One of the most important things about Roald's time growing up is that his father died when Roald was very young. This makes me think that this would have given him many difficult times, particularly when he saw his friends' fathers turn up to meet him at school. His father had two children with his first wife, and Roald's mother helped bring them up tooPhotograph: PenguinIt's very easy to forget that Roald Dahl had a very strong non-English side to him. This picture of his mother reminds me that Dahl's first language was Norwegian and that when he was a boy he was bilingual. His mother was also one of the main reasons why he became a writer: she told him the strong, tough stories of the Norse gods and giants and she was the person he wrote to every week in all the years he was at boarding school. Photograph: PenguinThis is Dahl's first letter from St Peter's where Dahl's mother sent him. According to his own account, 'Boy', his first days and nights there were very miserable. He looked out of his dormitory window across the Bristol Channel to where his family were living and cried. Yet, in this letter he's putting on a brave face saying it's lovely. Even so, he manages to say that he's not very happy about his bed!Photograph: PenguinThis is Roald's half-brother and was for many years very close to Roald. If you think about it, Roald had no father and his immediate siblings were sisters, so Louis, who was a good bit older than Roald was someone Roald could look up to, have fun with and get up to all sorts of mischief with. If this was anything like the fun my brother and I had, then this, in later life, would provide Roald with all sorts of ideas for moments in his books. Photograph: PenguinEvery summer holiday, Mrs Dahl packed Roald, his two sisters, half-brother and half-sister up and they all went off to Norway to spend the summer with the Norwegian relatives. It makes me think that Dahl had a whole other space in his head that belonged in this place and it was here that he spent whole days drifting about in boats, fishing and thinking. Photograph: PenguinDahl went to one of the top Public Schools - Repton, which was of course full of the routines and rituals and language that go with that kind of education. I think he was expert at turning this into great storylines, characters and dialogue in his books. He is particularly good at putting together strings of words about people being beastly or stupid and some of these have the ring of boys of that time teasing each otherPhotograph: PenguinOne of the most fantastic images I get from Dahl's time as a young person comes when he was 16. Without anyone knowing, he bought a motorbike put it in a farmer's barn, and then when people thought he had gone off for a walk, he would put on a big coat and goggles and go riding round the countryside and even through the town in front of his school teachers who had no idea it was him.Photograph: PenguinI find this picture rather poignant. He seems so happy in his flying gear but what was about to happen affected him for the rest of his life. He suffered terrible injuries from a plane crash in the desert and then when he recovered he took part in the air battles over Greece, seeing many of his friends and colleagues fall out of the sky and die. His injuries caused him discomfort and pain throughout his life and the loss of so many young people gave him a strong dislike of warPhotograph: PenguinThis picture reminds me that Roald Dahl was not only a fighter pilot, he was also a spy. The British government wanted the USA to be 100% committed to fighting the Hitler's Germany and Roald's job was to make sure there were stories in the American press about how tough things were in Britain, whilst keeping the British government informed of anyone high up in America who might think it was a good idea to pull out of the war. Meanwhile, he made sure he had a good time! It was at this time, that he wrote his very first book, 'The Gremlins'. Photograph: PenguinI was allowed a peek in this writing hut when it was still in his garden and it was full of a very special atmosphere. It's now been moved to the Roald Dahl Museum where everyone can see things like the hole in the back of his chair, which he cut to prevent it putting pressure on the bottom of his injured back, and the amazing set of objects on his table: the top of his leg, taken off when he had his hip replaced, the metal ball made from the silver wrappers from round the bars of chocolate he ate and much, much more.Photograph: Penguin
