Our most Frequently Asked Questions about Roald Dahl ... answered.

Q: How tall was Roald Dahl?
A: He was 6 feet 5 and three-quarter inches tall (1.96 metres).
We know this because he wrote it in his passport.

Q: Which languages could Roald Dahl speak?
A: English (of course!), Norwegian and Swahili.
Norwegian was his first language when he was a little boy. He needed to learn
Swahili when he worked in Africa for Shell in the 1930s.

Q: Which football team did he support?
A: When he was a boy, Roald Dahl used to go with his mother's gardener to watch Cardiff City. He and his sisters used to call the gardener 'Joss Spivvis'. (His real name was Jones.)

Q: What colour were Roald Dahl's eyes and hair?
A: His eyes were blue-grey. His hair went grey when he got older, but as a
young man he said his hair was the colour of chocolate.

Q: What was Roald Dahl good at at school?
A: He was really good at sport and won cups for Football, Rugby and Fives. He says this in his autobiography, Boy but you can also see it in school photographs. Roald Dahl is shown with lots of winning teams!

There are lots more Dahl facts in D is for Dahl (published by Puffin Books in 2004). Many of them were found in Roald Dahl's archive. Why not have a look yourself to find some of your own? Go to our Explore the Archive page to find out how.