Love from Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother

by Donald Sturrock

'Dear Mama, I am having a lovely time here. We play football every day here. The beds have no springs...'

So begins the first letter that nine-year-old Roald Dahl penned to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, under the watchful eye of his boarding -school headmaster. For most of his life, Roald Dahl would continue to write weekly letters to his mother, chronicling his adventures, frustrations and opinions, from the delights of his childhood to the excitements of flying as a second world war fighter pilot and the thrill of meeting top politicians and film stars during his time as a diplomat and spy in Washington. And, unbeknown to Roald, his mother lovingly kept every single one of them.

Sofie was, in many ways, Roald's first reader. It was she who encouraged him to tell stories and nourished his desire to fabricate, exaggerate and entertain. Reading these letters, you can see Roald practising his craft, developing the dark sense of humour and fantastical imagination that would later produce such timeless tales as The BFG, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Witches.

The letters in Love From Boy are littered with Jokes and madcap observations; sometimes serious, sometimes tender, and often outrageous. To eavesdrop on a son's letters to his mother is to witness Roald Dahl turning from a boy to man, and finally becoming a writer.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook, Writing, Memoir, Biography Memoir, World War II

Audiobook

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

DONALD STURROCK is an award-winning TV film producer and a librettist who has been the artistic director of the Roald Dahl Foundation since 1992. He grew up in England and South America, attended Oxford University, and joined BBC Television’s Music and Arts Department in 1983. In 1995 Sturrock directed an acclaimed BBC television version of his own adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood with Danny DeVito, Ian Holm, and Julie Walters. In 1998, at the Los Angeles Opera, Sturrock also directed the world premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox, an opera based on Dahl’s book, adapted by Sturrock, and with designs by Gerald Scarfe. His children’s opera Keepers of the Night premiered in Los Angeles in 2007. Storyteller is his first book.

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love from boy Letters
Q: Dear Mama
…
Golf balls go yellow, but that’s nothing—mine do too, like everything else that’s not used. (c)
Q: Dear Mama
… I’m a bit drunk so you won’t get much of a letter. …
what with lobsters nipping our toes & sharks biting the old balls—However, I am not yet talking falsetto.
… the alternative is that I wait until I’m sober & miss the bloody mail & you’ll probably think I’ve been eaten by a rhinoceros or a white ant or something equally dangerous. …
…  Apologies for the frivolous note, but better next time, and now there is nothing I’d like better than to fall straight into my bed and Hitler can go & fuck himself. ...
This is a picture of Hitler fucking himself—note the smile of ecstasy on his face. (c) According to Roald, H. comes equipped with a bunch of 'bat Belfries'! My absolute favorite letter!

Lovely!
Q:
His mother, “desperate” at what she saw as his lack of ambition, sent off to have his horoscope professionally read. The psychic predicted Roald was going to be a writer. Sofie Magdalene kept that information to herself. (c)
Q:
Probably the most enduring legacy of this strange hiatus in his life was the weighty metal ball he constructed from the silver wrappers of the chocolate bars he ate for lunch each day. He later kept it as a talisman in his writing hut. (c)
Q:
inspired by his friend, the pilot Alec Noon, who flew small commercial aircraft out of Dar es Salaam, he decided instead to join the Royal Air Force and train as a pilot. At the end of November he drove 900 miles north to Nairobi. As he did so, he later recalled that he was transfixed by the gentle beauty of a family of elephants he encountered on the way. “They are better off than me, and a good deal wiser,” he mused. (c)
Q:
For half an hour we sauntered round looking for the elusive Carl Christiansen. (c)

Ugh, how did he survive that?
Q:
We skate on the yard; we had a fine time last night after tea; You see, the chaps who haven’t got pairs, pull you. At one time I had eight chaps pulling me with a long rope, at a terrific lick, and I sat down in the middle of it; my bottom is all blue now! We also have ‘trains’; you get about ten chaps to pull, and with a long rope, and all the roller-skaters hang on to each other, and go around; but if one chap falls all the ones behind him come on top of him! The yard is getting quite smooth now . . . (c)
Q:
When he looses his temper he goes completely mad, he rushes round the room, tips his desk clean over, with everything on it, kicks all the furniture in the room as hard as he can and especially his grandfather clock, which is gradually ceasing to exist. He shouts and yells, rushes round the room, and on Wednesday he nearly threw himself out of the window! I’ve never seen anything so funny in my life. (c)

