This book is the work of many hands. Thanks are due in particular to Rachel White, the archivist of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, and to her predecessor Jane Branfield for making the letters and so many photographs available to me over the course of the last ten years. Barney Samson and Diane Sullivan kindly helped in the transcriptions of the originals. I owe a lot to their patience, care and industry.
Over an even longer period, many members of Roald’s family helped me put the letters in context, most notably Roald’s three sisters Alfhild, Else, and Asta, who kindly gave me long interviews before they died. I used these in my biography Storyteller and the information gathered from them has been invaluable to this book as well. Roald’s children Tessa, Theo, Ophelia, and Lucy also gave generously of their time, as did both of Roald’s wives, Patricia Neal and Liccy Dahl. Ophelia, in particular, was a huge force of encouragement behind the scenes. Roald’s nephew Nicholas Logsdail and his nieces Alexandra Anderson, Anna Corrie, Astrid Newman, and Lou Pearl gave me invaluable assistance as well. I am grateful to all of them for their support.
I also owe thanks to others, who I consulted while researching Storyteller and whose interviews helped put letters in context. These include: Jonathan Cuneo, Nancy Deuchar, Tim Fisher, Deb Ford, Douglas Highton, and Charles Pringle.
From the Roald Dahl Literary Estate, Amanda Conquy supported my initial proposal for a book of Roald’s letters and her successor, Roald’s grandson, Luke Kelly, has been the most intelligent, sensible, sensitive, and perceptive of collaborators imaginable. I feel immensely lucky to have had his involvement on this intriguing and strangely daunting project.
Kate Craigie, Nick Davies, and Rosie Gailer at John Murray have worked tirelessly to make the book happen as have my agent Caroline Dawnay and her assistant Sophie Scard and Anthony Goff at David Higham. I owe them all thanks, as I do to Justin Somper and John Collins for their energy and enthusiasm in promoting it. I am grateful too to the design team at Sunshine for their clear and witty maps and icons. In New York, David Rosenthal, Sarah Hochman, Katie Zaborsky, and Terezia Cicelova at Blue Rider have also been hugely supportive.
Most of all, thanks are due to Jake Wilson, whose tireless investigations, painstaking research, and acute attention to detail have helped make this book what it is.
I am grateful to Walt Disney for permission to reproduce photographs and images connected with The Gremlins.