![]() ![]() In the decades since its publication, James and the Giant Peach alone has been lambasted for its references to drugs and drink (all that snuff and whiskey), profanity ("ass" is used several times), and sexual innuendo (a scene in which a spider licks her lips got readers in Wisconsin hot under the collar), not to mention its alleged promotion of disobedience and – wait for it – Communism. The controversy has never gone away though. Collectively, his books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, their stories also spawning stage and screen adaptations, including a recently announced prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, set to star teen crush Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka. Today, titles like Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG and Matilda, which was released just two years before his death aged 74 in 1990, regularly appear on lists of the best children's books ever – including BBC Culture's own. Villains loom large as mean as they are ignorant, they tower over pint-sized if plucky protagonists, twirling them around by their pigtails or banishing them to places like "the Chokey", a nail-studded punishment cupboard. He followed it with more than 15 other books for children, stories bursting with gluttony and flatulence, in which wives feed their husbands worms and the young are eaten by bone-crushing giants and changed into rodents by be-wigged, toeless hags. (He'd then receive a very generous 50 per cent of any profits, making it seem a savvy-seeming deal after successive print runs sold out.) So troubling did the book seem that while it was published in the US in 1961, Dahl had to wait until 1967 before it appeared in his native UK, and even then found himself compelled to sign away royalties until production costs had been recouped. ![]() It was his first work for children but had the same effect on plenty of adult readers as the short stories that had already earned him a modest literary reputation – twisted tales with grisly punchlines, published in magazines including The New Yorker and Playboy. James and the Giant Peach sprang from bedtime stories Roald Dahl told his daughters. The 21st Century's greatest children's books Why Where the Wild Things Are is the greatest children's book Read more about BBC Culture's 100 greatest children's books: It doesn't sound much like the set-up of a bestselling book for children, but what if I told you that the boy's getaway vehicle was a gargantuan fuzzy-skinned fruit? But he got his revenge, literally crushing them as he finally escaped, bound for adventure and a better life. They were a sadistic pair, these sisters, and rather than console and nurture they bullied and beat and half-starved him. Once upon a time a small orphaned boy was packed off to live with his aunts. This is an updated version of an article originally published in 2016. ![]()
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