How quaint:
Q:
I am very glad I did not have to go through the horrors of promiscuity that torture today’s children. In this benighted age, girls and boys treat the sexual act rather as rabbits do, or cattle . . . Some of you may not believe this, but I promise you that a young man in the 1930s would have to court a girl for six months before he got anywhere near the mattress. He would have to ply her with flowers, give her meals he could ill-afford and behave generally with immense circumspection. If he tried anything too early, he got the boot. (c)

On Nazis & military & WW2:
Q:
And if Alf, Else or Asta want to go nursing they can do it anywhere in England in one of the numerous country houses which will be converted into hospitals, without going buggering off to the front wherever that may be. …
On the short wave I can get the news from England (fairly authentic), from Italy in English (very garbled), from Germany in English (more garbled still) and from America in American (very detailed, but not too reliable). …
Why doesn’t Mussolini take up some useful hobby; he could collect bird’s eggs instead of countries; he’d probably say that it was cruel. As for Hitler, if he must keep his mind on guns, why doesn’t he concentrate on a little vigorous fornication. Wasn’t it Hitler who said to Göring after a piss up one Saturday night, ‘I am ready for a whore.’ (c)
Q:
When interviewed later by reporters Dog Samka was heard to remark: ‘I found french letters fried in liquid paraffin very nourishing, I shall always carry a packet with me in future in case of emergencies’—this was immediately cabled to Hitler under the heading ‘Strength through Joy’, and his reply is eagerly awaited in official circles. (c)
Q:
Perhaps I should explain that Hitler & Mussolini are 2 lizards which live in our sitting room. (c)
Q:
There’s no point in joining the local army, who do very little, having very little to do... (c)
Q:
January 12th 1943
… —they’ve suddenly realised over here that there’s a war on, and have forbidden people to use their cars for pleasure purposes,… (c)

More:
Q:
comprehensive and fascinating account of Roald’s school days in the 1920s and 1930s, of his time in Tanganyika just before the outbreak of war, of his training as a fighter pilot in Iraq and Egypt, and of how he saw action in Greece and Palestine. They chronicle his time as a diplomat in Washington too, and his foray into intelligence work in New York, as well as recording in fresh detail how his career as a writer began. (c)
Q:
Stepping into Sofie Magdalene’s shoes, we can experience his adventures, recounted in his own unique voice: a delightful and sometimes disconcerting mixture of honesty, humor, earthiness, and fantasy. And, as we do so, we will be aware of something she was not; that we are watching the world’s favorite storyteller emerge as a writer.(c)
Q:
Roald would later describe the school as “rather like a private lunatic asylum.”(c) Yeah, schools often get that way
Q:
Oh dash, I’ve just dropped my pen onto the letter, and there isn’t time to write it out again. Incidentally, the pen thought it necessary to make a blotch over a certain word [CRAP], but it did not quite succeed in covering it up!! (c)
Q:
He must be having a fine time now; he said he sits down and smokes, and watches bugs through his microscope.
Q:
… the noise closely resembles that of a fly’s kneecap, rattled about in a billious buttercup, both having kidney trouble and lumbago! (c)
Q:
Had rather an amazing lunch on the train. First while I was having my soup I leaned my Daily Mail I leaned it up against my bottle of cider, and the bottle promptly decided to fall over: much good cider on opposite seat. The next course was an egg (poached) covered in Spaghetti!! Jolly good. Next a chicken with breast meat on its legs! Probably a crow. (c)
Q:
. . . On the edge of the lake, Crummers, a fat master, was patiently instructing his small daughter to skate. Suddenly the ice gave & they both went in. Of course they were pulled out, but the only thing that Crummers said to his daughter while they were in the freezing water was ‘keep cool’ . . . (с)
Q:
Yesterday we took off our shirts & immediately became the centre of attention in the ant world. The little devils crawled all over us, taking a particular fancy to my ears, where, no doubt they found a delicious food hitherto unknown to the ant. Then a large cow nearly mistook Smith’s head for a thistle, so as a punishment we tried to milk it. But it wasn’t having any nonsense and it was far too hot to chase it. (c)
Q:
… as I said before—don’t get excited, I’m not becoming a toper. (c)
Q:
Today is one of the numerous Indian holidays—thank goodness, so we’ve got a chance to recover from a week’s solid, non-stop celebration. (c)
Q:
Mrs. Taubsypuss is a beautiful blue Persian like Mowgli, and she’s not half so Kali as Oscar; but she too has her weaknesses. Hers (and here she’s one up on Oscar) is sex. She has 2 kittens, 3 weeks old, which are no more like a blue Persian than my bottom—they, indeed, are Kali in the extreme and spit at you if you approach. You see she apparently took her pleasures with a wild cat (we were all agreed that to do this she must be very, very tough indeed, and we gave her full marks), and the result is more like a couple of baby tigers than anything else. (c)
Q:
They’ve got some marvellous new stuff called Atebrin which they straightway inject into your bottom in vast quantities which suddenly brings the temperature down; then they give you an injection of 15 or 20 grains of quinine and by that time you haven’t got any bottom left at all—one side’s just Atebrin and the other’s quinine. …
If any of you want to do a bit of slimming hire an anopheles mosquito and ask him to bite you. (c)
Q:
… cajole, hector, and browbeat... (c)
Q:
We had a large snake in the swimming bath last week. About 100 people swam quicker than they had ever done before… (c)
Q:
You usually arrive at a place well before you get there, and you start to get ready to go after you’ve left. (c)
Q:
Furthermore the child has Norwegian, French and English blood and should therefore be a whizzer. (c)

