Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl - Softcover

Sturrock, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007254776 ISBN 13: 9780007254774

Publisher: William Collins, 2016

Synopsis

The authorised biography of one of the greatest storytellers of all time, written with complete access to the archives stored in the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

In this award-winning biography, Donald Sturrock reveals many many hidden aspects of Roald Dahl's life; his terrifying experiences as a fighter pilot; the anguish caused by the death of his seven-year-old daughter; his work for military intelligence at the end of the war and more. Written with exclusive access to his private papers and with reference to hundreds of newly-discovered letters, ‘Storyteller’ reveals Roald Dahl as we've never seen him before.

About this title

Review:

“It’s a measure of the greatness of this biography that Sturrock is able to get behind these fantasies and exaggerations without losing respect or sympathy for Dahl....There are big gaps between Dahl’s masterpieces....a real joy of this book is that they show just how much work went into those slim volumes, and how much depended on a series of brilliant editors” The Times by Frank Cottrell Boyce

“This is his first biography and it is hard to see how he could have done it better. At all times he is able to view Dahl from within and without - as he saw himself and as others saw him – and to explain the divide... Dahl’s life is a biographer’s dream...full of drama, both comical and romantic and, sometimes, desperately tragic... For all his faults... there was something magnificently bullish about Roald Dahl, a childlike refusal to accept the world as it was. Donald Sturrock captures this side of him beautifully, so much so that I finished STORYTELLER feeling... his was a heroic life” Mail on Sunday by Craig Brown
”Pig-headed, domineering, mendacious, boastful, foul-mouthed, coarse, boorish--as you tick off the adjectives that describe Roald Dahl, the chances of a biographer coming up with a winning portrait seem slim. Yet Donald Sturrock has managed it with zest and aplomb. What shines out from almost every page of this intimately informed biography is Dahl’s vitality, courage and passion for life...What he was was vivid and dynamic, and this vivid, dynamic book gives you the illusion that you knew him”. Sunday Times by John Carey

”It’s hard to imagine anyone do a better job on him than Donald Sturrock... consistently shrewd, well able to embrace his subject’s many contradictions, generally sympathetic and yet never blind to Dahl’s less attractive side... it’s exemplary” Daily Mail by John Preston

Review:

‘[A] superb biography...a hugely readable portrait that examines vividly and sympathetically the life and work of a difficult, complex author who was adored by millions of children, loathed by many adults, and was possibly a genius’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A truly magnificent biography...a masterly account’ A.N.Wilson

‘Donald Sturrock [is] a creative and sensitive biographer...minutely researched, Storyteller does Dahl the service, as Dahl did for some of his characters, of revealing the human in the monstrous’ Times Literary Supplement

‘It’s a measure of the greatness of this biography that Sturrock is able to get behind these fantasies and exaggerations without losing respect or sympathy for Dahl...sometimes the very nature of Sturrock’s primary sources is enough to stop you in your tracks’ The Times

‘A tremendously assured piece of work...Deftly, and with great acuity, [Sturrock] manages to embrace Dahl’s numerous contradictions’ Spectator

‘Sturrock has done a fine job of memorialising this extraordinary curmudgeon’ Evening Standard

‘This warts-and-all biography brings [Dahl] vividly to life’ Sunday Express

‘Storyteller is a real liability if you have anything resembling a busy schedule. It hooks you from its opening sentence and before you know it you're up to your armpits in stories about spies and foxes and movie stars and you don't want to tear yourself away. As engrossing as only the best biographies can be.’ Tom Shone

‘The person I met when I met Roald Dahl comes through vividly on the pages of Storyteller. Dahl told me that he was generally disappointed in what people wrote about him, but I believe he would have appreciated Donald Sturrock's beautifully written book.’ Charlotte Chandler

‘Irresistible. I thought I knew quite a lot about Roald Dahl, but now I know much much more. Donald Sturrock's book lucidly describes a complicated life and relates it to the richness of Dahl's storytelling.’ Quentin Blake, illustrator

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0007254776
• ISBN 13: 9780007254774
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 696