A very wise man (my Dad) once told me that a good way of knowing if you liked someone was to think about how you would feel about getting stuck in a lift with them. If the idea would not phase you or you think that you would get on quite nicely, you probably think they're ok. If on the other hand, the idea makes you shudder, then he or she is most probably someone you would prefer to avoid. I loved pretty much all of Roald Dahl's children's fiction growing up but having read his biography, I think that I would not like to get stuck in a lift with the man himself. Given that he has been dead for twenty years though, it's not something to worry about. As a child, I had no idea that he was anything other than the wonderful author of The BFG, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory etc but growing up, you realise that there was an awful lot more there, Roald Dahl was a pilot, a screen writer, an author and a spy who married a movie star and invented a life-saving piece of medical apparatus. Roald Dahl was an undoubted genius but to put it simply he was 'not a nice man'.

For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/storyteller-donald-sturrock.html