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ctt0s

Description: n the centenary year of his birth, Roald Dahl's letters to his mother are newly collected by Donald Sturrock and abridged for radio by Katrin Williams. The author's words to Sofie Magdalene spanned decades..



Episode 1: At Repton School in the 1930's he reported back on jolly japes, and asked 'Mama' to ask his sister to feed his mouse.. ["our house colours are black and blue"]

Episode 2: With Royal Shell he enjoyed postings to exotic places and reported back on mambas, giraffes, and the occasional flying fish. All these appealed to the writer in him.

Episode 3: War breaks out and he is posted to the Middle East. He learns to fly, has aero-nautical adventures, before the crash that will change his life..

Episode 4: In America during the war, he pens a certain story called 'Gremlins', about the little creatures that run amok over all things mechanical. This comes to the notice of Walt Disney.

Episode 5: The author describes marriage to Patricia Neal, then family tragedy. And there's a final tribute to Sofie Magdalene ("Dear Mama.."), receiver of hundreds and hundreds of his missives from the age of nine..

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4 - Book of the Week:
In the centenary year of his birth, Roald Dahl's letters to his mother are newly collected by Donald Sturrock and abridged for radio by Katrin Williams. The author's words to Sofie Magdalene spanned decades..

1/5: At Repton School in the 1930's he reported back on jolly japes, and asked 'Mama' to ask his sister to feed his mouse.

2/5: With Royal Shell he enjoyed postings to exotic places and reported back on mambas, giraffes, and the occasional flying fish. All these appealed to the writer in him.

3/5: War breaks out and he is posted to the Middle East. He learns to fly, has aero-nautical adventures, before the crash that will change his life.

4/5: In America during the war, he pens a certain story called 'Gremlins', about the little creatures that run amok over all things mechanical. This comes to the notice of Walt Disney.

5/5: The author describes marriage to Patricia Neal, then family tragedy. And there's a final tribute to Sofie Magdalene ("Dear Mama.."), receiver of hundreds and hundreds of his missives from the age of nine.

Readers Rory Kinnear and Donald Sturrock

Producer Duncan Minshull.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ctt0s

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this from Penguin as an ARC. This book gives a good insight to what Dahl's life was like growing up and what finally influenced him to become a writer. I enjoy all of his writing, both children and adult stories. Reading this epistle gives me even more appreciation to his stories.

There aren't too many vulgar words, so this book can be read aloud to children with the fbombs and sbombs changed to something else.

It is a wonderful collection that will go well on the shelf with the other Dahl stories.

