The thrill of the Golden Ticket, the wonderment of a chocolate factory and the whimsy of the Oompa-Loompas: The sugary sweet world imagined in Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has made it one of the most beloved tales in children’s literature.
But for Dahl, the story was the result of decades of an idea marinating in his head mixed with a period of family tragedy. “It starts always with a tiny little seed of an idea, a little germ, and that even doesn’t come very easily,” the British author told Scholastic of his story ideas. But ultimately it was his love for childlike fun that helped create a universal story with such iconic characters. “My lucky thing is I laugh at exactly the same jokes that children laugh at.”
At the age of 13, Dahl left his first British boarding school of St. Peter’s in Weston-super-Mare in 1929 and moved to Repton School in South Derbyshire. And his new school came with an unexpected perk: free chocolate!
The Cadbury chocolate company would send samples to the students in nondescript packaging to get their thoughts as a test audience. Dahl’s experience as a teenage chocolate taster got his wheels spinning about what the candy-making process must be like.
Picture Credit : Google
