James and the Giant Peach

“I think it is one of his darkest books and a very sad book. It’s very gruesome, very macabre. It was Dahl’s first ever children’s book, written in 1961, fresh off the back of writing his short stories. One of his editors suggested to him that now he’d got the short story form down, maybe he could write books for children—because they’re short and because Dahl was very good at getting from A to B in an imaginative, wonderful way. It’s definitely darker and less measured than lots of his later children’s books, which are a bit nicer and a bit happier. I reread James and the Giant Peach recently. Right at the beginning it’s so sad that in James’s house, where he lives with Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, he can literally look out and see his old house, where he used to live with his parents. You find that out on the second page, and it’s just such a heartbreaking little detail that Roald puts in. So James is darker, but it’s equally fantastical, funny, comical and brilliant. It’s got all the good stuff. I think it’s really emblematic of Roald Dahl’s writing.” Read more...

The Best Roald Dahl Books

Tilly Burn, Children's Author