[Jessica White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading these letters was like looking into the mastermind behind one of the world's greatest children's authors. Roald Dahl is widely recognized as the author Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, and Matilda. But what many people don't know is the life he had before he put pen to paper. It all started in 1925, when he was nine years old. He began writing letters to his mother from boarding school. His over-imaginative mind was already churning when he told her stories about his playmates. Throughout the years, he matures greatly. Seeing that first letter and comparing it with on of his last letters in 1965 shows immense change. Reading his stories of being in the R.A.F. army gave insight to what turned him into the man he became. The letters he sent home to his mother were often full of adventures. He traveled from Norway to England to Africa and eventually to the states. He spent many dinners with President Roosevelt. Walt Disney approached him with movie ideas. He even passed time with his longtime hero Ernest Hemingway.
These letters weren't just letters, they were the beginning of his storytelling life. He wrote for the New York Times, Reader's Digest, and a slew of others. It wasn't until he was well into his 30's, married, and with children before he found the inspiration for his first children's book.
I loved reading this and I highly suggest Love From Boy to anyone who is a fan of Roald Dahl or is an avid children's book reader!

This review and more can be found at A Reader's Diary!

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soooooo many letters. After about 1/3 of the way through, I was just sad for this boy who wanted to be home. Boarding school just doesn't sound like the best way to do family life. . . but then they weren't after family life, they were after little mini-grownups, it seems.

By books end that is my biggest take away. It explains a lot about the darker corners and shadows that pop up in RD's works. As if the worst thing that can happen to a person is to be abandoned and sent off to an institution run by self-interested strangers.

I stepped into the book hoping for a deeper understanding of Himself, and that's what I got, just not what I expected.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Donald Sturrock's biography of Roald Dahl, Storyteller, when I read it a couple of years ago. I was thus very excited to read Love From Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother, which Sturrock edited. Whilst on yet another (largely unsuccessful) book-buying ban at the time of purchase, Love From Boy looked far too lovely to pass up when I spotted a single copy in Fopp.

From his early childhood, when he was sent away to boarding school, Roald Dahl sent one letter each week to his Norwegian mother, Sofie Magdalene; he continued this habit into adulthood, and 'unbeknown to Roald, his mother lovingly kept every single one of them.' Of this practice, Sturrock writes: 'Sofie was, in many ways, Roald's first reader. It was she who encouraged him to tell stories and nourished his desire to fabricate, exaggerate and entertain.' She clearly had an enormous influence upon him, nurturing him, and facilitating his love for plants and never-ending greed for homemade cakes and food parcels. Indeed, Dahl later 'acknowledged her as the source for his own interest in horticulture, cooking, wine, paintings, furniture and animals. She was the "mater familias", his constant reference-point and guide.'

In Love From Boy, we are able to 'witness Roald Dahl turning from a boy to a man, and finally becoming a writer.' Michael Rosen heralds Sturrock's effort here, believing that his 'commentary on the letters is meticulous, thoughtful and kind.' I found this to be true with Storyteller too; it is so well-informed, and so sympathetic, without feeling overly sentimental, or glossing over any details. A lot of thought has been put into the accompanying comments in Love From Boy, and into which of the letters should be included here. As readers, Sturrock has allowed us to step into Sofie's shoes; 'we can experience his adventures, recounted in his own unique voice: a delightful and sometimes disconcerting mixture of honesty, humour, earthiness and fantasy.'

Literary Review captures the spirit of these letters wonderfully, writing that this is: 'An entertaining and eye-opening collection... it is his younger self that is captured here - jaunty and anarchic, yet a recognisable forerunner of that more subtly anarchic, stooping, cardiganed figure who was the world-famous author, gazing out on the world from his garden shed with watery, mischievous eyes.' The correspondence of authors, from my experience of reading quite a few collections, often shows a different side to them entirely. Fans of Dahl's fun and quirky children's books may be surprised at how much heartbreak he had in his life, and these letters do show that he had a very serious side, contrary to that which he revealed in much of his writing.

The cache of more than 600 letters which Sturrock had to choose from for this collection end two years before Sofie's death. Roald was bequeathed the letters, all of which had been kept in their original envelopes, after her death in 1967. Unfortunately, none of Sofie's letters to Roald have been recovered, and so her part in proceedings, says Sturrock, is 'more mysterious'. Evidently so aware of Dahl's life and feelings, he points out that many elements and emotions were left out of these letters entirely. He says that they are 'interesting for what they do not say. They seldom convey self-pity or unhappiness... In that situation [of school-imposed censorship in his early correspondence], admitting vulnerability was treated with scorn and derision.' There is a sense throughout of Dahl trying to protect his mother, putting a gloss on the harder things which he experiences so as not to worry her; an example of this is when he was horrendously bullied at school, but just put it down to boyish high-jinx in his letters home.

