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Roald Dahl is born in Llandaff, near the Welsh capital of Cardiff, on 13th September 1916
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In 1934, Roald leaves Repton and, after taking part in a joint public schools expedition to Newfoundland that he describes in the closing chapters of Boy, he begins working for the Shell Oil Company.
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In 1940 Roald is posted to 80 Squadron, Libya to fly "Gloster Gladiators against the Italians in the Western Desert of Libya," as he says in Going Solo. "The Gloster Gladiator," he goes on to say "was an out-of-date fighter biplane with a radial engine."
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In 1951 Roald Dahl meets his future wife, the American actress Patricia Neal, known afterwards to Roald and the family as Pat, at a dinner party given by playwright Lillian Hellman.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is published in September, initially in the USA with the UK following a few years later. The book is dedicated to Roald Dahl's son Theo. It would go on to become one of the most famous and best-known of Roald's stories.
