My 10 Favourite Roald Dahl Books

The acclaimed children’s author would have been 100 today, so here’s a top 10 of my favourite Dahl books.

10. CHARLIE & THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR (1972)

The only sequel Dahl ever wrote, this follow-up to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) feels like it’s been scrubbed from history. It rarely even gets mentioned these days, and has never been optioned by Hollywood as a ‘readymade sequel’ to either of the two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory films that were produced.

Is that unfair? Unfortunately, no. While I enjoyed reading about the continuing adventures of Charlie Bucket inside Willy Wonka’s ‘Great Glass Elevator’, even as a boy I could tell that these characters were embroiled in a more ridiculous story that almost felt like a stream-of-consciousness exercise from Dahl. There were some memorably weird moments, but I’m glad Dahl’s plan for a third adventure never came about. Given the success of Chocolate in the US, this almost feels like a conscious attempt to play to that audience — what with the involvement of the US President. It didn’t work.

9. THE TWITS (1980)

I struggle to see The Twists as a book, because it just feels like a collection of funny and grotesque stories and pranks by its eponymous characters. It always felt very sketchy, so I only remember reading it the once.

8. FANTASTIC MR. FOX (1970)

I don’t think I actually read this one as a boy, as my experience of it was through an audiobook. I quite enjoyed listening along every morning at the breakfast table before school, but because all the characters were animals I was never as drawn to it as the many other Dahl offerings.

7. JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961)

One of the earlier Dahl works, I was never a particular fan of James and the Giant Peach. I loved the surreal imagery of a little boy flying across the Atlantic in a large peach, kept aloft by seagulls, but there was something about all the big talking insects that disinterested me. I really didn’t many ‘talking animal’ stories as a boy, come to think about it!

6. GEORGE’S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE (1981)

Ah, now this is more like it. George’s Marvellous Medicine is only slightly more developed than The Twits in terms of plotting, but I lapped it up because it was so weird and twisted. Most of the book is about a little boy going around his house, reading the bizarre labels on perfumes and assorted toiletries, but there was something very satisfying about the detailing Dahl brought to it. I also used to love the evil Grandma character, and this easily ranks as his most perverse book. There’s little wonder it’s never been filmed, as you simply can’t avoid the fact it’s about a kid who decides to poison an elderly relative!

5. DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD (1975)

I read this a little later than the others, and that was a wise decision. Of all Dahl’s children’s books, Danny the Champion of the World always felt like it was for slightly older children. There’s no magical realism and it’s a good gateway into teenage fiction. I think it’s a shame he didn’t write more tales in this more realistic vein, actually. I remember it being a bit more of a struggle to get into (not helped by a poor title), but it was definitely how I learned about illegal poaching and the sport of pheasant shooting.

4. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1964)

This was the book that put Dahl on the map, and was his breakthrough into the lucrative US market. It’s an undeniable classic of literature today, easily his most famous story, and the one that’s left a lasting impact on pop culture. There isn’t anyone alive who hasn’t heard of Willy Wonka, or doesn’t know what a ‘golden ticket’ is. As a boy, it also helped that it was (for a time) the only Dahl story with a live-action movie you could watch afterwards. And I really enjoy the 1972 movie, too, which was filmed in Germany and therefore has a very peculiar mix of British, American and German influences. I can see why Dahl hated it, because there are lots of additional scenes, characters, and ideas that don’t appear in his original story — but many of the songs, Gene Wilder’s performance, and the design of the Oompa-Loompa’s now dictate how the story plays out in my mind’s eye.

3. THE BFG (1982)

For awhile, The BFG was my absolute favourite Dahl story. And while it’s slipped down my list a few places over the years, for one reason or another, I think The BFG himself remains Dahl’s loveliest character. And the relationship between this dream-catching gentle giant and little orphan Sophie is a singular delight. I haven’t seen the Spielberg movie yet, but have a feeling I’ll enjoy it.

2. MATILDA (1988)

It’s almost Dahl’s version of Stephen King’s Carrie. What I remember loving about Matilda is how it took an unexpected turn into the supernatural when Matilda realises she has telekinesis. I just thought it was going to be a story about a bookworm with horrible parents, who defeats an even worse headmistress (the fearsome Mrs Trunchbull), but I would never have predicted how she’d achieve this goal. One of Dahl’s richer stories, and Danny DeVito’s 1996 movie wasn’t too shabby either, even if they did Americanise everything. This is the book that won Channel 4’s poll, which I’m okay with. Published in 1988, it’s probably the one that caught on most with the ’90s generation after Dahl’s death.

1. THE WITCHES (1983)

This is my favourite. It has everything I love about Dahl’s stories. I even liked how the young hero isn’t named, so you can imprint yourself onto his character even more. And it’s scary. Very scary. The grandmother’s tales about famous ways witches tricked and tormented kids were genuinely frightening to me. Who could ever forget the one about the child trapped in an oil painting, gradually getting older until one day vanishing? It really messed with my head as a kid. And the story’s delicious, especially when things shift to a grand hotel on the English coast and we meet the fearsome Grand High Witch (easily the best Dahl character to vocalise with her rolling r’s and replacing w’s for v’s).

The 1990 movie seems to have developed a bit of a following over the years, but I remember being disappointed by it at the time. This was mainly because it chickened out with the ending, so our young hero doesn’t spend the rest of his life as a mouse. Anjelica Huston was excellent casting as the Grand High Witch, admittedly. I hear Dahl even like it.

Apparently this book has a reputation in some quarters for being misogynist, because it teaches boys to hate women, but I think that’s very unfair. Witches are women, that’s all there is to it. But perhaps this is why Dahl ensured the boy was guided through this adventure by a very strong female mentor, his grandmother.

So that’s my list!

Most of my favourites were written in the 1980s, when Dahl was on a creative hot streak. I wasn’t aware at the time that many of these books were fairly new releases, and that some of the others were a couple of decades old. They’re all quite timeless. I often wonder what kind of stories Dahl would have dreamed up in the 1990s and beyond, as technology became a bigger distraction for kids. Having already given us Mike TeeVee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I think it’s safe to say he’d have found ways to criticise the rise of video games and the Internet.