Sturrock has chosen to split these 'remarkable' letters into seven main sections, spanning specific periods between 1925 and 1965. The letters themselves were sent to Sofie from Weston-Super-Mare and Kenya, from Egypt and Texas, from Iraq and Canada. They detail Dahl's experiences with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and the various postings he was given, many of which he had to be rather secretive about. The approach which Sturrock has made here is wonderful; he provides an index of locations, along with corresponding symbols for each, and has mapped them too.

Love From Boy is so nicely laid out, and include copies of Dahl's original letters at times. The introductions to each section are heartfelt; Sturrock helps to contextualise the letters, as well as adding thoughtful comments and biographical details. In the second section, for example, when Dahl is at his second boarding school, Sturrock says: 'Whether tobogganing down a hill, rioting on a train, chucking powder around his dormitory, or climbing illicitly up the tower of Repton Church, the letters convey an exultant and infectious delight in the adventures of childhood, and a sense that these simple, unsophisticated pleasures can put misery and adversity to flight.'

Some of what Dahl recounts in his letters is so matter-of-fact that it becomes comical. In January 1927, at the age of ten, for instance, he writes: 'I have not eaten any of what you gave me accept [sic] one little chocolate, and on Bristol Station Hoggart was sick, and when I looked at it I was sick but now I am quite all right.' The way in which he writes is often charming and warmhearted, and his vocabulary very of its time; he speaks of a 'topping lecture', of a schoolmaster who has 'got a long hanging ginger moustache, and is quite fat', and asks, in 1927, 'How much are the monkeys at Harrods? It would be rather nice to have one.' Later, hilarious satirical comments are made about political figures, the likes of Hitler and Goebbels. When living in Dar es Salaam in 1939, Dahl writes: 'It's pleasant lying back and listening and at the same time watching the antics of Hitler and Mussolini who are invariably on the ceiling catching flies and mosquitoes. Perhaps I should explain that Hitler and Mussolini are 2 lizards which live in our sitting room.'

Love From Boy is such an endearing collection, and is a lovely book for any fan of Dahl's to read. Sturrock's selections give an insight both into Dahl's life and his relationship with his mother, and allow readers to chart his changing loves and interests as time passes. Love From Boy is, too, a fantastic piece of social and biographical history, which is both entertaining and touching from start to finish. The letters here are full of character, as one would expect, and are a true delight to read.

[JoLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roald Dahl's autobiographical books, Boy: Tales of Childhood and Going Solo, are my absolute favorite Roald Dahl books. So, when I heard about this new collection of letters set to be published in conjunction with Dahl's 100th birthday on September 13th, I knew I wanted to read it.

Love from Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother is, as the title indicates, a collection of letters that were written by the author to his mother. Dahl wrote to his mother consistently from the time he left for boarding school at age nine until her death four decades later. Assembled by Dahl's authorized biographer, Donald Sturrock, the letters offer a glimpse into the famous author's life and his relationship with his mother.

Because I already was such a big fan of Dahl's autobiographies, I knew that he had lived a fascinating life. As one would expect with letters, some are more interesting than others. I had a hard time getting through the childhood letters because of the young writer's youth and the fact that he wasn't exactly honest about the rough life of boarding school. It was, however, interesting to read about how the young Dahl began to take an interest in things that I knew would interest him for his entire life (photography and sports). I expected the Africa letters to be a bit more interesting than they were (lots of alcohol and some stories about snakes). However, once the World War II started and Dahl signed up with the RAF the letters became much more fascinating to me. Even with the censors at work, it was interesting to read about Dahl's training, his love of flight, and his plane crash.

The letters I enjoyed most were the ones that Dahl wrote to his mother while he was working in Washington, D.C. during the war. It was so interesting to hear about his work with famous people, such as the Roosevelts and Walt Disney. Also, during this time, Dahl really became serious about writing, and I liked reading about this transformation.

Donald Sturrock's chapter introductions are every bit as interesting and informative as the letters themselves. Sturrock sets the stage well for each group of letters, putting them in context in terms of both world events and Dahl's personal life. Sturrock also identifies life events that influence Dahl's later writing, such as how boarding school informed Matilda and flying James and the Giant Peach.

More than anything, Love from Boy made me want to reread Boy: Tales of Childhood and Going Solo. In fact, I convinced my book club that we should read them both for our September meeting in celebration of Roald Dahl's 100th birthday.

