One person whom you wouldn't want telling you a bedtime story

Can there be many who haven't grown up on Roald Dahl books or who aren't now still reading his famous stories to their children at bedtime.

A biography on the author clearly details what an awful man Dahl was - even if his stories were, and remain, captivating and charming.

The Independent reports in "Tales of the unexpected: The dark side of bedtime stories":

"The much-loved, best-selling children's author, one of the UK's most popular post-war writers, was a man of considerable fury and contempt for people who crossed him, or whom he considered beneath him. The creator of Willy Wonka, the Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox was often less than fantastic as a human being. He was an anti-Semite, a chronically unfaithful husband and a raging bully to business associates, teachers and friends. The creator of the Big Friendly Giant could easily, it seems, transform himself into a Big Unfriendly Bastard."

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