When Pterry Met Roald
Aug. 30th, 2020 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wossnameWay back in the late 1960s, when Sir Terry was a young journalist, he interviewed a certain local writer who was waiting to see if another of his books would be turned into a film. Below is the text of that interview...
By Terry Pratchett, reporter, aged 21
Bucks Free Press(?)
21 May 1969
The success stories of a man ‘without a message’
‘The purpose of a writer like me is to entertain, purely and simply. There’s no message behind it except the usual underlying one that any writer tries to get through, which is that some people are very nasty and some are very nice. (Most people are very nasty, really, when you get down to it.) But basically one is an entertainer, which is what a lot of fiction writers forget – and they become moralists.’
Roald Dahl, one of the best of modern short story writers, is a traditionalist. If there is one word to describe his writing style it could be ‘precise’. No words are wasted, and the plots are carefully, flawlessly, constructed. The stores[sic] are also, in most cases, pleasantly gruesome.
For 15 years Roald Dahl has lived and written in Great Missenden. But to the British public he is probably better known as the husband of actress Patricia Neal, or as the writer of the screenplays for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice – ‘hard work but great fun’, he said – and the spectacular ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ – ‘twee’.
A master storyteller
His short stories have usually appeared first in the States, coming here in collections like ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Over To You’. They have made him a recognised master in a genre that has not produced many. The recently published Penguin edition of ‘Kiss Kiss’, a collection that first appeared in 1959, has as its gripping cover design a man slowly sinking into a mincing machine. This is a gross libel on some of his stories. The horror is often more subtle than that.
So it is perhaps surprising that Mr. Dahl, at 53, has been building up for some years a reputation as a writer for children. His fourth book, ‘Boggis, Bunce and Bean’, is at the publishers. The best-known of the other three, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, has sold over 100,000 in America and is selling more every month. ‘James and the Giant Peach’ is following it. Both were published over here, by Allen and Unwin, at the end of 1967. They might have one or two macabre touches, which the kids relish, but there is not one minced man among them. It’s merely a matter of adapting to the audience, he says. ‘It’s not easier to write books for children, it might be harder to get a good one. But it is much more rewarding – not financially, but otherwise.’
The books have brought him boxes of fan letters – which all get answered.
‘Post’ script
His writing career started in 1942, when he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attaché. C. S. Forester went to interview Squadron Leader Dahl for the ‘Saturday Evening Post’. He was asked to recount his most exciting wartime experience. Instead he wrote it down. Forester sent it to the ‘Post’ without altering it, and the ‘Post’ accepted it and asked for more. After that he wrote over a dozen stories about flying, every one of which was published by a major American magazine.
He had already written one film script when the James Bond offer came. He had been a close friend of the late Ian Fleming, and agreed to write the screenplay of ‘You Only Live Twice’. ‘It had to be completely re-written. It is the only book he wrote that did not have a good plot. They had the title, and that was all. ‘I thought it would be rather fun to write a Bond film. They do things in such style – you fly to Japan, go everywhere in helicopters, and money’s no object’. ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, another film based on a Fleming book, followed. He wrote a screenplay – which was re-written again after he had finished it, while the Bond one had been left untouched – and the finished product did not amuse him. His kindliest comment on it is ‘too twee and too sentimental’. Meanwhile ‘The Champion of the World’, based on his short story of the same name, is being filmed by Seven Arts. There are also plans for filming ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.
Champion Claud
There is a story behind ‘The Champion of the World’, one of a series of tales set in the Missenden-Amersham area. Their hero, Claud, lives now, as he did then, in Amersham, and he taught Roald Dahl the finer points of pheasant poaching. The finer points of dog racing – including nasty little ways of making them run faster or slower – can also be found in that series. One story in particular, called ‘The Ringer’, could serve any would-be nobbler as a textbook. Claud did not supply that information – it trickled Roald Dahl's way when he lived in Amersham and bred dogs as a hobby.
Orchids and art
Now he raises exquisite orchids in a large greenhouse. ‘It’s easier than you think, if you have a little heat’. Some overflow into the house. There were four in his lounge when I interviewed him, vaguely macabre blooms. But they fitted the style of the room, where antique furniture vied for attention with Francis Bacon originals, and kinetic art with delicate figurines. On one table an Oscar stood next to a crystal ball. ‘You cannot write these stories unless you are interested in many things, obviously. Otherwise you would be writing stories about clergymen, and Irishmen!’ His short stories appear infrequently now, however. He blames the dearth of plots – they’ve all been used. The short story is becoming extinct. ‘It is a pity, but not a great tragedy. Art is highly overrated in importance, by artists in particular, who walk around thinking that this is the most important thing in the world and that they they are, therefore, the most important people. Artists make quite ill by their self-importance and their enormous egotism and pre-occupation. ‘The most important things in the world are things like child care, and families, and medicine. Artists have a real nerve! They think there’s nothing else in the world but them. I don’t think it would be important if short stories disappeared, or if the novel and pictures disappeared. Not important – just a pity, that’s all’.
