Stuff
Product Details
Simon & Schuster, September 2011
Trade Paperback, 672 pages
ISBN-10: 1439189765
ISBN-13: 9781439189764
Description
A single-minded adventurer and an eternal child who gave us the iconic Willy Wonka and Matilda Wormwood, Roald Dahl lived a life filled with incident, drama and adventure: from his harrowing experiences as an RAF fighter pilot and his work in British intelligence, to his many romances and turbulent marriage to the actress Patricia Neal, to the mental anguish caused by the death of his young daughter Olivia. In Storyteller, the first authorized biography of Dahl, Donald Sturrock—granted unprecedented access to the Dahl estate’s archives—draws on personal correspondence, journals and interviews with family members and famous friends to deliver a masterful, witty and incisive look at one of the greatest authors and eccentric characters of the modern age, whose work still delights millions around the world today.
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Browse Inside Storyteller“A major literary biography…packed with intimate details, sharply intelligent commentary and surprising revelations. I can't sing its praises enough.”
-- Michael Dirda, Best Nonfiction of 2010, The Washington Post
“Authoritative . . . a careful, loving outline of a difficult man.”
-- Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review
“A sprawling entertainment packed with anecdote and incident . . . an engaging tale with satisfying episodes of glamour, intrigue, failure and renewal.”
-- William Georgiades, The Wall Street Journal
“Sturrock captures the spirit of the man, his need to charm and entertain as well as his 'almost adolescent desire to annoy'.”
-- Barbara Fisher, The Boston Globe
"An exhaustive, yet exuberant portrait . . . Sturrock unravels the Dahl myth."
-- Susannah Cahalan, New York Post
"A no-stone-unturned examination of the man who gave us Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." -- TimeOut New York
-- TimeOut New York
"A balanced and juicy treatment . . . running through Dahl's years spying for the Brits and bedding a slew of Americans as well as the tensions, setbacks, and depressive jags that gave his work its texture."
-- New York magazine, "The Twenty; Our most anticipated fiction and nonfiction of fall"
"Sturrock's superb biography . . . is a hugely readable portrait that examines vividly and sympathetically the life and work of a difficult, complex author who was adored by millions of children, loathed by many adults, and was possibly a genius."
-- Graham Lord, Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Diabolically readable! Donald Sturrock--a goodhearted Charlie with the keys to the factory well in hand--makes lucky ticketholders of us all, revealing from deep within this exotic, guarded, often painful life the conjuring triumphs and dark tragedies of the 20th century's most wonderfully wicked storyteller."
-- David Michaelis, author of Schulz and Peanuts
"The person I met when I met Roald Dahl comes through vividly on the pages of Storyteller. Dahl told me that he was generally disappointed in what people wrote about him, but I believe he would have appreciated Donald Sturrock's beautifully written book."
-- Charlotte Chandler, author of I Know Where I'm Going
"A 600-page book with the word authorized on the cover looks to me like a rather daunting prospect, but I only had to read a few pages of Donald Sturrock's narrative--fluent, alert, detached but enthusiastic--to realize that in fact the whole thing is irresistible. I thought I knew quite a lot about Roald Dahl, but now I know much much more. Donald Sturrock's book lucidly describes a complicated life and relates it to the richness of Dahl's storytelling."
-- Quentin Blake, illustrator
"Storyteller is a real liability if you have anything resembling a busy schedule. It hooks you from its opening sentence; that opening sentence then segues into a wonderful opening paragraph; the paragraph turns into a great first chapter and before you know it you're up to your armpits in stories about spies and foxes and movie stars and you don't want to tear yourself away. As engrossing as only the best biographies can be."
-- Tom Shone, author of In the Rooms and Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer
Vanity Fair, September 21, 2010
...Until now, the private man behind the iconic stories has largely remained an enigma. For his new book, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl (Simon & Schuster; September 14), Donald Sturrock was granted unprecedented access to ...
Vanity Fair, September 20, 2010
...behind the iconic stories has largely remained an enigma. For his new book, (Simon & Schuster; September 14), Donald Sturrock was granted unprecedented access to Dahl?s mostly unpublished archives?hundreds of manuscripts and thousands of ...
Joplin Globe, September 17, 2010
...a children’s author. Writers of adult books É not so much. The author of this 600-page book, “Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl,” is Donald Sturrock, who is apparently saying many unkind things about Dahl, perhaps ...
Guardian.co.uk, September 10, 2010
...biography of the man who transformed children's literatureNo matter how you spin it – and at times Donald Sturrock spins quite hard – Roald Dahl was an absolute sod. Crashing through life like a big, bad child he managed to alienate ...
Guardian.co.uk, September 10, 2010
...Human Chain by Seamus Heaney, Bomber Country by Daniel Swift and Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock "In Human Chain , the first collection from Seamus Heaney since he suffered a stroke in 2006, the completeness of the ...
The Scotsman, September 4, 2010
...proposed documentary about him. Did he really think that? Possibly not. But by the time you've followed Donald Sturrock's superb biography of Dahl into his triumphant late sixties, you know that's exactly what he would have said, daring the ...
Sydney Morning Herald, August 9, 2010
...Britain's Royal Air Force in the early 1940s is detailed in the first authorised biography of Dahl, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother ...
Asian Age, August 8, 2010
...a young, handsome and dashing RAF officer in the early 1940s is detailed in a new book by Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl’s who looked up to him as a brother even though he ...
Sydney Morning Herald, August 8, 2010
...Britain's Royal Air Force in the early 1940s is detailed in the first authorised biography of Dahl, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother ...
Brisbane Times, August 8, 2010
...Britain's Royal Air Force in the early 1940s is detailed in the first authorised biography of Dahl, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother ...
Melbourne Age, August 8, 2010
...Britain's Royal Air Force in the early 1940s is detailed in the first authorised biography of Dahl, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother ...
Yahoo! India, August 8, 2010
...a young, handsome and dashing RAF officer in the early 1940s is detailed in a new book by Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother even though he ...
Irish Independent, August 8, 2010
...a young, handsome and dashing RAF officer in the early 1940s is detailed in a new book by Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Life Of Roald Dahl. Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother -- even though, ...
