This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Before we start, one production note.

In this episode, we have a lot of quotes from Roald Doll.

So we use an actor's performance and some custom software to create a doll-like voice.

Okay, on to the episode.

Roll Doll has never felt smaller in his life than he does on this particular crisp January morning,

walking into his publisher's office on 42nd Street.

The manuscript tucked under his arm feels like evidence of failure.

Dahl thinks of himself as a sophisticated author of smart, suspenseful short stories

for an elite, literature-loving audience.

But now, he's about to submit a children's story.

How could this have happened?

He's a guy who sells his stories to the New Yorker and dates movie stars.

Now he's trying to become the next Dr. Seuss?

And that's best case scenario.

He's basically about to pitch an expanded bedtime story to the same editor who worked with T.S. Eliot,

Albert Camus, and James Baldwin.

There's a gnawing pit in Dahl's stomach.

He hates himself right now.

No confidence tried, no casual lean against the doorframe with a clever quip.

Today, his throat is tight, his palms damp.

...