Roald Dahl is a famous storyteller. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, and The BFG have all been read by multiple generations of children and viewed in Silver Screen adaptations. You may be surprised to know that Dahl was also an accomplished short-story writer, although not for children!

I was fortunate enough to find the 850 page Everyman’s Edition of Roald Dahl’s Collected Stories at a local second-hand bookstore in Barrie, Ontario (Rivendell Books). Dahl’s stories are presented chronologically, beginning with “An African Story” from 1943 and ending with “The Surgeon” from 1986.

As Dahl’s life progresses, the stories become increasingly more twisted. The thing that makes a Roald Dahl story unique, however, is not just the tone, but the inevitable twist on the final page of the story. M. Night Shyamalan could take notes!

I’ll never read Dahl’s children’s literature the same way again.

Dahl, Roald. Collected Stories. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Everyman’s Library 300.