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Tales of the unexpected
Western Mail
|February 12, 2026
FANTASTIC TALES: Roald Dahl's life was as wild as his imagination
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The brain that gave us snozzcumbers, Oompa-Loompas and the dreaded shrinks had an even wilder, weirder story to tell: his own.
In this 11-part iHeart series, produced by Ron Howard, screenwriter and Yale English professor Aaron Tracy shares the “bananas” life and darker side of a writer who has sold more than 300 million books.
The BFG and The Witches were the first books Aaron read on his own, and ignited his love of words. But after “rotten Roald’s” anti-Semitic outbursts, he now holds a confusing place in his heart. Put it this way, Aaron doesn’t know how to approach the books with his own Jewish children.
This story is from the February 12, 2026 edition of Western Mail.
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