Book info

• Title Boy: Tales of Childhood
• Author Roald Dahl
• Year 1984
• Genre Memoir

As a boy, all sorts of unusual things happened to Roald Dahl. There was the time he and four school friends got their revenge on beastly Mrs Prachett in her sweet shop. There are stories of holidays in fishing boats, African adventures and the days of tasting chocolate for Cadbury's. You'll hear tales of horrible school bullies and the motor-car accident when Roald's nose was nearly sliced clean off... Roald Dahl vividly shares his memories; some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant. All are true.

Thoughts

I’m sure I’ve read this before but couldn’t remember much about it except the sweet shop situation, obviously. It’s actually a neat little book, telling interesting stories from a childhood, rather than your standard run-of-the-mill memoir. I don’t know if it’s aimed at kids or not but it has that simple feeling that children and adults can enjoy equally.

I was surprised at the descriptions of beatings at boarding school, I guess you sort of know that it goes on (or went on in those days) but such detailed descriptions really make you think.

Dahl is a controversial figure these days but you can’t argue with the popularity of his books, and it’s fun to pick out the little hints of where he might have got ideas from. Good fun.

Rating: 4 / 5