Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl's children's books are built on a consistent and slightly subversive proposition: adults are frequently stupid, cruel or both, and children are entitled to notice. That stance, combined with Quentin Blake's scratchy pen illustrations, produced some of the best-selling children's books ever written.
About Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl's children's books are built on a consistent and slightly subversive proposition: adults are frequently stupid, cruel or both, and children are entitled to notice. That stance, combined with Quentin Blake's scratchy pen illustrations, produced some of the best-selling children's books ever written. Dahl is also a genuinely complicated figure — a wartime fighter pilot and intelligence officer whose antisemitic public statements his family formally apologised for decades later — and his estate's 2023 decision to edit the texts for modern sensibilities prompted a substantial public argument about what revising a dead author's work means.
Quentin Blake's illustrations are so tied to the books that editions without them are frequently treated by readers as incomplete.
Rights holder: The Roald Dahl Story Company, acquired by Netflix in 2021. CharacterTshirts.com is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, endorsed by, or connected to any character rights holder, publisher, studio or network named on this site. All character names and titles are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify the products described.
Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Early children's books | 1961–1970 | James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. |
| With Quentin Blake | 1978–1990 | The illustrated partnership that defined the visual identity. |
| Adaptations | 1971– | Film, stage and, since the Netflix acquisition, a broader screen slate. |