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“A WRITER OF fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not,” said Roald Dahl.
Well, he sure did come up with new ideas.
As was shown in the theme of this year’s Late Late Toy Show, Dahl has created some wonderful characters, events and words.
So here’s a quiz to look at his most celebrated works, and a bit about the extraordinary life he had.
In Roald Dahl’s first book The Gremlins, what does Dahl write is the motivation for them sabotaging plane mechanics?
It’s revenge for the destruction of their forest home, which was flattened to make way for an aircraft factory.
It’s to stop the noise of planes disturbing sleeping baby Gremlins.
In the book The BFG, which is dedicated to Dahl’s daughter Olivia who died of measles aged 7, what does the BFG do?
He catches dreams and sends the good ones to children around the world
He teaches children how to read
He makes ‘frobscottle’, a fizzy drink that makes you swear
He gives the Queen of England nightmares about the British empire
Miss Trunchbull is the principal of Matilda’s school. Who is she revealed to be later in the book?
A misunderstood person
A second-hand car salesperson
Miss Honey’s aunt
Matilda’s aunt
In ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More’, what does Henry do when he trains himself to see through objects?
He becomes a magician and gives free shows to children
He uses his skills in the army
He becomes a successful doctor
He plays blackjack and roulette at casinos
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, what happens to Veruca Salt?
She expands into a giant blueberry after chewing an experimental piece of gum
She gets made really small after drinking a potion labelled ‘Drink Me’
She is thrown down a chute after trying to catch a squirrel and is catagorised as a bad nut
She gets catapulted out of the factory in a glass elevator
True or False: Roald Dahl flew a fighter plane in World War 2 that was shot down, was a spy for MI6, and wrote the screenplay for the Bond film You Only Live Twice.
True
False
In the book The Witches, which one of these is NOT a telltale sign that someone is a witch?
They have claws instead of fingernails
They have square feet with no toes
They have no eyebrows and draw them on
They have blue spit
Which of these tricks did the Twits not play on one another?
Mr Twit puts a frog in Mrs Twit's bed
Mrs Twit removes her glass eye and drops it in Mr Twit's beer
Mr Twit glues pieces of wood onto Mrs Twit's cane and chair day-by-day to make her think she’s shrinking
Mrs Twit puts Mr Twit in 'the chokey' when he doesn’t eat his dinner
Who is Mr Fox’s enemy in Fantastic Mr Fox?
Mr Badger
Rat
Boggis
The Hound
In James and the Giant Peach, how do James and his insect friends get the big peach to fly?
They use the Earthworm as bait to lure seagulls close, and tie thread to them
The Ladybird mimics the seagulls’ call and they ask them to carry the peach
The Spider and Silkworm tie thread to a plane
They ask Mr Fly and his friends to lift the peach
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