Roald Dahl (45 page)

57
. See Chapter 9, n. 10.

58
.
Playboy
, January 1988.

59
. Interview with Valerie Finnis. Dahl had been friendly with the principal of the Waterperry Gardening School, Miss Beatrix Havergal, who was now dead. Miss Havergal was a large woman, whose unchanging costume consisted of a green linen smock beneath a dark green blazer with brass buttons, green breeches, green woolen stockings, brown tie, and brown felt hat. Dahl used her as a model for Miss Trunchbull's clothes and physique (but not her personality), and asked her colleague Valerie Finnis (Lady Scott) to send him a photograph of her, so that Quentin Blake would get her exactly right. He did, Lady Scott says, except that he mistakenly drew her shoes with large protruding tongues.

60
. FSG, October 5, 1987.

61
. Ibid., December 23, 1987.

62
. Ibid., January 15, 1988.

63
. Ibid.

64
.
Matilda
, second FSG draft, pp. 24, 90. Dahl also often wrote “your's” and “it's” for “yours” and “its.”

C
HAPTER
15

Main sources

FSG

Interviews with Elizabeth Attenborough, Amanda Conquy, Brian Cox, Lucy
Dahl, Tessa Dahl, Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty, Peter Mayer, Peggy Miller, Patricia Neal, Stephen Roxburgh

Report of the Police Complaints Authority, July 3, 1989

N
OTES

1
. Interviews with Peter Carson and Peggy Miller.

2
. FSG, August 23, 1987.

3
. Interview with Robin Hogg.

4
. Lynn Barber,
Mostly Men
, rev. edn., 1992, p. 97.

5
. Telephone interview with Brian Sibley.

6
. Interview with Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty.

7
. Conversations with John Mortimer and Susan Mayes.

8
. Interviews with Stephen Roxburgh and Tessa Dahl.

9
. Letter from RD to Valerie Finnis.

10
. Letters to Kenneth Baker and Brian Cox, July 27, 1988.

11
.
Daily Mail
, November 16, 1988.

12
. When the journalist Angela Levin raised the issue with Felicity Dahl, “tears welled into her eyes again. ‘The reaction … meant that he lost any form of knighthood. Not that he wanted one, but he would have liked a little recognition from his country for whom he wrote great literature and fought bravely … during the war.'” (
You
magazine, October 6, 1991.)

13
.
Daily Mail
, November 16, 1988.

14
.
Independent
, March 21, 1990.

15
.
The Times
, February 28, 1989.

16
. Conversation with Penelope Lively.

17
. Conversation with Martin Amis.

18
. Interview with Stephen Roxburgh.

19
.
Publishers Weekly
, December 15, 1989.

20
. Report of the Police Complaints Authority, July 3, 1989, and press reports, eg.,
Daily Telegraph
, July 14, 1989.

21
. Obituary note by Spiv and Marius Barran in the
Independent
, November 28, 1990. Further information from Elizabeth Attenborough and Amanda Conquy.

22
. Dutch TV interview with Ivo Niehe.

23
. For example, to Terry Lane on ABC Radio.

24
.
The Guardian
, August 12, 1989.

25
. Article by Christopher Sykes,
The Times
, November 30, 1990.

26
. Article by Martin Kettle,
The Guardian
, May 19, 1990.

27
.
WSHS
, pp. 84, 97.

28
. Interview with Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty.

29
. Interview with Tessa Dahl.

30
. Interview with Amanda Conquy.

31
. Interview with Patricia Neal, who lent me a recording of the service.

32
. Interview with Tessa Dahl.

33
. Peter Mayer, “A Tribute to Roald Dahl,” privately printed, 1990.