By Terry Pratchett, reporter, aged 21
Bucks Free Press(?)
21 May 1969
The success stories of a man ‘without a message’
‘The purpose of a writer like me is to entertain, purely and simply. There’s no message behind it except the usual underlying one that any writer tries to get through, which is that some people are very nasty and some are very nice. (Most people are very nasty, really, when you get down to it.) But basically one is an entertainer, which is what a lot of fiction writers forget – and they become moralists.’
Roald Dahl, one of the best of modern short story writers, is a traditionalist. If there is one word to describe his writing style it could be ‘precise’. No words are wasted, and the plots are carefully, flawlessly, constructed. The stores[sic] are also, in most cases, pleasantly gruesome.
For 15 years Roald Dahl has lived and written in Great Missenden. But to the British public he is probably better known as the husband of actress Patricia Neal, or as the writer of the screenplays for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice – ‘hard work but great fun’, he said – and the spectacular ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ – ‘twee’.
A master storyteller
His short stories have usually appeared first in the States, coming here in collections like ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Over To You’. They have made him a recognised master in a genre that has not produced many. The recently published Penguin edition of ‘Kiss Kiss’, a collection that first appeared in 1959, has as its gripping cover design a man slowly sinking into a mincing machine. This is a gross libel on some of his stories. The horror is often more subtle than that.
So it is perhaps surprising that Mr. Dahl, at 53, has been building up for some years a reputation as a writer for children. His fourth book, ‘Boggis, Bunce and Bean’, is at the publishers. The best-known of the other three, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, has sold over 100,000 in America and is selling more every month. ‘James and the Giant Peach’ is following it. Both were published over here, by Allen and Unwin, at the end of 1967. They might have one or two macabre touches, which the kids relish, but there is not one minced man among them. It’s merely a matter of adapting to the audience, he says. ‘It’s not easier to write books for children, it might be harder to get a good one. But it is much more rewarding – not financially, but otherwise.’
The books have brought him boxes of fan letters – which all get answered.
‘Post’ script
His writing career started in 1942, when he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attaché. C. S. Forester went to interview Squadron Leader Dahl for the ‘Saturday Evening Post’. He was asked to recount his most exciting wartime experience. Instead he wrote it down. Forester sent it to the ‘Post’ without altering it, and the ‘Post’ accepted it and asked for more. After that he wrote over a dozen stories about flying, every one of which was published by a major American magazine.
He had already written one film script when the James Bond offer came. He had been a close friend of the late Ian Fleming, and agreed to write the screenplay of ‘You Only Live Twice’. ‘It had to be completely re-written. It is the only book he wrote that did not have a good plot. They had the title, and that was all. ‘I thought it would be rather fun to write a Bond film. They do things in such style – you fly to Japan, go everywhere in helicopters, and money’s no object’. ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, another film based on a Fleming book, followed. He wrote a screenplay – which was re-written again after he had finished it, while the Bond one had been left untouched – and the finished product did not amuse him. His kindliest comment on it is ‘too twee and too sentimental’. Meanwhile ‘The Champion of the World’, based on his short story of the same name, is being filmed by Seven Arts. There are also plans for filming ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.
Champion Claud
There is a story behind ‘The Champion of the World’, one of a series of tales set in the Missenden-Amersham area. Their hero, Claud, lives now, as he did then, in Amersham, and he taught Roald Dahl the finer points of pheasant poaching. The finer points of dog racing – including nasty little ways of making them run faster or slower – can also be found in that series. One story in particular, called ‘The Ringer’, could serve any would-be nobbler as a textbook. Claud did not supply that information – it trickled Roald Dahl's way when he lived in Amersham and bred dogs as a hobby.
Orchids and art
Now he raises exquisite orchids in a large greenhouse. ‘It’s easier than you think, if you have a little heat’. Some overflow into the house. There were four in his lounge when I interviewed him, vaguely macabre blooms. But they fitted the style of the room, where antique furniture vied for attention with Francis Bacon originals, and kinetic art with delicate figurines. On one table an Oscar stood next to a crystal ball. ‘You cannot write these stories unless you are interested in many things, obviously. Otherwise you would be writing stories about clergymen, and Irishmen!’ His short stories appear infrequently now, however. He blames the dearth of plots – they’ve all been used. The short story is becoming extinct. ‘It is a pity, but not a great tragedy. Art is highly overrated in importance, by artists in particular, who walk around thinking that this is the most important thing in the world and that they they are, therefore, the most important people. Artists make quite ill by their self-importance and their enormous egotism and pre-occupation. ‘The most important things in the world are things like child care, and families, and medicine. Artists have a real nerve! They think there’s nothing else in the world but them. I don’t think it would be important if short stories disappeared, or if the novel and pictures disappeared. Not important – just a pity, that’s all’.
