Rare Roald Dahl interview from 1990 - How he became a writer

Roald Dahl explains how he got into writing. Interview by Terry Lane.

This video was recorded in 1990 from ABC radio, hence the low quality.

A full copy of this interview can be purchased from:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6598075

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  People & Blogs

[rh7onda7]

Is there more?

Would love to hear the rest.

[notasissy]

yeah there is, towards the end of the interview he reads The Anteater, a short story. I'll be putting that up soon.

[Mazorquera20]

Your imagination is eternal, you'll be always in our hearts.

[foxsux6000]

prats (lol)

[georgemillman]

I don't think there is anything wrong with holding a belief about something, it's what you do with that belief that is the problem. Obviously if he was a child-killer, that's terrible, but that's only a rumour - innocent until proven guilty.

And as I said, I have no doubt that he was a hard man to get on with - you can tell that even without the rumours, that is the case with anyone as passionate as him. However, that's again all subjective. I think you can see all sides of him from his works.

[georgemillman]

I highly doubt that he was involved in child-killing... I can find nothing to suggest that he was associated with Aleister Crowley, or indeed that Crowley was involved in child-killings. Maybe they were Satanists, but there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself.

As for his daughter, that's just her opinion. Enid Blyton's daughter hated her, so people believe her to have been an awful mother - despite the fact that her elder daughter (now dead) adored her. I don't doubt Dahl was volatile...

[georgemillman]

Okay, three things:

1) How do you know this? Unless you are one of his kids, I can't see how you can know that for certain.

2) Hardly anyone's behaviour is as clear-cut as that, it's just opinions.

3) Even if he was a horrible person, he was still an extraordinarily good writer, and was many children's companion. It is obvious from his works that he was an intelligent, opinionated and imaginative man, and he deserves respect for his work, no matter what he was like at home.

[Lblue121085]

Amazing. Xx

[Mike Foster]

Roald Dahl was an inspiration to me with his books and poems, i grew up with them and I shall share them with my children. Storys and rumors are nothing to do with his ability nor is it a noble thing to be-little a dead man, he was a hero and a HUMAN. Nobodys perfect and my personification of his personality was a good and kind one.

[lesterclaypool1]

How do you present this information? Where does it come from. Some people believe Dahl to be a racist and an anti-Semite from a comment taken completely out of context while the likes of my wife, who has studied the man and his life extensively, sees that these impressions largely come from people who think that any comment about a social group fits these parameters.

As I said, ideas of morality are subjective and will reflect on the source material.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

okay so instead don't ban the book, inform the students and/or parents on the background of the book and the author and decide if they want to read it or not. This way you're not banning material and also not promoting material that people might not like if they know the whole story.

That would probably be the best option. Don't tell them after because then they already view the author favorably due to emotional connection to the stories.

[lesterclaypool1]

So now you've changed your argument, again, from Dahl shouldn't have been writing books in the first place to schools shouldn't promote the books that he has written?

If we considered the character behind those who create our artistic offerings, and censor based on someone's subjective idea of morality we'd have nothing to read or watch.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

I'm not sure I think kids like to know more about the people that write the books. Perhaps I should say more so that schools shouldn't promote the books, without schools and movies I'm not sure how popular these books would be. So if kids ask about the author and you give a true bio I think kids might not want to continue to read them, most kids seem to want people to be good. no author is going to be perfect but there are somethings you have control over.