Roald Dahl (47 page)

Wallace, Ellen,
see
Hesselberg, Ellen Wallace

Wallace, Henry,
87

Wallace, Sir William,
13

Wallis, Ken,
177

Walt Disney: The Gremlins
,
69

Wang, Arthur,
85

Warburg, Frederick,
145

Washington, D.C., RD in,
80–81

Watkins, Ann,
111

Waugh, Auberon,
269

Wavell, General A. P.,
48

Wayne, John,
219

“Way Up to Heaven, The,”
244

Weidenfeld, George,
160

Welch, Denton,
27

Wells, H. G.,
88

Whitbread Prize,
267

White, Katharine S.,
129

Whitefields,
140

“William and Mary,”
244

Willkie, Wendell,
4

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
,
191
;
see also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“Wish, The,”
111

Wistaria Cottage, Amersham,
87

Witchball, The,
210

Witches, The
,
272

Wollheim, Richard,
26

Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
,
The
,
216

Wonka, Willy,
see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Wright, Michael,
56

Young, Freddie,
177

You Only Live Twice
,
174–79

Further Acknowledgments

Apart from those mentioned at the beginning of this book, I am grateful to many individuals who assisted in various ways, not least by answering letters, responding to advertisements, or simply getting in touch with information about Roald Dahl. I can't mention them all individually. For example, large numbers of Reptonians and former members of 80 Squadron, RAF, replied to circular letters from me, apologizing for the fact that they had no memories of Dahl; and I had scores of answers (the first of them, from Francis Wyndham) to a published inquiry about the original publication of Curt Siodmak's “Donovan's Brain.”

Others, however, were too helpful to go unnamed.

Kaare Hesselberg kindly corresponded with me about the family of his kinswoman, Sofie Dahl, Roald's mother.

The Secretary of the Old Reptonian Society, J.F.M. Walker, helped in various ways, particularly by putting me in touch with the following contemporaries of Dahl's at the school (other than those named on pp. vii–x), who wrote to me or talked to me about their memories: R. R. Acheson, John F. Barclay, J.T.J. Dobie, T. B. Ellis, Jim Furse, I. B. Mackay, J. F. Mendl, A.P.D. Montgomery, B.L.L. Reuss. I must also thank Michael Stones, currently Housemaster of Priory House; J. C. Knapp, Headmaster of The Cathedral School, Llandaff; and Col.
W. J. Hotblack, whose grandfather founded St. Peter's School, Weston-super-Mare.

The following people associated with 80 Squadron, RAF, provided useful information: Alex Angus, Roy Ballantyne, Squadron Leader C. J. Bartle, Gregory F. Graham, Air Marshal Sir Edward Gordon Jones, Wing Commander G.V.W. Kettlewell.

Many others who knew Dahl or came into contact with him gave assistance, other than those mentioned in the Preface. I am especially grateful to: Jane Adams, Martin Amis, Roger Angell, Maarten Asscher, Lynn Barber, Patrick Benson, Solveig Bøhle, Mrs. Butler (of Great Missenden), Michael di Capua, Peter Carson, Emma Chichester Clark, Fabio Coen, Brian Cox, Carl Djerassi, R. T. Fisher, Michael Foreman, Brendan Gill, Charles Gray, Richard Hough, Stephen Koch, William Koshland, Hermione Lee, Mark Lefanu, Helen Lillie, Penelope Lively, Anne Lømo, Koukla MacLehose, Susan Mayes, Arthur Miller, Peggy Miller, Caroline Moorehead, John Mortimer, Anthony Page, Murray Pollinger, Michael Rosen, Salman Rushdie, Caroline Seebohm, Gitta Sereny, Brian Sibley, Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty, Bing Taylor, Judy Taylor, Ann Thwaite, Alice K. Turner, Claudia Warner, David Wolton, and Sebastian Yorke.

For making suggestions or answering inquiries of various kinds, I must also thank the following: Erik Arthur, Margaret Baxter, Graham Binns, Nick Collins, Saul Cooper, Mrs. Ferris (of Llandaff), Colin Greenland, Sir Stuart Hampshire, Hans Georg Heepe, Carolyn Hemmings, Katherine Nouri Hughes, Angela Huth, Marjut Karasmaa, Daniel J. Kevles, Eric Korn, John Lawrence, Blake Morrison, J. R. Prawer, Tony Ross, Ben Sonnenberg, Jean Stein, Dinah Stroe, Vavi Toran, Jessica Warner, Marina Warner, Auberon Waugh, Tony Wilmot.

I had invaluable help from the staff of various libraries and institutional archives, particularly the BBC Written Archives in Reading; the TV Archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; the Glamorgan Archive Service and South Glamorgan County Library, Cardiff; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin; the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles; the Ministry of Defence RAF Personnel Management Centre; the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, Toronto Public Library; the Police Complaints Authority
; the Public Record Office; the publishers' archives collection in the Reading University Library; the library of the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon; the archives of Shell Centre, London; the Principal Registry of the Family Division, Somerset House; the Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles; the Walt Disney Archives, Burbank; the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum, Cardiff; and Woodspring Central Library, Weston-super-Mare.

In the course of researching the book, I enjoyed the hospitality of Keith Brown and of Peter Christophersen in Norway, of John Sutherland in Pasadena, of Mimi Summerskill and her family in New Jersey, and of Mrs. Charles Marsh in Washington, D.C.

The authorship of copyright materials from which extracts have been quoted is made clear either in the text or in the notes, or both. The claims in copyright of the authors of those materials or their heirs and assigns are acknowledged by the author and publishers of this book. The process of deciding what I might and might not quote has been facilitated by some copyright holders who simply gave me outright permission, either in advance or after reading relevant sections of the book in draft.

I am particularly grateful to the following:

Mrs. Charles Marsh

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The Disney Publishing Group

The British Broadcasting Corporation

The Public Record Office

About the Author

Jeremy Treglown (b. 1946) is a British literary historian and biographer. He served as editor of the
Times Literary Supplement
through the 1980s. He is a senior research fellow of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London and emeritus professor of English and comparative literary studies at the University of Warwick. Treglown's biographies include
Franco's Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936, V. S. Pritchett: A Working Life, Romancing: The Life and Work of Henry Green
, and
Roald Dahl: A Biography
.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright © 1994 by Jeremy Treglown

Cover design by Mauricio Díaz

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3859-1

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com

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