Roald Dahl was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. He began to write after injury sustained as a pilot in WW2. As well as his phenomenally successful children's books, all of his highly acclaimed stories, including TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, MY UNCLE OSWALD, and the autobiographies BOY and GOING SOLO have been bestsellers and translated all over the world. When he died in 1990, The Times described him as 'one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation'. Read by Eric Idle: Eric Idle was a co-writer and performer in the zany weekly series Monty Python's Flying Circus. He remained a loyal Python throughout the group's many film, TV-special and book projects. He has also co-starred in such films as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and and one of his best screen showings was his sidesplitting bit as an accident-prone cyclist in National Lampoon's European Vacation.