Celebrating the Scrumdiddlyumptious Roald Dahl

Picture from the Evening Standard

 Wow! My first ACW blogging birthday! It's not always been easy knowing what to write about, but boy has it been fun! Updating fairy tales, long sentences, finding light in horror and the joy of words that dance on your tongue are just a few of the topics that I've covered over these past 12 months.  

My first post focussed on the classic children's author and illustrator  Beatrix Potter, so one year on, I've chosen another children's author, and one of my all time favourite writers - Roald Dahl. 

In my eyes, he's an absolute genius who captures our hearts and imaginations with his characters. From Mathilda to Charlie and the Chocolate factory, The BFG to Fantastic Mr Fox, it's hard to choose my favourite but I think I'd have to go for Danny, The Champion of the World. I love the relationship that Danny has with his father and the gentleness of the book. 

Yet Dahl also excels in the macabre. A woman who murders her husband with a leg of lamb and then roasts it, to a pig who eats it's farmer - delicious! 

Knowing this makes me feel a little better, as over the month of October, my writing took a darker tone. As regular readers know, I frequently write very short stories on Twitter, and in the month of October there was the option of an additional prompt word from a host called vss murder. 

Now at that very word, some of you may be raising an eyebrow. 'Murder? It's not really going to bring much light or hope is it?'

No, it's not, but what's odd is that I wrote some of my best very short stories with my nasty 93 old protagonist. I wanted to have some limits, so I went as OTT and non-realistic as I could. She didn't even have a name,  she was just known as 'Mother' and was an absolute fiend when it came to thinking up ways of killing her fellow care home residents. 

I was honestly amazed at the ideas that my imagination came up with. It's as if there's a little person in my head who's given two words, and then goes and opens various drawers and cupboards to find those special ingredients that I need for my story. 

When it comes to ideas for thinking of a story, Roald gives a wonderful example in The Roald Dahl Treasury. He tells of how most of his stories 'begin with a gem of an idea' but he once had no idea whatsoever, just three characters - a Giraffe, a Pelican and a Monkey. That was all, and for 'seven months, he wrote and discarded, wrote and discarded' till he came up with The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. 

The Roald Dahl Treasury really is a book of delights, which you can just open up any page and be lost in wonder for ages. Having said that, I've discovered a story of Roald's that I haven't read before, and I believe could be a good sequel to this post. The Minpins. It has a 'a forest of sin, the Devil and magic. What could be better for an ACW blog post? 

I'd love to hear which is your favourite Roald Dahl story! Let me know in the comments or on Facebook. 

And if I've intrigued you about 'Mother and her murderous antics' then you can read more on Twitter, but I must warn you, they are very dark.... 

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional. He's currently honing his craft at flash fiction and you can find him on Twitter here.