonial governor of North Carolina and South Carolina, although more notably American, was born in Buckinghamshire.

Other natives of Buckinghamshire who have become notable in their own right include:

Errol Barnett, news reporter, was born in Milton Keynes

Nick Beggs, musician, is from Winslow

Lynda Bellingham, actress, is from Aylesbury

Emily Bergl, actress, born in Buckinghamshire, though her family moved to suburban Chicago a few years after her birth

Emmerson Boyce, Wigan Athletic footballer, was born in Aylesbury

Nick Bracegirdle aka Chicane, was born in Chalfont St Giles

Den Brotheridge, British Army Officer who died taking Pegasus Bridge in France was from Aylesbury

James Corden, actor, grew up in Hazlemere

Lucinda Dryzek, actress, born in High Wycombe in South Bucks

Martin Grech, musician, is from Aylesbury

Howard Jones, musician, is from High Wycombe

HRH Prince Michael of Kent, member of the British Royal Family, born in Iver in South Bucks

Arthur Lasenby Liberty, merchant, was from Chesham

Richard Lee, footballer, attended Aylesbury Grammar School

Jonathon Lewis, England test cricketer, was born in Aylesbury

Al Murray, television / radio presenter also known as The Pub Landlord originates from Stewkley

John Otway, musician, is from Aylesbury

Steve Redgrave, five-time Olympic gold medallist rower is from Marlow Bottom

Simon Standage, baroque violinist, is from High Wycombe

Justin Sullivan, musician with New Model Army

Michael York, actor, born in Fulmer in South Bucks

Today Buckinghamshire is a very picturesque landscape and is home to numerous celebrities and has attracted its fair share in the past. These include:

Cilla Black, television presenter, lives in Denham

Fern Britton, television presenter, lives in Holmer Green

Melanie Brown, musician, lived in Little Marlow

John Craven, television presenter, lives in Princes Risborough

Tess Daly has a house in Fulmer

Iain Duncan Smith, politician, lives in Swanbourne

Ian Dury, musician, lived in Wingrave

Noel Edmonds, television presenter, once lived in Weston Turville

Andrew Fletcher, musician with Depeche Mode, has a home in Marlow

Noel Gallagher, musician with Oasis, lives in Little Chalfont

Barry Gibb, musician from Bee Gees, lives in Beaconsfield

Sir John Gielgud, actor, was living in Wotton Underwood when he died

Sir David Jason, actor, lives in Ellesborough

Angelina Jolie, actress, lives in Fulmer

Peter Jones, businessman, lives in Beaconsfield

Jason "Jay" Kay, musician and frontman of Jamiroquai, lives in Horsenden

Vernon Kay has a house in Fulmer

John Laurie, Actor, lived in Chalfont St Peter

Hayley Mills and Roy Boulting lived in Ibstone

John Mills, actor, lived in Denham

Mike Oldfield, musician, once lived in Little Chalfont

Nduka Onwuegbute, playwright, lives in Aylesbury

Ozzy Osbourne, musician, had a home in Jordans

Pauline Quirke, actress, lives in Beaconsfield

Steve Rothery, musician with Marillion, lives in Whitchurch

Rothschild family, bankers, had houses in Ascott, Aston Clinton, Eythrope, Halton, Mentmore and Waddesdon

Veruca Salt during the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Tiny Rowland, businessman, lived in Hedsor

Jackie Stewart, racing driver, lives in Ellesborough

Dave Vitty, BBC Radio 1 DJ, lives in Fulmer

Terry Wogan, radio and television broadcaster, lives in Taplow

Mark Webber, Formula 1 racing driver, lives in Aston Clinton

See also

Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire

High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire

Architecture of Aylesbury

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Wendover Woods

Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies—Archives, Record Office, Local History and Family History

Safety Centre

References

External links

Buckinghamshire County Council

Buckinghamshire County Museum and Roald Dahl Children's Gallery

Buckinghamshire Libraries

Buckinghamshire Tourist Guide

Bucks County and District Councils Portal

Photographic Archive of Buckinghamshire

Sharing Wycombe's Old Photos – A Photographic Archive of part of Buckinghamshire mostly High Wycombe and surrounding area

Category:Non-metropolitan counties Category:South East England

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Wes Anderson
birth date	May 01, 1969
birth place	Houston, Texas, United States
birth name	Wesley Wales Anderson
occupation	Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor
years active	1994–present
website	}}

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials.

He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for ''The Royal Tenenbaums''. Anderson has been called an auteur, as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production. His films employ a similar aesthetic, employing a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature folk and early rock music, in particular classic British rock. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects.