Love from Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother is out September 6th.

Review copy from Penguin First to Read.

[Jade · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of letters written from Roald Dahl to his mother, mainly from his school years until his early 50s. Each section includes an introduction by the author as to Roald's life at that time. The later letters are sparse and therefore do not have any link to his children's books, which he started in his mid forties.

The disappointing part of this book is that these letters really could have been from any boy to his mother. I did get some good factual knowledge about Dahl along the way - I had no idea about his pilot history or link to Walt Disney - but kinda wish now that I'd just read his autobiography instead. Maybe this book is a good addition to someone who already has that better knowledge of Roald, and has a fans passion for more. I don't think this book gave me any impressive insight, because firstly there is no return correspondence from his mother (adding to the relationship dynamic), and secondly most of the time it is noted that Roald couldn't have written what he really wanted because 1. in school his letters where written under close scrutiny and 2. his war-time letters were also screened and checked for content. Because of this Roald comes across as quite arrogant and pompous in parts, with no true understanding of hardship and a reliance on material possessions; something that I do not believe to be the case in reality.

My enjoyment of this book will in now way squash my utter awe and love of this legend of an author. I think if you want to know if you'll enjoy this or not, just ask yourself if you'd like to spend 5 hours reading someones post home - also bearing in mind what you can and wouldn't actually tell one of your parents, meaning that any juicy bits are not mentioned!

[Zivile · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an early copy from Penguin's First Readers program.

I didn't know much about Roald Dahl before, until recently I read my first book by him: "My Uncle Oswald", which was written at the end of his life, and it's a very sexualized story. Then I learnt he's the author of well known children books and I was very confused. Until I read this book.
It's an unintended epistolary autography which turned out to be a more exciting biography of Dahl than it could ever be.
The first letters are from his early school days, full of grammar mistakes but so cute to read. The story ends with the last letter to his mother before she died in 1962.
So we are missing almost 20 years of his life but the letters give more than enough about his personality and what influenced him throughout the life. Now I understand better how such book like "My Uncle Oswald" was born.

[Yordan Dimov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Издадени по случай 100-годишнината от рождението на Роалд Дал, писмата ни позволяват да видим как се заражда фантастичното въображение, създало едни от най-четените детски книги в света. Благодарение на достъпа, който е получил до архивите на Роалд Дал, официалният му биограф Доналд Стърок, успява да ни го покаже така, както малцина са го познавали преди.. чрез собствените му думи!
Майсторски поднесена биография на много любим автор!

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic!

[Jorge Molinero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me avergüenza admitir que he visto más películas basadas en novelas de Roald Dahl que leído libros propiamente suyos. Obviamente, leí Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate y Matilda (de este, además, guardo buen recuerdo porque lo leí casi que de una sentada en un vuelo a París), pero otros, como El Superzorro o James y el melocotón gigante, los he conocido únicamente a través del cine. Después de leer Te quiere, Boy, no puedo sino querer devorar toda la obra de Dahl.

El libro es un compendio de las cartas que el autor británico le escribió a su madre, Sofie Magdalene, desde los 10 hasta pasados los 45 años. Ahora, siento que he conocido a Dahl de primera mano. Que lo he visto crecer y que él me ha contado su día a día. Y, sin embargo, no lo siento del todo. Porque no soy su madre. Soy un mero espectador, un puto cotilla, que lee algo que quizá no debería estar leyendo. Porque la intimidad de una madre con su hijo debiera ser personal. Un fuerte vínculo que sobrepasa los anaqueles del tiempo y del que se me ha permitido conocerlo de primera mano. Pero jamás formaré parte de ello. Me apena, porque soy una criatura que nada a contracorriente, haciéndole frente a las poderosas olas del FOMO. Y, sin embargo, agradezco haber podido leerlas.

La mejor manera de honrar a un artista es leyendo su obra y, ahora, siento que de Dahl he leído algo más. He leído su vida. (And he's fucking funny btw)

Mi querido agente mobiliario ya me ha llamado para preguntarme si tendría algún inconveniente en mudarme a una casa en la que la semana pasada se produjo un asesinato. Le he dicho que no, que no tengo ningún inconveniente. No está el patio como para ponerse quisquilloso.

