Author: Kris

Roald Dahl’s nature journal My Year republished after decades out of print

My Year, which Dahl wrote shortly before his death in 1990, has been out of print since 1998. Packed with illustrations by Quentin Blake, it deals with everything from the changing seasons to the pranks he pulled as a child on unsuspecting passers-by, moving through the months of the year as Dahl documents the flora and fauna around his house in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre has collaborated with Penguin Random House and the Roald Dahl Story Company to bring the book back into print.

Head over to The Guardian to read more!

September 13 is Roald Dahl Day 2018!

This Thursday, September 13th, will be Roald Dahl’s 102nd birthday, so it’s time to celebrate! The official Dahl site has loads of ideas for activities:

Roald Dahl Easter Crafts

I hope you’re enjoying the Easter weekend! I’ve seen some fabulous Dahl-related Easter crafts on Twitter lately…

A Violet Beauregarde Easter egg!

Chocolate bar invention!

A pair of Golden Ticket-inspired Easter Bonnets!

And Puffin Books have a tutorial to make your own Willy Wonka Easter Egg!

If you craft something inspired by Dahl, be sure to tag the site on Twitter!

The return of the Trivia Master Boards!

This site used to have a very popular feature, where – if you got 100% correct on one of the trivia quizzes – you could put your name up on the Trivia Master Board. Unfortunately I had to discontinue the feature when I redesigned the site, and I hadn’t had the time to bring it back… until now!

As a trial, I have re-enabled the Master Boards for The BFG Quiz and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Quiz. Please try them out and let me know if you encounter any bugs!

Some Dahl videos to watch!

I’ve found a couple of interesting Dahl-related videos for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

The first is a clip from Season 14 of the show Pawn Stars, where a collector shows off his set of original props from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You won’t believe the price he wants for an everlasting gobstopper!

And the second is a one-off sketch comedy special from the UK in 1980 called Peter Cook & Co. It features a spoof of Tales of the Unexpected that starts around the 1:09 mark! (I’ve got a transcript here if you can’t make out the dialogue.)

Rainbow Theatre Company audio books?

Has anyone heard of a set of Roald Dahl audio books from the Rainbow Theatre Company? I received the following request from a site visitor named Blake:

i am looking for a specific series of Roald Dahl audiobooks. They were produced in 1983 i believe by the Rainbow Theatre company and included dramatized versions of Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach, and Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I have found the latter on Youtube. The two others were on Youtube too several years ago, but have since been taken down. I would like to procure my own copies of each but I have hit a brick wall with my own internet research. I was curious whether you or anyone in your fan community had them, or maybe even some advice on where I could go looking

any help would be very much appreciated

If you have any information on these, please leave a comment or contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Blake!

New game – Escape the Sharks!

This Scratch game was created by me as part of the HarvardX: CS50 Introduction to Computer Science course in January 2018. It’s based on James and the Giant Peach. You’ll need Flash enabled in your browser to play it. (You can also find the game here.)

Instructions: The giant peach is floating in the ocean but our heroes are surrounded by ravenous sharks. James has convinced Earthworm to act as bait for the many seagulls circling overhead, but his courage won’t last long! As each one swoops, James must lasso it with spider’s web before it pecks poor Earthworm. How many seagulls can you catch? James will tie each one to the peach stem as you go…