Early life

Anderson graduated from St. John's School (Texas) and then from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Philosophy.

Film career

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum (Anderson's close friends), and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother). Other frequent collaborators include writer Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote ''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' and ''Fantastic Mr. Fox'', with Anderson co-producing his film ''The Squid and the Whale''), Owen Wilson (who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films), cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), music supervisor Randall Poster, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film ''The Darjeeling Limited'' partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways" (the film is dedicated to him). Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson for the ''The Darjeeling Limited'', acting as well as co-writing the script with Anderson and Roman Coppola. In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of ''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'', Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his ''The Darjeeling Limited'', including lyrics for a title track.

Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book ''Fantastic Mr. Fox'' was released in 2009. In 2008, Wes Anderson was hired to write the screenplay of the American adaptation of ''My Best Friend'', a French film, for producer Brian Grazer, Anderson's first draft was titled "The Rosenthaler Suite".

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is an admirer of Anderson's, praising ''Bottle Rocket'' and ''Rushmore'' in an Esquire magazine article.

Advertising

In September 2007, Wes Anderson oversaw a series of six commercials for AT&T;: "College Kid", "Reporter", "Mom", "Architect", "Actor" and "Businessman." The campaign also includes online, print and outdoor advertising. These TV spots are part of AT&T;'s "Your Seamless World" national campaign from BBDO/New York. Each ad embodies Anderson's distinct style by focusing on a subject and having the environment around them change. Each of the six AT&T; commercials introduces us to a different AT&T; customer. As each of these people comes before the camera and talks about the different, far-reaching locales where he or she needs cell-phone service, the visuals behind the customer change dramatically to reflect the different destinations. The "Reporter" piece was subject to controversy when several Lebanese-American groups protested its airing as ignorant given the complex and sensitive nature of the Lebanese political situation. The ad portrayed photojournalists dodging bullets on a Beirut rooftop while the city was being bombed. It was subsequently pulled from rotation after the assassination of Antoine Ghanem on September 19, 2007 with AT&T; and BBDO issuing public apologies. Anderson starred in and directed an American Express "My Life, My Card" commercial, which chronicled the "filming" of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set, a scene paying homage to the movie ''Day for Night'' by François Truffaut. It was aired on television and in movie theaters in both a short and extended version, during and shortly after the theatrical release of ''The Life Aquatic''.

In 2008, Wes Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for a commercial for Japanese cell phones. The commercial takes inspiration from Jacques Tati's ''Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot''. Anderson filmed Pitt in one continuous shot at a French seaside town.

Filmography

Feature films

''Bottle Rocket'' (1996)

''Rushmore'' (1998)

''The Royal Tenenbaums'' (2001)

''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' (2004)

''The Darjeeling Limited'' (2007)

''Fantastic Mr. Fox'' (2009)

''Moonrise Kingdom'' (2012)

Short films

''Hotel Chevalier'' (2007)

Recurring collaborators

References

External links

Tête-à-Tête with Nic Harcourt at ''Los Angeles Times Magazine''

"Into The Deep", in-depth Anderson profile at ''The Guardian'' 12 February 2005

"Wes Anderson", brief profile by Martin Scorsese. ''Esquire''.

Interview with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited at Ioncinema.com

Wes Anderson Interview on ''The Hour'' with George Stroumboulopoulos (Video)

"Notes on Quirky" Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, No.1, 2010

Category:1969 births Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:Living people Category:People from Austin, Texas Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:Stop motion animators Category:American expatriates in France

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Roald Dahl
birth date	September 13, 1916
birth place	Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
death date	November 23, 1990
death place	Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
occupation	Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter
nationality	British
genre	Children's, adults' literature, horror, mystery, fantasy
notableworks	''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''James and the Giant Peach'', ''Fantastic Mr Fox'', ''Matilda'', ''The Witches'', ''The Twits'', ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', ''The BFG'', ''The Gremlins'', ''The Enormous Crocodile'', ''Esio Trot'', ''George's Marvellous Medicine'', ''Danny, the Champion of the World'', ''The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me'', ''The Minpins'', ''The Vicar of Nibbleswicke'', ''The Magic Finger'', ''The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More''
spouse	Patricia Neal (1953–1983; divorced; 5 children)Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland (1983–1990; his death)
influences	Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Rudyard Kipling, Frederick Marryat, Jonas Lie, Sofie Dahl (mother)
website	http://www.roalddahl.com }}

Roald Dahl (, ; 13 September 1916 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.

Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander. Dahl rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's best-selling authors. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". In 2008 ''The Times'' placed Dahl sixteenth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". His short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark humour.

Some of his notable works include ''James and the Giant Peach'', ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''George's Marvellous Medicine'', ''Fantastic Mr Fox'', ''Matilda'', ''The Witches'', and ''The Big Friendly Giant''.

Early life

Roald Dahl was born at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales in 1916, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (''née'' Hesselberg). Dahl's father had moved from Sarpsborg in Norway and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s. His mother came over to marry his father in 1911. Dahl was named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway at the time. He spoke Norwegian at home with his parents and sisters, Astri, Alfhild, and Else. Dahl and his sisters were christened at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped.

In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57 while on a fishing trip in the Antarctic. With the option of returning to Norway to live with relatives, Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales because her husband Harald had wished to have their children educated in British schools, which he considered the world's best.

Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman called Mrs Pratchett. This was known amongst the five boys as the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924".

Thereafter, he transferred to a boarding school in England: Saint Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. Roald's parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of a then regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. His time at Saint Peter's was an unpleasant experience for him. He was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week, but never revealed to her his unhappiness, being under the pressure of school censorship. Only after her death in 1967 did he find out that she had saved every single one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape. Dahl wrote about his time at St. Peter's in his autobiography ''Boy: Tales of Childhood''.

From 1929, he attended Repton School in Derbyshire, where, according to ''Boy: Tales of Childhood'', a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher, the man who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned the Queen in 1953. (However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown, the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton. The headmaster concerned was in fact J.T. Christie, Fisher's successor.) This caused Dahl to "have doubts about religion and even about God". He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended," Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching in adult life. He excelled at sports, being made captain of the school fives and squash teams, and also playing for the football team. As well as having a passion for literature, he also developed an interest in photography. During his years at Repton, Cadbury, the chocolate company, would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils. Dahl apparently used to dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr. Cadbury himself, and this proved the inspiration for him to write his third book for children, ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (1963) and include references to chocolate in other books for children.

Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset, south West England are subjects in ''Boy: Tales of Childhood''. The main child character in his 1983 book ''The Witches'' is a British boy of Norwegian descent, whose grandmother is still living in Norway.

After finishing his schooling, he spent three weeks hiking through Newfoundland with the Public Schools' Exploring Society (now known as BSES Expeditions).

In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following two years of training in the United Kingdom, he was transferred to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar-es-Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mambas and lions, amongst other wildlife.

Fighter ace

Allegiance
Branch	British Army (August–November 1939) (November 1939–1945)
Serviceyears	1939–1945
Rank	Wing Commander
Battles	World War II
Relations	}}

In August 1939, as World War II loomed, plans were made to round up the hundreds of Germans in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was made an officer in the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askaris, indigenous troops serving in the colonial army.

In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an Aircraftman. After a car journey from Dar-es-Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with 16 other men, of whom only two others survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo; Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, west of Baghdad. He was promoted to Leading Aircraftman on 24 August 1940. Following six months' training on Hawker Harts, Dahl was made an Acting Pilot Officer.

He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators, the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat, or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl was ordered to fly his Gladiator from Abu Sueir in Egypt, on to Amiriya to refuel, and again to Fouka in Libya for a second refuelling. From there he would fly to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip south of Mersa Matruh. On the final leg, he could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, he was forced to attempt a landing in the desert. The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed, fracturing his skull, smashing his nose, and temporarily blinding him. He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and passed out. Later, he wrote about the crash for his first published work.

Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight, and was then taken by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. An RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead to the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.

In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from hospital and passed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to the Greek campaign and based at Eleusina, near Athens. The squadron was now equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl saw his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of Chalcis. He attacked six Junkers Ju-88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. On 16 April in another air battle, he shot down another Ju-88.

On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the "Battle of Athens", alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle and Dahl's friend David Coke. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which plane they had shot down. Dahl described it as ''"an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side".''

In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air Force Potez 63 on 8 June and another Ju-88 on 15 June, but he then began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out. He was invalided home to Britain. Though at this time Dahl was only an Acting Pilot Officer, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a Pilot Officer and promoted to Flying Officer.

Dahl began writing in 1942, after he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air Attaché. His first published work, in 1 August 1942 issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post'', was "Shot Down Over Libya" which described the crash of his Gloster Gladiator. C. S. Forester had asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it. The original title of the article was "A Piece of Cake" but the title was changed to sound more dramatic, despite the fact that he was not actually shot down.

