Roald Dahl–definitely not just for kids!

The screen release of Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name, reminds me of the topsy-turvy fashion in which I discovered his work. Although I was of the right age to enjoy his books for children as they were being published, my first exposure to Dahl was through a ratty old paperback edition of his short stories for adult readers, Someone Like You, which I found among other anthological gems on my father’s bookshelf. I have no doubt that Dahl’s dark, powerful visions urged me in the direction of becoming a lifelong fan of SF, fantasy and speculative fiction. I still have the paperback and go back to it regularly to enjoy such wicked enjoyments as “Man from the South,” which was filmed as an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” starring Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre; “Taste,” about a man betting two houses–and eventually his own daughter–that a dinner guest will not be able to identify the wine they are drinking that evening; and “A Dip in the Pool,” about a shipboard wager gone very, very wrong.
It wasn’t until after I had a child to read them to that I discovered all of Dahl’s fabulous books for kids. (Our favorites were Danny, the Champion of the World and The Witches.) If you know Dahl only through his kids’ stuff, you can still find his best short fiction available: try The Best of Roald Dahl.