Influences and Historical Atmosphere

Roald Dahl wrote poems, screen plays, short stories, fiction and non-fictional works, and television segments.  He stated that his favorite and most influential writers were Kipling, Thackeray, Marryat, and Dickens.  He said his mother would recite Norwegian stories to him and his siblings, daily, and he started to make up his own stories.

Historically, Dahl was a part of the British Air Force during World War II.  He was promoted through the ranks, and eventually was discharged after surviving a plane crash / attack in Lybia.  He was then sent to Washington D.C. to work (possibly as a British spy).