Dahl was promoted to Flight Lieutenant in August 1942. During the war, Forester worked for the British Information Service and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption. This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, known by the codename "Intrepid".

During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Stephenson and his organisation known as British Security Coordination, which was part of MI6. He was revealed in the 1980s to have been serving to help promote Britain's interests and message in the United States and to combat the "America First" movement, working with such other well known agents as Ian Fleming and David Ogilvy. Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct – "I got booted out by the big boys," he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to Wing Commander. Towards the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation and he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.

Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary Wing Commander (substantive Flight Lieutenant). Owing to his accident in 1940 having left him with excruciating headaches while flying, in August 1946 he was invalided out of the RAF. He left the service with the substantive rank of Squadron Leader. His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying ace, has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records, although it is most likely that he scored more than that during 20 April 1941 when 22 German aircraft were shot down.

Postwar life

Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children: Olivia, Tessa, Theo, Ophelia, and Lucy.

On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo Dahl was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus, and as a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, a device to alleviate the condition.

In November 1962, Olivia Dahl died of measles encephalitis at age seven. Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation and dedicated his 1982 book ''The BFG'' to his daughter.

In 1965, wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy; Dahl took control of her rehabilitation and she eventually relearned to talk and walk, and even returned to her acting career.

Dahl married Felicity "Liccy" Crosland at Brixton Town Hall, South London, following a divorce from Neal in 1983. Dahl and Crosland had previously been in a relationship. According to biographer Donald Sturrock, Liccy gave up her job and moved into 'Gipsy House', Great Missenden, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.

In 1983, Dahl reviewed Tony Clifton's ''God Cried'', a photo book on the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that depicted civilians who had died during Israeli bombardment of Beirut. Dahl's review stated that the book would make readers "violently anti-Israeli." Then Dahl told a reporter during an interview touching on the controversial review, "There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity ... I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason." Dahl stated that he was anti-Israel rather than anti-Semitic, and he maintained friendships with a number of Jews, including philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who said, "I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line." Several of his short stories featured derogatory caricatures of Jews, including the tale of "a little pawnbroker in Housditch called Meatbein who, when the wailing started, would rush downstairs to the large safe in which he kept his money, open it and wriggle inside on to the lowest shelf where he lay like a hibernating hedgehog until the all-clear had gone."

Dahl is the father of author Tessa Dahl, and grandfather of author, cookbook writer, and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in ''The BFG'' is named).

Death and legacy

Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a blood disease, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford, and was buried in the cemetery at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. According to his granddaughter, the family gave him a "sort of Viking funeral". He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. In his honour, the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery was opened in November 1996, at the Buckinghamshire County Museum in nearby Aylesbury.

In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the historic Oval Basin plaza, was re-christened "Roald Dahl Plass". "Plass" means "place" or "square" in Norwegian, referring to the acclaimed late writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected in the city.

Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation. In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened in Great Missenden to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.

In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction. On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the first blue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. Rather than commemorating his place of birth, however, the plaque was erected on the wall of the former sweet shop (and site of "The Great Mouse Plot of 1924") that features in the first part of his autobiography ''Boy''. It was unveiled by his widow Felicity and son Theo.

In honour of Roald Dahl, Gibraltar Post issued a set of four stamps in 2010 featuring Quentin Blake's original illustrations for four of the children's books written by Dahl during his long career; ''The BFG'', ''The Twits'', ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' and ''Matilda''. Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures, and he connected with film director Tim Burton with his "mixture of light and darkness, and not speaking down to kids, and the kind of politically incorrect humour that kids get". Regarded as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century", Dahl was listed as one of the greatest British writers since 1945. He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 100 million, and his books have been published in almost 50 languages. In 2003, the UK survey entitled ''The Big Read'' carried out by the BBC in order to find the "nation's best loved novel" of all time, four of Dahl's books were named in the Top 100, with only works by Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett featuring more.

The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as "Roald Dahl Day" in Africa, the United Kingdom, and Latin America.

Writing

Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was "A Piece Of Cake" on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by ''The Saturday Evening Post'' for US$1000 (a substantial sum in 1942) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya".

His first children's book was ''The Gremlins'', about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. All the RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the plane. The book, which First Lady of the US Eleanor Roosevelt read to her grandchildren, was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''Matilda'', ''James and the Giant Peach'', ''The Witches'', ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', ''The BFG'', ''George's Marvellous Medicine'' and ''Fantastic Mr Fox''.

Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as ''Collier's'', ''Ladies Home Journal'', ''Harper's'', ''Playboy'' and ''The New Yorker''. Works such as ''Kiss Kiss'' subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, gaining worldwide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death (See List of Roald Dahl short stories). His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collection ''Someone Like You''; in 1959, the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, the episode of ''Tales of the Unexpected'' based on "Skin".

One of his more famous adult stories, "The Smoker" (also known as "Man From the South"), was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 1995 film ''Four Rooms''. This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The 1960 Hitchcock version stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.

His short story collection ''Tales of the Unexpected'' was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with "Man From the South". When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories by authors that were written in Dahl's style, including the writers John Collier and Stanley Ellin.

He acquired a traditional Romanichal Gypsy wagon in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children. He later used the ''vardo'' as a writing room, where he wrote the book ''Danny, the Champion of the World''.

A number of his short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories. In his novel ''My Uncle Oswald'', the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly.

''Memories with Food at Gipsy House'', written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions, and claret.

Children's fiction

Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one "good" adult to counteract the villain(s). These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended. They usually contain a lot of black humour and grotesque scenarios, including gruesome violence. ''The Witches'', ''George's Marvellous Medicine'' and ''Matilda'' are examples of this formula. ''The BFG'' follows it in a more analogous way with the good giant (the BFG or "Big Friendly Giant") representing the "good adult" archetype and the other giants being the "bad adults". This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script for ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang''. Class-conscious themes – ranging from the thinly veiled to the blatant – also surface in works such as ''Fantastic Mr Fox'' and ''Danny, the Champion of the World''.

Dahl also features in his books characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter, and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge is featured in ''James and the Giant Peach'' and the nasty farmer Boggis in ''Fantastic Mr Fox'' is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks from Willy Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school. Bruno Jenkins is turned into a mouse by witches who lure him to their convention with the promise of chocolate, and, it is speculated, possibly disowned or even killed by his parents because of this. Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. Dahl's mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in ''The BFG'', the fox family in ''Fantastic Mr Fox'' and the trolls in ''The Minpins''.

In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales, providing surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Dahl's collection of poems ''Revolting Rhymes'' is recorded in audio book form, and narrated by actor Alan Cumming.

Screenplays

For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, the James Bond film ''You Only Live Twice'' and ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'', were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming, though both were rewritten and completed by other writers. Dahl created the Child Catcher, the supporting antagonist in ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'', and in a 2005 poll, it was voted the scariest villain in children's literature. Dahl also began adapting his own novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971). Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie". He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay. This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the book to be made in his lifetime.

Influences

A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. Amongst his favourite authors were Rudyard Kipling, William Makepeace Thackeray, Frederick Marryat and Charles Dickens, and their works went on to make a lasting mark on his life and writing. Dahl was also a huge fan of ghost stories and claimed that ''Trolls'' by Jonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, would relate traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: "She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten." When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he created a grandmother character in ''The Witches'' and later stated that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.

Television

In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called ''Way Out'', which preceded the ''Twilight Zone'' series on the CBS network for 14 episodes from March to July. Dahl's comedic monologues rounded off the episodes, frequently explaining exactly how to murder one's spouse without getting caught. In one introduction, Dahl ruminated about the popularity of the crewcut at the time and how it seemed to make some men feel tougher. The former fighter pilot dryly observed that "....it really doesn't help when the chips are down, though, does it?"

One of the last dramatic network shows shot in New York City, the entire series is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.

''Tales of the Unexpected'' is a British television series that originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. The series had been released to tie in with Dahl's ''Tales of the Unexpected'', which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.

The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories. The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic, and usually had a twist ending. Dahl introduced on camera all the episodes of the first two series, which bore the full title ''Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected''. Dahl also chose the stories not written by him to be adapted for the second series, and a small number of additional Dahl stories were adapted for the third series onwards following his departure.

Bibliography

Children's stories

# ''The Gremlins'' (1943) # ''James and the Giant Peach'' (1961) – Film: ''James and the Giant Peach'' (live-action/animated) (1996) # ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (1964) – Films: ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971) and ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005) # ''The Magic Finger'' (1 June 1966) # ''Fantastic Mr Fox'' (9 December 1970) – Film: ''Fantastic Mr. Fox'' (animated) (2009) # ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' (9 January 1972) A sequel to ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. # ''Danny, the Champion of the World'' (30 October 1975) – Film: ''Danny the Champion of the World'' (TV movie) (1989) # ''The Enormous Crocodile'' (24 August 1978) # ''The Twits'' (17 December 1980) # ''George's Marvellous Medicine'' (21 May 1981) # ''The BFG'' (14 October 1982) – Film: ''The BFG'' (animated) (1989) # ''The Witches'' (27 October 1983) – Film: ''The Witches'' (1990) # ''The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me'' (26 September 1985) # ''Matilda'' (21 April 1988) – Film: ''Matilda'' (1996) # ''Esio Trot'' (19 April 1989) # ''The Vicar of Nibbleswicke'' (9 May 1990) # ''The Minpins'' (8 August 1991)

