Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl.
Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) is Roald Dahl's autobiography of his childhood. It is NOT a novel — it is a factual account of real events from Dahl's life, from his birth in 1916 to leaving school at 18. Dahl describes his Norwegian family, the deaths of his sister and father when he was young, his time at boarding schools in England, and his early adventures. Some chapters are funny, others are genuinely sad. The famous chapter about the sweet shop is a childhood classic. Dahl makes clear that some experiences at his schools were harsh — including canings from housemasters.
Notable sections include: the great mouse plot (putting a dead mouse in a jar of sweets at the sweet shop); the great chocolate box experiment (Cadbury used to send boys at Repton school boxes of new chocolate bars to evaluate); the car crash in which Dahl's mother was badly injured; and descriptions of the harsh physical punishments at his schools.
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