Storyteller. The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl. Illustration by Nathan Gelgud, 2013.

If Roald Dahl were still alive, he would turn 97 this Friday. When you stop and think about it, it seems that the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Fantastic Mr. Fox might be the most influential writer in the English language. Dahl’s hold on us is immeasurable. His totally unique, twisted stories for kids -- dark enough to frighten but never so scary to discourage going back for more -- long ago entered the collective consciousness. Whether or not you’re fully aware of it, Dahl probably had some influence on you in your formative years. He not only inspired other writers, but shaped the way people think and feel about the world.

In Donald Sturrock’s Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, we discover that we may have the Royal Air Force to thank for the work of the mythmaker whose words float around in the darker corners of our imaginations. As a young pilot, Dahl crashed his plane and later claimed that the accident's ensuing brain damage shaped who he was and led him to writing.

Reading about Dahl the pilot (he would sometimes exaggerate the extent of his adventures), we learn that Dahl led a full life before he achieved great success and fame in his mid-forties. He was also was an oilman for Shell and a member of the British diplomatic corps. He even worked as a spy, which his daughter Lucy finds hard to believe because “Dad never could keep his mouth shut. He gossiped like a girl.”

Before all that, Dahl was a troublesome kid, participating in some of the mischief his characters would later embody. He remained something of a pain in the side into adulthood, as he’d throw dinner parties where he was his own worst guest, picking little arguments with people and overstepping every boundary of British propriety. To channel that inner child for his fiction, he retreated to a writing hut which he said helped him think like a youngster. In Sturrock’s Storyteller readers get an authoritative view of both Dahl the boy and the man. Lucky for us, it’s not always clear where one begins and the other ends.

Storyteller. The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Nathan Gelgud, 2013.