Dahl (1916-1990) was a British writer whose children’s books are among the most-read and highly praised in the world. The stories feature exceptional children, whimsical situations, cruel antagonists, and kind-hearted protectors. They’re laced with strange happenings and sometimes contain moments of violence, but always end in victory for the morally good characters and comeuppance for the bad characters.

Dahl also wrote stories for adult readers; both these and his children’s books are noted for their dark moments and sense of the macabre. Dahl’s life gave him plenty of material for such musings. In school, he had bullies and tyrannical schoolmasters, but also played pranks on such people. During World War II, Dahl served in the British Royal Air Force in Greece and North Africa, where he witnessed carnage and became a flying ace with at least five kills of his own. Dahl also served at the British Embassy in Washington DC, where he learned spycraft and befriended Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond thrillers.

Dahl’s books are known for their amusingly inventive words. “Scrumdiddlyumptious,” a word for “super delicious” from Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, can even be found in the Oxford Dictionary. In The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, he offers several new, playful words to the lexicon, including “Geraneous,” a flower-eating type of giraffe.