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t read many collections of letters due to the very great boredom factor, but this is very enjoyable. Very well edited. All the letters are interesting in one way or another, the book’s the right length and between each section of letters Sturrock provides text which fills in the back story. A quick read and rather startling to have a man flying a fighter plane who only a few pages before was asking his mother for conkers. Dahl’s personality really shines through, but even if you’re not interested in him he lived through such momentous events I really do think there’s something for everyone here.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

The review in the Times made the letters sound like they would be both entertaining and enlightening. They weren't either. Just skimmed along the surface of an upper class life at the end of empire. Perhaps his mother's letters would have been more interesting if saved. For a little book, this became a slog to get through

[Juan Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los libros de no ficción que parecen casi de ficción son mi mierda. Y éste lo parece. Todo se basa en cartas y pequeños fragmentos de biografía de Dahl, y sin haber leído nada suyo (solo visto adaptaciones de obras suyas en el cine), me ha vuelto loco. Tuvo una vida de aventurero y parecía increíblemente listo e ingenioso, y que se acordase de escribir a su madre en todo momento, dando igual su estado en el mundo... Te deja frío. Si, evidentemente no podían llamarse, pero sigue dejando un tono bonito el hecho de que su madre guardó todas sus cartas. En general, muy recomendado si te gustan las biografías. Yo no sabía que me gustaban hasta ahora, o a lo mejor solo es que me ha gustado mucho esta vida, idk

[Ferre Wyckmans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brieven R. Dahl aan zijn moeder. Ze geven een omstandig beeld van ´s mans studenten en bijzonder professioneel leven vooraleer de jeugdboekenschrijver op dreef kwam. Het brievenboek leest bijna als bijna een avonturenroman. De brieven van zijn moeder staan niet in (verloren ?) maar dar doet in feite niets af aan het geheel. Erg van genoten.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed this one immensely, many of the letters felt as though they could have come from any boy away at school or any soldier writing home, especially since so many were censored. I think a casual fan might not find this collection as interesting as I did.

For the mini review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!

[Inés Terza · Rating 5 out of 5]

es un librazo. aguante Roald Dahl, siempre 💕

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to get through this book, but I did find the letters to Roald's mom enjoyable to read and learned SO much about him!

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fighter pilot, diplomat,
Wrote his mother much chit chat.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An delightful story compiled of letters Roald Dahl wrote to his mother over the course of his life. The strong bond between mother and son flows through the letters despite the years and distance apart. Roald grows from a boy to a man. The journey moves from Roald defending his country to becoming a successful writer. A captivating read!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a nine your old boy, to a fighter pilot, this book brings excitement from all areas. It starts as a nine your old boy writing to his mother from boarding school - a place which Roald detested. He could not write this however, as the eagle-eyed head teacher would watch their every word as they wrote.
His next boarding school as a teenager was still relatively unpleasant, though certainly more pleasant than the first! He had many friends and had the ability to go out and explore with them. It was quite the opposite of hygienic however, as there were illnesses and infectious disease always spreading from room to room.
Not long after leaving school, world war two broke out and Roald decided to join the RAF. He had an interesting experience flying around in battle. At one point, being shot down by a German airplane and freestanding into the Libyan desert!
After the war Roald went to America and did all sorts of things which included: becoming friends with Walt Disney and working with him for small periods of times, meeting and staying with the president on many occasions. Throughout all this, constant letters to his mother are written concluding of his time.
Eventually, Roald settles and gets married. He starts a family with an actor and ha s many children! Sadly his mother does in 1967 and eventually his wife too, but all the while, he never stops writing books.
Overall I quite liked this book and I found it very interesting that one of the most iconic children's writers, was so many other things. I would recommend this book to people of about age 13 who have grown up reading Roald.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free book from Penguin First to Read in exchange for an honest review.

A collection of the (mostly) weekly letters Dahl wrote to his mother, beginning when he was nine at boarding school, and continuing to not long before her death. Collected to tell the highlights of his life, these letters span the globe as well as the years, showing Dahl's development as a person and as a writer. Full of mentions of loved ones, dirty jokes, and amusing stories, the letters are only one side of his life--the mostly dressed up version. The narration provides the rest, showing his struggles at school, and a WWII fighter pilot, or work as a diplomat. In this book, readers will recognize places and people who came to be part of a beloved collection of children's stories.

