loathing for authority figures and bossy adults, which, no doubt, is reflected in characters such as Miss Trunchbull fromMatilda (1988). Dahl understood the powerlessness of children who feel dwarfed in an adult world—and how they use their dark, mischievous imagination to wrest some power back. In his books, children are often orphans or abandoned by their parents, and they are left to their own wicked, funny devices to defeat the adult world.

While children were Dahl’s biggest influence, he also drew inspiration from his own vividly-remembered childhood. For instance, the plot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1972) was inspired by his time in the Repton school, close to the factory of chocolate behemoth Cadbury's, which often tested their new flavors on the schoolchildren. After he became a father, Dahl found renewed inspiration in his son and four daughters: his first children’s book was written after his first child was born. Thus, fatherhood helped Dahl reconnect with his own childish ingenuity. Most of his children’s books started off as bedtime stories he made up for his children, as in the case of James and the Giant Peach (1961), which was based on stories Dahl told to daughters Tessa and Olivia. His children and grandchildren also routinely pop up in his books, like we see in The BFG (1982), whose hero Dahl named "Sophie" after his young granddaughter.

Apart from children, a fellow writer who influenced Dahl in an unexpected way was the poet Dylan Thomas. Thomas, a Welshman like Dahl, had a dramatically different writing style from Dahl. For one, he wrote poetry for grown-ups, and his rousing, romantic poetry is a far cry from the oompa-loompas and childchewers of Dahl’s fecund imagination. But Thomas’s words still inspired Dahl, showing us that there is no linear path between inspiration and its manifestation. Writers might be influenced by a beautiful rose, for instance, but it may show up as a marauding rhinoceros in their writing!

Words apart, Thomas's writing practice influenced Dahl even more profoundly. Few people know that Dahl’s famed “writing hut” was a close replica of Thomas’s writing den. Dahl visited Thomas’s hut in the 1950s and found it so inspiring that he decided to build a similar one for himself in his garden. Starting with James and the Giant Peach, all of Dahl’s great works were written in his hut. In an interview to the BBC, Dahl thus described his sanctuary:

A little hut, curtains drawn so I don't see the squirrels up in the apple trees in the orchard. The light on, right away from the house, no vacuum cleaners, nothing. ... When I am in this place it is my little nest. My womb.

What I've discussed here are just a few examples of people and things that inspired Dahl. If you'd like to know more about his childhood influences and life, the autobiographical Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) is a great starting point!

Roald Dahl's life reads like a storybook, but there were sadder moments interspersed with times of adventure and great joy. Dahl seemed to be the living proof that nobody's life is cut out in advance but is made along the way with much deliberation and a little bit of luck.  For instance, Dahl was never fond of school, was a mediocre student, but turned out to be one of the most popular children's and adults' writers of his time.

In early manhood, Roald Dahl worked as a representative for the Shell Oil Company, learning Swahili along the way. Later he became a RAF fighter pilot, and almost got shot down more than once in air battles. By chance, he related some of his hair-raising adventures to C.S. Forester, an established writer, who encouraged him to have his stories put into print. Dahl took his advice, submitting his stories to a popular magazine (The Saturday Evening Post), and had immediate success. Later he wrote more autobiographical sketches (in Boy, and Going Solo).

There is an official Roald Dahl site where you can learn more about this fascinating writier. This would be the best place to start gleaning your information:

http://www.roalddahl.com/

Then there are other fan club sites,too, which feature articles, blogs and interesting tidbits of information which you might add to your RD trivia:

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/biographies/biotregrev2.php

http://library.thinkquest.org/5113/

http://www.dse.nl/~jetse/dahl/

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001656.shtml

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

Good luck with your project, and I hope you find this information helpful.

Roald Dahl was a Welsh fighter pilot, poet, and author of children's novels who lived from 1916 to 1990. He is, perhaps, one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century, having written masterpieces like Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryand James and the Giant Peach. He also wrote scripts for the films Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. 

Dahl's literary works are thoroughly imaginative and irreverent, sometimes steering toward the macabre or ridiculous. He often incorporated personal experiences and feelings into his writing — as a boy, he had the opportunity to taste-test chocolate bars for the confectioner Cadbury and would daydream about the people who worked to invent candy. Though awash in frivolity and strange happenings, Dahl's writing carries heavy themes of morality. As exemplified in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl believed and wrote that people of poor character would bring failure upon themselves, and those of good heart would succeed.