The Truth About Roald Dahl

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Scandal, Sex, Education, History, Society

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda. Roald Dahl wrote some of the world's most loved children's books.

But what do we know about the man himself? Was he really a spy? Was he a good husband? And why have some editions of his books been edited?

Kate is joined by Rosie Gailor, who is on instagram as @rosieandroald.

This episode was edited by Tim Arstall and produced by Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:21.8	Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister, and you are you, and I am me, and this is betwixt the sheets. Hello. Thank you for coming back. Always a pleasure, never a chore. But before we can keep going, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast. Book of Adults, other adults, about adulty things in an adulty way, covering arranged adult subjects, you should be an adult too. Oh my God, I feel safer. Do you feel safer?
0:23.8	Well, that's the main thing. Right, let's crack on.
0:34.1	Welcome to the whimsical world of Roll Dahl. Just look at that enormous peach rolling down the hill into the sea.
0:39.0	Will it float? And over there, giants are stomping around and there are witches all over the place and what's that? Is that a crocodile in a tree? There are chocolate rivers and
0:44.7	fantastic foxes and George's marvellous medicine. It's fantastic. It's iconic. It's part of
0:52.3	everyone's childhood. But what do we know about the man behind the magic?
1:00.4	Huh. Yeah, buckle up betwi scandal in society with me, Kate Lister.
1:30.3	Roald Dahl authored over 40 books, including the much-loved, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, the BFG, the witches, and loads of others.
1:39.7	His books for children are daring and cheeky, darkly comic.
1:48.1	Sometimes they're grotesque, and people around the world love them.
1:49.5	I love them.
1:53.8	Which is why, once again, we have to get to that thorny question.
1:57.9	Is it ever possible to separate the art from the artist?
2:02.3	Can you still love a book if it was written by an asshole?
2:05.4	Dahl was what you might call a complicated man.
2:10.6	He said and he wrote horrendously racist things as well as misogynistic things,
2:11.8	anti-Semitic things.
2:13.7	I can't sugarcoat that one for you. So much so that in the 2023 editions of his books,
2:19.8	the publisher Puffin changed hundreds of potentially offensive words relating to race, mental health and physical appearance.
2:25.7	So what do we know about Roald Dahl? Well, that's an enormous question. And today, I am joined
2:31.2	by Rosie Gaila, and if anyone can help us tease this one out, it's her
2:35.0	because she has spent years investigating Dahl and his work. So are you ready to have your
	...

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