Index

“Abide with Me,”
122

Adam, Ken,
177

Albertson, Jack,
186

Allen & Unwin,
215
;
see also
Unwin, Rayner

Altman, Robert,
251

Amersham,
see
Wistaria Cottage, Amersham

Amis, Martin,
269

Anderson, Alex (son-in-law),
182

Andrews, Eamonn,
219

Angell, Roger,
129

Annabella,
207–8

Appleyard, Brian,
268

Arnold, Michael,
37

As I Am
,
208

Atkins, David,
27

Atlantic Monthly, The
,
89

Attallah, Nairn,
255

Attlee, Violet,
96

“Automatic Grammatisator, The,”
105

Ayres, Lew,
123

Bacon, Francis,
53

Bader, Douglas,
176

Baker, Kenneth,
267

Balfour, Harold,
55

Barber, Lynn,
266

Barry, John,
176

Beaverbrook, Lord,
80

Belloc, Hilaire,
261

Bentinck, H. N.,
93

Berchtesgaden,
98

Berens, Phoebe,
213

Berle, Adolf,
61

Berlin, Isaiah,
255–56

Bernstein, Helen,
212

Bernstein, Leonard,
110

Bernstein, Robert,
256

“Beware of the Dog,”
174

BFG, The
,
253

Bierce, Ambrose,
16–17

Bisgood, Douglas,
68

“Bitch,”
165

Bittenwieser, Paul A.,
132

Blake, Quentin,
228

Bloom, Harold Jack,
178

Blyton, Enid,
268

Bodley Head, The,
161

Bogarde, Dirk,
250

Bohr, Niels,
73

Booker Prize,
270

Book-of-the-Month Club,
172

Bookseller
,
193

“Bookseller, The,”
260

Boston Globe
,
219

Boston Herald
,
149

Boy
,
252

Bradbury, Malcolm,
131–32

Brave New World
,
183

Brians, Paul,
88

Brinkley, David,
61

British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC),
106

British Embassy, Washington, D.C.,
56–58

British intelligence,
72–77

British Security Coordination (BSC),
77

Broccoli, Albert “Cubby,”
183

Brooks, Alden,
129

Bryce, Ivar,
199

Brynner, Yul,
129

Buckingham, Valerie,
240

Buckingham Palace,
238

Buckinghamshire,
see
Great Missenden

Buffalo News
,
120

“Business, the,”
275

Buxton, John,
71

Cadbury's chocolate,
23

Cameron, Eleanor,
203

Campbell, John W., Jr.,
88

Campbell, Ronald,
56

Campbell, Roy,
93

“Captain Hornblower,”
58

Cardiff, Wales,
13–14

Caro, Robert,
6

Carroll, Lewis,
90

Carson, Jack,
108

Carton, Charles,
166

“Champion of the World, The,”
201

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
,
154

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
,
203

“Charlie's Chocolate Boy,”
135

Charpentier, Paul,
79

Charpentier, Suzanne,
see
Annabella

Chatto & Windus,
162

Chest, Heart and Stroke Association,
205

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
,
183–84

Christie, J. T.,
25–26

Churchill, Winston,
74–75

Clarke, Charlotte,
64

Clarke, Dennis,
33

“Claud's Dog,”
83

Clifton, Tony,
255

Coen, Fabio,
235

Coke, David,
47

Collected Short Stories
,
260

“Collector's Item,”
93

Collier's
magazine,
113

Connolly, Cyril,
248

Conquy, Amanda,
179

Cooper, Gary,
159

Corrado, “Victor,”
20

Cosmopolitan
,
69

Coughton Court,
225

Coward, Noël,
99

Cowley, Joy,
186

Cox, Brian,
267

Cozzens, James Gould,
260

Cromie, Robert,
88

Crosland, Charles,
224

Crosland, Felicity,
see
Dahl, Felicity Crosland

Cuneo, Ernest,
100

Curzon House Club,
218

Cusick family,
136

d'Abreu, Alfonso,
224

d'Abreu, Elizabeth,
224

Dahl, Alfhild (sister),
182

Dahl, Asta (sister),
182

Dahl, Astri (sister),
14

Dahl, Ellen (half sister),
145

Dahl, Else (sister),
210

Dahl, Felicity Crosland (second wife),
275–76

Dahl, Harald (father),
224

Dahl, Louis (half brother),
114

Dahl, Lucy (daughter): birth of,
220

Dahl, Olivia (daughter): birth of,
272

Dahl, Ophelia (daughter): aftermath of RD's death,
225

Dahl, Roald,
174–79

Dahl, Sofie Hesselberg (mother): background,
128

Dahl, Tessa (daughter): after RD's death,
210

Dahl, Theo (son): accident to,
223

Dahl & Dahl,
275

Dahl & Son,
223

Dahl (Roald) Foundation,
275

Daily Mail
,
268

Danny, the Champion of the World
,
272

Dar es Salaam,
41

David, Elizabeth,
212

Davies, Robertson,
132

Davies, Russell,
239

Davis, Nancy (Reagan),
123

“Death of an Old Old Man,”
72

Dehn, Paul,
176

Denison, Michael,
267

Dinesen, Isak,
38–39

“Dip in the Pool,”
111

Dirty Beasts
,
237–39

Disney, Walt,
63–69

Douglas, Kirk,
219

Drabble, Margaret,
265

Drake, Betsy,
168

Dunnock, Mildred,
200

Dyslexia Institute,
273

“Edgar” award,
121

Eggar, Samantha,
148

80 Squadron,
45–46

Einstein, Albert,
89

Eisenstaedt, Alfred,
218

Elm Tree House,
19

Enormous Crocodile, The
,
226–27

Epstein, Jacob,
99

Esio Trot
,
272

Evening Standard
,
219

Fagan, Michael,
238

Fantastic Mr. Fox
,
244

Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
260

Farrell, Barry,
250

Fath, Creekmore,
212

Fawcett, Rosemary,
239

Feitel, Mr.,
64

Finnis, Valerie,
146

Fisher, Geoffrey,
147

Fleming, Ian,
248

Forester, C. S.,
130

Fowler, Virginie,
171

Fox, Colin,
212–13

“Fox, The,”
194–97

Freud, Anna,
207

Furse, Jim,
28

Gallimard (publisher),
191

“Galloping Foxley,”
27

Garner, Grace,
74

Gellhorn, Martha,
248

“Genesis and Catastrophe,”
258

George's Marvellous Medicine
,
266

Gibson, Guy,
71

Gilbert, Lewis,
177

Gill, Brendan,
107

Gipsy House: children's recollections,
240–41

Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, The
,
252–53

Glass, Alice,
77

God Cried
,
268

Going Solo
,
265

Gollancz, Victor,
29

Goodman, Edmund,
168

Gordon, Archie,
94

Gore-Booth, Paul,
57

Gottlieb, Robert: as editor,
256

Goya, Francisco,
112

Grange Farm,
92

Graves, Charles,
67–68

Graves, Robert,
150

Gray, Dulcie,
267

Great Missenden,
205
,
207
;
see also
Gipsy House

Great Ormond Street Hospital,
267

“Great Switcheroo, The,”
165

Green, Candida Lycett,
239

Green, Henry,
121

Greene, Graham,
259

Greenwood, Gillian,
256

gremlins,
91

Gremlins, The
(book),
266

Gremlins, The
(proposed movie),
174