;Children's poetry #''Revolting Rhymes'' (10 June 1982) #''Dirty Beasts'' (25 October 1984) #''Rhyme Stew'' (21 September 1989)

Adult fiction

;Novels # ''Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen'' (1948) # ''My Uncle Oswald'' (1979)

;Short story collections # ''Over To You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying'' (1946) # ''Someone Like You'' (1953) # ''Lamb to the Slaughter'' (1953) # ''Kiss Kiss'' (1960) # ''Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl'' (1969) # ''Switch Bitch'' (1974) # ''The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More'' (1977) # ''The Best of Roald Dahl'' (1978) # ''Tales of the Unexpected'' (1979) # ''More Tales of the Unexpected'' (1980) # ''Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories'' (1983). Edited with an introduction by Dahl. # ''The Roald Dahl Omnibus'' (Dorset Press, 1986) # ''Two Fables'' (1986). "Princess and the Poacher" and "Princess Mammalia". # ''Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl'' (1989) # ''The Collected Short Stories of Dahl'' (1991) # ''The Roald Dahl Treasury'' (1997) # ''The Great Automatic Grammatizator'' (1997). (Known in the USA as ''The Umbrella Man and Other Stories''). # ''Skin And Other Stories'' (2000) # ''Roald Dahl: Collected Stories'' (2006)

See the alphabetical List of Roald Dahl short stories. See also ''Roald Dahl: Collected Stories'' for a complete, chronological listing.

Non-fiction

# ''The Mildenhall Treasure'' (1946, 1977, 1999) # ''Boy – Tales of Childhood'' (1984) Recollections up to the age of 20, looking particularly at schooling in Britain in the early part of the 20th century. # ''Going Solo'' (1986) Continuation of his autobiography, in which he goes to work for Shell and spends some time working in Tanzania before joining the war effort and becoming one of the last Allied pilots to withdraw from Greece during the German invasion. # ''Measles, a Dangerous Illness'' (1986) # ''Memories with Food at Gipsy House'' (1991) # ''Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety'' (1991) # ''My Year'' (1993) # ''Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes'' by Felicity Dahl, ''et al.'' (1994), a collection of recipes based on and inspired by food in Dahl's books, created by Roald & Felicity Dahl, and Josie Fison # ''Roald Dahl's Even More Revolting Recipes'' by Felicity Dahl, ''et al.'' (2001)

Plays

# ''The Honeys'' (1955) Produced at the Longacre Theater on Broadway.

Film scripts

# ''The Gremlins'' (1943) # ''36 Hours'' (1965) # ''You Only Live Twice'' (1967) # ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' (1968) # ''The Night Digger'' (1971) # ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971)

Television

# ''Way Out'' (1961) Horror series hosted by Roald Dahl and produced by David Susskind # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1958) # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "Dip in the Pool" (1958) # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "Poison" (1958) # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "Man from the South" (1960) with Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" (1960) # ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'': "The Landlady" (1961) # ''Tales of the Unexpected'' (1979–1988), episodes written and introduced by Dahl

References

Sources

Philip Howard, "Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39827 accessed 24 May 2006

Donald Sturrock, ''Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl'', Harper Press, 2010. ISBN 9880007254767 (See the link to excerpts in "External Links", below.)

External links

Roald Dahl's darkest hour (biography excerpt)

Radio interview with Dahl in Norwegian by NRK (1975)

''The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington,'' 2008, New York Times Review, 17 October 2008.

February 2011 profile of Patricia Neal on V.O.A.

Category:1916 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Absurdist fiction Category:British children's writers Category:British horror writers Category:British novelists Category:British people of Norwegian descent Category:British short story writers Category:British World War II flying aces Category:Disease-related deaths in England Category:Edgar Award winners Category:King's African Rifles officers Category:Old Llandavians Category:Old Reptonians Category:People from Llandaff Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Welsh children's writers Category:Welsh people of Norwegian descent Category:Welsh fantasy writers Category:Welsh writers Category:Willy Wonka Category:Children's poets

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