Author Guide · Children’s Books & Short Stories
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On 19 September 1940 a young RAF pilot officer crash-landed a Gloster Gladiator in the desert near Mersa Matruh in Egypt, fractured his skull and was temporarily blinded. His first published story was about flying. Within a decade Roald Dahl, born in Cardiff in 1916 to Norwegian parents, was selling sharp, cruel short stories to The New Yorker; within two more he had written Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His books have sold more than 300 million copies, and the children’s novels he wrote at Gipsy House in Great Missenden are still filmed, staged and argued over. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1953–1988 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Roald Dahl wrote 17 children’s novels, two adult novels, several story collections and two memoirs. The best known are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983) and Matilda (1988); for adults, Someone Like You (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1960). Start with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Below: all 13 key books in order, his stories for adults, and what changed in the 2023 editions.
Where to Start with Roald Dahl
If you want his defining children’s book
→ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) — the golden tickets and Willy Wonka’s factory.
If you want the dark adult stories
→ Someone Like You (1953) — “Lamb to the Slaughter”, “Taste” and “Man from the South”.
If you want a book to read aloud to an older child
→ Matilda (1988).
If you want his own life story
→ Boy (1984) — followed by Going Solo for the war years.
13 Roald Dahl Books, in Order
Someone Like You
His breakthrough collection for adults, gathering stories first printed in The New Yorker, Collier’s and Harper’s. It includes “Lamb to the Slaughter”, in which a wife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and serves it to the detectives, “Taste”, “Man from the South” and “Skin”. It won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award in 1954.
Kiss Kiss
A second adult collection, with “The Landlady” (a young man takes a room in a Bath boarding house whose owner is fond of taxidermy), “William and Mary”, “Royal Jelly” and “Parson’s Pleasure”. “The Landlady” won an Edgar Award in 1959, and “The Champion of the World”, about two men poaching pheasants, later grew into Danny, the Champion of the World.
James and the Giant Peach
Orphaned James Henry Trotter lives miserably with his Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker until a peach in their garden grows to the size of a house. He travels inside it with a band of giant insects, across the sea to New York. It was his first major children’s novel, and Henry Selick filmed it in 1996.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Willy Wonka hides five Golden Tickets in his chocolate bars; poor Charlie Bucket finds the last one and tours the factory with Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee, who are removed one by one. The 1964 edition described the Oompa-Loompas as African pygmies; after criticism from the NAACP Dahl revised them in 1973. Films followed in 1971 and 2005, a Sam Mendes musical in 2013 and the prequel Wonka in 2023.
Fantastic Mr Fox
Mr Fox steals from three farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who shoot off his tail and then dig up his hill with spades and excavators. The foxes tunnel deeper and come up inside the farmers’ own chicken houses, storehouse and cider cellar. Wes Anderson made it into a stop-motion film in 2009, with George Clooney and Meryl Streep.
Danny, the Champion of the World
Danny lives with his father in a caravan behind the filling station they run. When he learns his father poaches pheasants from the woods of Victor Hazell, a rich and rude landowner, the two plan to take every bird before Hazell’s shoot, using raisins stuffed with sleeping pills. The BFG first appears here as a bedtime story. A 1989 television film starred Jeremy Irons and his son Samuel.
The Twits
Mr and Mrs Twit, a filthy, spiteful married couple, play cruel tricks on each other and keep a family of Muggle-Wump monkeys trained to stand on their heads. The monkeys and the Roly-Poly Bird take their revenge. It is one of his shortest books and one of the first illustrated by Quentin Blake.
George’s Marvellous Medicine
Left alone with his bad-tempered grandmother, George Kranky brews her a new “medicine” from everything he can find in the house, shed and garage. She grows through the roof, and his father wants to make more of it to use on the farm animals.
The BFG
Sophie, an orphan, is carried off by the Big Friendly Giant, who catches dreams and blows the good ones into children’s bedrooms, and who speaks in his own words: “snozzcumber”, “frobscottle”, “whizzpopping”. Together they ask the Queen to stop nine man-eating giants. Dahl dedicated it to his daughter Olivia, who died of measles in 1962. Steven Spielberg filmed it in 2016.
