Roald Dahl - Boy: Tales of Childhood - PaperbackProduct description About the Author Roald Dahl (1916 1990) was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. He spent his childhood in England and, at age eighteen, went to work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa. When World War II broke out, he joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. At the age of twenty six he moved to Washington, D. C., and it was there he began to write. His first short story, which recounted his adventures in the war, was