Roald Dahl

Why does the Beano want to cancel itself?

29 July 2023 9:00 am

The drive for inclusivity in children’s publishing

The rewriting of Roald Dahl is an act of cultural vandalism

19 February 2023 9:57 pm

The vandals have come for Roald Dahl. His books for children are to be cleansed of their ‘offensive’ content. Sensitivity…

Lines of beauty: Nancy Ekholm Burkert’s illustration for James and the Giant Peach

Before Quentin Blake, there was Nancy Ekholm Burkert – Dahl’s forgotten illustrator

27 July 2019 9:00 am

Bunnies were out. Beatrix Potter had the monopoly on rabbits, kittens, ducks and Mrs Tittlemouses. ‘I knew I had to…

If I were a cultural Marxist, I might be thinking about giving up

6 June 2015 9:00 am

In his Memoirs, Kingsley Amis includes a story about meeting Roald Dahl at a party in the 1970s. Dahl advises…

Measure for Measure at the Barbican reviewed: a charity show for homesick non-doms

25 April 2015 9:00 am

The smash hit Matilda, based on a Roald Dahl story, has spawned a copycat effort, The Twits. Charm, sweetness and…

BBC1’s Esio Trot: like Fawlty Towers played at quarter speed

3 January 2015 9:00 am

As a New Year’s Day treat for all the family, Esio Trot (BBC1) seemed to be taking no chances. It…

Castle Cottage in Near Sawrey, Cumbria, where Beatrix Potter lived after her marriage to William Heelis

Behind (almost) every great writer is a great garden

8 November 2014 9:00 am

It is a truism that writers of all kinds often find inspiration and solace in their gardens, as well as…

The Bloomsbury painters bore me

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) claimed that nothing has really happened until it has been recorded, so this new exhibition at the…

Alex Jennings: still experimenting with the Wonka character

Alex Jennings interview: the new Willy Wonka on Roald Dahl’s ‘child killer’

21 June 2014 9:00 am

Alex Jennings, the new Willy Wonka, tells Lloyd Evans why Dahl’s ‘misanthropic world’ is fascinating to inhabit

A Roald Dahl tea? It reminds me more of Jimmy Savile

7 September 2013 9:00 am

One Aldwych, an Edwardian grand hotel near Waterloo Bridge, is serving a Jimmy Savile tribute tea. It is not explicitly…