‘I enjoyed it, I really did. I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours and a fixed salary and very little original thinking. The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman.’
‘I don’t think any fighter pilot has ever managed to convey what it is like to be up there in a long-lasting dog-fight … It was truly the most breathless and the most exhilarating time I have ever had in my life. I caught glimpses of planes with black smoke pouring from their engines. I saw planes with pieces of metal flying off their fuselages … The sky was so full of aircraft that half my time was spent in actually avoiding collisions.’
His proper title was Assistant Air Attaché, but REALLY Roald Dahl was a spy. This must have come in very handy indeed when he was writing the screenplay for the James Bond film – You Only Live Twice.
It’s true. This was Roald’s job when he was at school. The toilets were in an unheated outhouse and in winter he had to wipe the frost off the toilet seat and then warm up the seat for one of the Boazers (prefects).
Do you think this was Roald’s favourite job of all? I do.
