Chapter Summaries of “Boy, Tales of Childhood” by Roald Dahl
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STARTING POINT
Chapter 1 – Papa and Mama
* Father – Harald Dahl, Norwegian – no left arm
* Father’s brother – Oscar
* The brothers ran away to France
* Uncle Oscar became successful – fishing trawlers and a canning factory
* Harald Dahl – with partner Aadnesen – became shipping brokers (suppliers to big ships) – as coal was the most important thing they supplied they set up business in a coaling port – Cardiff, South Wales, U.K.
* Harald married Marie – 2 children and then Marie died
* Harald went back to Norway to find a new wife – married Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg – 4 children – girl, girl, boy (Roald), girl
* They moved to a big house in Radyr, 8 miles outside of Cardiff
* Harald was a clever businessman, he was a good gardener and wood carver. He wrote detailed dairies of events in English (although Norwegian was his first language).
Chapter 2 Kindergarten 1922-23, age 6-7
* When Roald was 3 his sister died from appendicitis, she was 7. This was the age that Roald’s daughter Olivia died many years later.
* Roald’s father was very upset about the death of his daughter, and he died of pneumonia shortly after.
* Roald’s mother had no family in Wales to help her, all her family lived in Norway. She was alone with 5 children, and another one on the way. However she refused to return to Norway. Harald Dahl had always wanted his children to be educated in English schools, which he believed to be superior. After all, it had enabled a small island of people to become a great empire, and produce some of the world’s greatest literature.
* The family moved to a smaller house called Cumberland Lodge in Llandaff, a few miles away.
* Roald went to his first school – a kindergarten called Elmtree House, run by 2 sisters Mrs Corfield and Miss Tucker....