Though one-sided (Dahl didn't keep any of the letters his mother wrote him), with the narration this paints a pretty complete story of Dahl's life, divided up into chapters based on important events, with each letter marked with a key of his location. A map that shows his travels is also included, as well as plenty of pictures and a few scanned letters. Thankfully, the scanned letters are few and fairly short, the majority of the text typed (and corrected) versions, as Dahl's handwriting wasn't the best. It's an interesting look into his life, and an exploration of his development as a teller of stories--a path he certainly didn't intend, but you can see his sense of humor, and plenty of recognizable traits in the letters nonetheless. A fun read for a fan.

[Debbie Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book... it is about one of my favorite people. I love that Roald Dahl wrote to his mother all his life. Some of his life I already knew about from his two biographies. I was very interested in reading about his later life after the RAF when he was working in America for the British Embassy.

I have one quote to share... it is about his mother...
"Sophie Magdalene was a remarkable mother. She was calm. She stayed behind the scenes. She sought no public acknowledgement of the sacrifices she made for her family. Indeed it was not until Roald was an old man that he wrote about her directly - in Boy (1984) and Memories with Food at Gipsy House (1991). But from the beginning of Roald's writing career to the end, she was present in his fiction... She was a catalyst too-in ways she probably did not fully appreciate. As a young boy, Roald had been fired by her tales of Norse mystery and magic and by her gossipy love of human frailty and weakness. As he grew into adulthood, he sought to return the compliment, entertaining her with his own stories and observations. Sofie Magdalene was Roald's first audience, but she was also his unacknowledged inspiration to become a writer. One might say that Roald's own career as a storyteller begins in these letters."

I hope I have that kind of influence on my own children.

Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt(s) –
A book of letters

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received an early copy of this book through Penguin's First to Read program.*

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I tend to really like stories told through correspondence, and even though we only saw one side of the conversation, I think it was a lively and interesting tale. I learned so much about a beloved author (Roald did SO MUCH STUFF before he became a writer that I never knew about!), and I thought it was an interesting dialogue on the era in which he grew up and lived most of his life. It was really enjoyable to watch him grow up and see how his relationship with his mother changed solely through letters.
After reading this I felt as though I knew him better, and could definitely see the development of his writing from school boy joking to more mature storytelling (with an occasional joke about balls thrown in for the fun of it).
I think that if you enjoyed Dahl's written works and want to know more about the method to his madness, I'd definitely give this a read!

[April Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received an ARC from Penguin's First to Read in exchange for an honest review*

I think like a lot of others my first introduction to Mr. Dahl came in the form of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I have almost all of his children's books but my favorite has always been Matilda.
I now know that a large part of this story was actually based on his own experience at a boarding school. This book is all about the letters that Roald sent to his mother starting at age 9 when he was attending the school all the way through adulthood. I learned so much about this author. He did have a pretty sharp sense of humor but he also had quite the life. He even worked for the British Secret Service. The letters were all saved by his mother but there are none of her letters back included in the collection. I really enjoyed this book but I just wish we could have read her responses because she seemed like quite a character herself from the intro information provided by the author Donald Sturrock.

[Tom Jonesman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read to my son at bedtime, as we have been going through Dahl's books, have visited the museum (and his grave) so when I came across this collection of his letters to his mother, written throughout his life, it seemed a good opportunity to find out more about what motivated him, and how he came to be a writer. The letters, written from boarding school, from his Shell company job in Africa, his time in the RAF during the war, and from America, where he worked after leaving the RAF, are by turns funny, tragic, painful, insightful, crude, shocking, but above all, very entertaining. The part that affected me most is his unfailingly upbeat and chipper tone in his letters from boarding school, when the accompanying explanatory introduction tells of how miserable he was during his school years. The desire for him to convince his mother that he was enjoying every minute comes through in the letters from this time, and is heart-breaking.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not particularly a fan of Roald Dahl's writing. His children's books sounded "wrong" to me in perspective and humor, but I realize that I am in the minority. This book of letters written to his mother from the time he was an unhappy boarding school student to decades later as a famous author were still fascinating. I marveled at how Dahl moved from being a rather ordinary boy to dining with President Roosevelt and marrying a movie star. His life was certainly marked by amazing highs and lows. The letters give insight into the British war effort, as well. Very interesting.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming, sweet, honest letters to Roald's Mom.

Here is a good review. Enjoy.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...