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The Roald Dahl Treasury
''The Roald Dahl Treasury'' is an anthology of works of the children's author Roald Dahl. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Jonathan Cape. Included amongst excerpts from all of Dahl's children's books and some previously unpublished material, are unexpurgated colour reprints of ''The Enormous Crocodile'', ''The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me'', ''Esio Trot'' and ''The Minpins''. The book includes a large volume of illustrations by Quentin Blake, with some specially commissioned for the project and some appearing for the first time in colour. A selection of guest illustrators including Raymond Briggs and Ralph Steadman add visual variety to the extracts. The book also includes an excerpt from an interview given by Dahl and many letters exchanged between Dahl and family members, including Ophelia Dahl. Reception ''The Roald Dahl Treasury'' received generally positive reviews. Robert McCrum of ''The Observer'' deemed it "a sumptuously illustrated anthology" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. Dahl and his work have been criticised for racial stereotypes, misogyny a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence. After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints. Cape – biography Early years Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Enormous Crocodile
''The Enormous Crocodile'' is the title character in a British 1978 children's story, written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. The story was adapted into a '90s TV special. Synopsis The story begins in Africa in a big, deep, muddy river, where the big crocodile (the title character) is telling a slightly smaller crocodile, called the "not-so-big one", that he wants to leave his dirty home and eat some real children for his lunch. The small crocodile objects, because real children taste "tough and chewy and nasty and bitter" in his opinion compared to real fish, and because of what happened the very last time the big crocodile ever tried to eat real children. The bigger crocodile leaves the big, deep, muddy river anyway, and announces his intention to first Humpy-Rumpy the hippopotamus on the river bank, then Trunky the elephant in the jungle, then Muggle Wump the monkey, and finally the Roly-Poly Bird in an orange tree. The four jungle animals are all feeling hor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me
''The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me'' is a 1985 children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. The plot follows a young boy named Billy who meets a giraffe, a pelican, and a monkey, who work as window cleaners. Although the story is narrated in first-person by Billy, the word "Me" in the title refers to the monkey, who concludes every verse of his signature song with the phrase "the giraffe and the pelly and me". Plot The story is told from the point of view of Billy, a young boy who has always dreamed of owning a sweet-shop. His ambition is strengthened by the fact that there is an abandoned three-story building named The Grubber, an old English word for a sweet-shop, near where he lives. One day, he finds that the old building has been renovated and has become the head office for The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company. Billy then meets its members: a Giraffe with an extendable neck; a Pelican, or "Pelly" as he is called by the others, who has a flexib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esio Trot
''Esio Trot'' is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Published on 3 September 1990, it was the last of Dahl's books to be published in his lifetime; he died just two months later. Unlike other Dahl works (which often feature tyrannical adults and heroic/magical children), ''Esio Trot'' is the story of an ageing, lonely man (Mr Hoppy), trying to make a connection with a person that he has loved from afar (his widowed neighbour, Mrs Silver). In 1994, Monty Python star Michael Palin provided the English language audiobook recording of the book. In 2015 it was adapted by Richard Curtis into a BBC television film, '' Roald Dahl's Esio Trot'', featuring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench as the couple, with James Corden narrating. Story Mr Hoppy is a shy elderly man who lives alone in an apartment, tending to his many plants, which have been the centre of his life since he retired from his job in a bus garage several years before. Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Minpins
''The Minpins'' is a novel by Roald Dahl with illustrations by Patrick Benson. It was published in 1991, shortly after Dahl's death in November 1990, and is the author's final work of literature. The book was republished in 2017 under the title ''Billy and the Minpins'' with new illustrations by Dahl's primary illustrator, Quentin Blake. Synopsis Little Billy is forbidden by his mother to do a lot of things, including entering the Forest of Sin behind his house. She tells him of the Whangdoodles, Hornswogglers, Snozzwangers and Vermicious Knids (creatures first mentioned in ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' and ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' is a children's literature, children's book by British author Roald Dahl. It is the sequel to ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', continuing the story of young List of Charlie and the Chocolate Facto ...'') that live in the forest. Worst of all is the Terrible Blood-Suckling Tooth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quentin Blake
Sir Quentin Saxby Blake, (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator he won the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. From 1999 to 2001, he was the inaugural British Children's Laureate. He is a patron of the Association of Illustrators. Early life Blake was born in 1932 in Sidcup, Kent, son of William and Evelyn Blake. His father was a civil servant, and his mother a housewife. Blake was evacuated to the West Country during the Second World War. He attended Holy Trinity Lamorbey Church of England Primary School and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, where his English teacher, J. H. Walsh, influenced his life's work. His artistic development during his school year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story ''The Snowman'', a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas. Briggs won the 1966 and 1973 Kate Greenaway Medals from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named ''Father Christmas'' (1973) one of the top-ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Briggs was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984. He was a patron of the Association of Illustrators. Early life Briggs was born on 18 January 1934 in Wimbledon, Surrey (now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Steadman
Ralph Idris Steadman (born 15 May 1936) is a British illustrator best known for his collaboration and friendship with the American writer Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman is renowned for his political and social caricatures, cartoons and picture books. Early life Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire From a lower middle class background, his father was a commercial traveller and his mother was a shop assistant at T J Hughes in Liverpool. Steadman took his first job at 16 as a RADAR Operator at the De Havilland aircraft factory in the border town of Broughton near Chester but only remained for nine months, finding factory life repetitive and dull, and becoming fed up with fellow employees, citing persistent cruel practical jokes (“They were always putting stuff in your tea,”); however whilst there he became skilled in technical drawing, thus sowing the seeds of his future career. Steadman returned to England after National Service in 1954 and found work in London as a cartoon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ophelia Dahl
Ophelia Magdalena Dahl (born 12 May 1964) is a British-American social justice and health care advocate. Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH), a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor." She served as executive director for 16 years and has since chaired its Board of Directors. As a co-founder and key member of the PIH team, Dahl was featured prominently in ''Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World'', Tracy Kidder's book describing the work of the organisation and the life of Dr. Farmer. In December 2006, Ophelia Dahl and Paul Farmer received the Union Medal from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dahl and the Partners in Health team is featured in the 2017 documentary film, Bending The Arc. Career In 1983, Dahl first encountered Paul Farmer, the future co-founder of PIH, as an eighteen-year-old volunteer in Haiti. Dahl has served as Exe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. History Origins The first issue, published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, was the world's first Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley. 19th century In 180 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