The Witches
A seven-year-old boy, raised by his Norwegian grandmother after his parents die, overhears the Grand High Witch at a Bournemouth hotel planning to turn England’s children into mice. He is turned into one himself and fights back. It won the Whitbread Award in 1983, was challenged in libraries for its portrayal of women, and was filmed by Nicolas Roeg (1990) and Robert Zemeckis (2020).
Boy
His childhood up to the age of about twenty: Llandaff, summer holidays in Norway, the prep school and Repton, the beatings, and the boxes of new chocolate bars Cadbury sent to Repton boys to test. It ends as he leaves to work for Shell.
Going Solo
The sequel to Boy: his years with Shell in East Africa, joining the RAF, the 1940 crash in the Western Desert, and flying Hurricanes in Greece and the Syria–Lebanon campaign before he was invalided home.
Matilda
Matilda Wormwood reads her way through the library at the age of four while her parents ignore her. At school she meets the kind Miss Honey and the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull, and discovers she can move things with her mind. It won the Red House Children’s Book Award in 1989 and has sold about 17 million copies. Danny DeVito filmed it in 1996; the RSC musical opened in 2010 and was filmed in 2022.
In What Order to Read Roald Dahl
His only children’s series is two books long: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972). Of the memoirs, Going Solo picks up where Boy ends. Everything else stands alone, so children can start anywhere. The shorter books (The Twits, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox) suit younger readers; The BFG, The Witches and Matilda are longer.
Adults should treat the short stories as a separate body of work. Read Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss first; the later Switch Bitch (1974) and My Uncle Oswald (1979) are bawdier and less often reprinted.
A reading path
1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
2. Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
3. The BFG (1982)
4. Matilda (1988)
5. Someone Like You (1953)
6. Boy (1984)
Everything Else Roald Dahl Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 19 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other children’s books
9
9 books · 1943–1991
- 1943The Gremlinshis first book for children, about the gremlins of RAF folklore
- 1966The Magic Fingera girl whose angry finger turns a family of hunters into ducks
- 1972Charlie and the Great Glass Elevatorthe sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- 1977The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six Morestories for older readers; Wes Anderson’s 2023 film of the title story won an Oscar
- 1978The Enormous Crocodilea picture book
- 1985The Giraffe and the Pelly and Mea short picture book
- 1990Esio Trothis last book published in his lifetime
- 1991The Vicar of Nibbleswickea vicar who says words backwards
- 1991The Minpinsa picture book, later retitled Billy and the Minpins
Verse
3
3 books · 1982–1989
- 1982Revolting Rhymesfairy tales retold in verse
- 1983Dirty Beastsanimal poems
- 1989Rhyme Stewcomic verse
Adult fiction
5
5 books · 1946–1979
- 1946Over to Youten stories of flyers and flying
- 1948Sometime Neverhis first novel, a fable about war
- 1974Switch Bitchfour stories first published in Playboy
- 1979My Uncle Oswalda comic novel
- 1979Tales of the Unexpectedthe selection behind the ITV series (1979–1988)
Non-fiction
2
2 books · 1991–1993
- 1991Memories with Food at Gipsy Housea cookbook with Felicity Dahl, published after his death
- 1993My Yeara posthumous diary of his last year
The years · 1916–1990
Quick facts about Roald Dahl
- Known for
- Children’s books in which children outwit cruel adults, and twist-ending short stories for grown-ups.
- 1916
- Born in Llandaff, Cardiff
- 1940
- Crashes in the Western Desert as an RAF pilot
- 1953
- Someone Like You wins an Edgar
- 1983
- The Witches wins the Whitbread
- 1990
- Dies in Oxford, aged 74
- Born
- 13 September 1916, Llandaff, Cardiff, to Norwegian parents
- Died
- 23 November 1990, Oxford, aged 74; buried in Great Missenden
- War
- RAF fighter pilot; crashed near Mersa Matruh, Egypt, in 1940; later flew Hurricanes over Greece
- Married
- The actress Patricia Neal (1953–1983), then Felicity Crosland (1983)
- Home
- Gipsy House, Great Missenden, from 1954; the Roald Dahl Museum opened there in 2005
- Sales
- More than 300 million copies worldwide
- Honours
- Three Edgar Awards; World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (1983)
The red mark is 1964: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, his best-known book.
