Roald Dahl Day

On this day in 1916 one of the World's most famous writers was born.

And he was born in Cardiff.

As a tribute, today has been named as 'Roald Dahl Day' and there are meant to be many events around the city to mark the moment.

I was fortunate to have experienced Mr Dahl during his lifetime.

Way back in 1986 my Father wrote a letter to Roald Dahl informing him how much I loved his books. A few weeks later a letter arrived addressed to me from the man himself. I took it to school and proudly showed it around the classroom.

Us kids loved his work. I think the very first 'long book' we read at infant school was Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

I found two books written by him the other day. One was of The BFG (or 'Buff guh' as I used to say before I was corrected by my teacher) and Boy. The latter is the memoirs of his time growing up in Llandaff and then later spending time at boarding school.

The wonderful characters created by Dahl will always remind me of my childhood. There was something spectacular about the way this author managed to get into a kiddish zone and relate to the youngsters through his stories.

Seeing as films and episodes of Tales of the Unexpected are still viewable today proves that the legacy of the man is still entertaining the young and old seventeen years after he passed away.

Happy Roald Dahl Day.