How Roald Dahl Writes: Cruelty, Comedy and the Twist
Dahl started as a writer for adults. His 1950s stories for The New Yorker, Collier’s and Harper’s are short, plain and built towards a final turn: the leg of lamb eaten by the police, the wager over a finger in “Man from the South”. They won him three Edgar Awards and became the ITV series Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1988), which he introduced.
The children’s books keep the same cruelty but take the child’s side. Adults are usually the villains — the aunts in James and the Giant Peach, the Twits, Miss Trunchbull — and they get physical, comic punishments. He invents words freely (“snozzcumber”, “frobscottle”), writes verse into the prose, and from the late 1970s worked with the illustrator Quentin Blake, whose drawings now appear in almost every edition.
He recycled his own material. “The Champion of the World”, a 1959 story about two men poaching pheasants, became Danny, the Champion of the World, and the giant Danny’s father describes became The BFG. He wrote Danny in a Romani caravan at Gipsy House, his home from 1954 until his death.
Frequently asked questions about Roald Dahl’s books
How many books has Roald Dahl written?
Seventeen children’s novels, two adult novels, several short story collections, books of verse and two memoirs, plus books published after his death. This page lists his 13 key books, from Someone Like You (1953) to Matilda (1988), and the rest below them.
What are Roald Dahl’s books in order?
The key books are Someone Like You (1953), Kiss Kiss (1960), James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Danny, the Champion of the World (1975), The Twits (1980), George’s Marvellous Medicine (1981), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983), Boy (1984), Going Solo (1986) and Matilda (1988).
Where should I start with Roald Dahl?
With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). For adults who already know the children’s books, start with the stories in Someone Like You (1953).
What is Roald Dahl’s most famous book?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), filmed in 1971 and 2005, staged as a musical in 2013 and extended by the film Wonka in 2023. Matilda (1988) has sold about 17 million copies.
In what order should I read the Charlie books?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) first, then Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972), which begins where the first book ends. They are his only children’s series.
Did Roald Dahl write books for adults?
Yes, and he wrote them first. His short story collections Someone Like You (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1960) are twist-ending stories for adults; he also wrote the novels Sometime Never (1948) and My Uncle Oswald (1979). Many stories were adapted for Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1988).
Was Roald Dahl antisemitic?
He made antisemitic remarks in public. In a 1983 review in the Literary Review he wrote about Jews in hostile, generalising terms while saying he was “anti-Israel”, not antisemitic, and he made further remarks in 1990. In 2014 the Royal Mint declined to issue a coin for his centenary, and in 2020 his family published an apology on the official Roald Dahl website.
Were Roald Dahl’s books rewritten?
In 2023 Puffin published editions of his children’s books with hundreds of changes suggested by sensitivity readers, including more than 50 in The Witches. After criticism, Puffin announced on 23 February 2023 that it would also publish the unedited texts as the Roald Dahl Classic Collection. Dahl himself had revised the Oompa-Loompas in 1973.
Which Roald Dahl books have been made into films?
Among others: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971, 2005), Danny, the Champion of the World (1989), The Witches (1990, 2020), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Matilda (1996, 2022), Fantastic Mr Fox (2009), The BFG (2016) and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023), which won an Oscar. Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021.
Is Roald Dahl still alive?
No. He died on 23 November 1990 in Oxford, aged 74, and is buried in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened in 2005.
Footnotes
- Roald Dahl — Wikipedia
- Roald Dahl bibliography — Wikipedia
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Wikipedia
- The Witches (novel) — Wikipedia
- Matilda (novel) — Wikipedia
- Danny, the Champion of the World — Wikipedia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
— Roald Dahl, The Minpins (1991), the closing lines
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