Love from Boy Read online

  Love from Roald

  June 5th 1927

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thank you for your letter . . .

  How much are the monkeys at Harrods? It would be rather nice to have one. Last Sunday I sailed my submarine, but it did not dive at all, and did not go fast, then we took off the front fins, it went just the same along the surface, only much faster.

  Did Harrods say that it dived? But I like it nearly as much as it is now . . .

  I am sending you the school mag.

  Love from

  Roald

  One of many letters Roald wrote telling his mother of his sporting successes. He was tall for his age and boxed as well as playing cricket, football, and rugby.

  October 2nd 1927

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thanks for your letter. You haven’t sent my watch yet, isn’t it ready? I am going to write to Parrain as soon as I have finished this letter, but if I’d written to him before I would have saved a penny-halfpenny.

  You know there were two warts on my feet which he didn’t get out properly, well, matron scraped them out easily, I didn’t feel anything, they were quite dead.

  Ask Alf, Else and Asta to collect all the conkers they can when they get to Bexley. There’s a good conker tree there, I want to keep them for next year, I got quite a lot here off the conker trees.

  By the way, I’ve got the highest conker in the school, 273, its last years.

  I’ve just had a bad cold, but it’s nearly gone now . . .

  Love from

  Roald

  October 16th 1927

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  . . . I recieved my watch alright on Thursday, it’s going splendidly now, it was a bit fast at first so I regulated it.

  All my five warts have disappeared, you couldn’t tell there’d been any there at all now.

  Mr. Corrado has got bronchial pneumonia, and will be away for about a month, so we’ve got a new master called Mr. Millington, he’s very nice, he has got a long hanging ginger moustache, and is quite fat. I hope you haven’t forgotten my Chrysalis which I found in Norway, I left it in a small pot, just where Alfhild & co. had the Garden of Eden.

  I hope you’ll like Bexley, especially the woods . . .

  Love from

  Roald

  October 22nd

  Don’t be surprised if you don’t receive my letter on Monday. I’m going out with Mrs. Highton on Sunday, so I will write to you at the first opportunity, probably Monday.

  Love from

  Roald

  J’esperè que Tu comprenez Ce letter. D.H.

  P.S. Yeg har vegt ent meg Highton i aftens*

  Comprenez-Vous

  January 22nd 1928

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Being the first Sunday there isn’t much news worthy to be related.

  We arrived here at four-ten and went up by Charabanc, and the driver stopped so that we could visit Woolworths, etc. I went to Smiths to get a fountain pen clip.

  We started doing prep yesterday (Saturday) having had all the extra books we needed doled out on the previous morning.

  By the way I’ve been moved up into the fifth form this term.

  We’ve got a new matron called Miss Farmer in place of Miss Turner who left last term, one night in the washing room, having inspected a boy called Ford she KISSED HIM.

  We have four new boys this term, only one border, Ragg II from Petergate, Braithwaite, Curby, and Dickenson are the day boys. Ragg II, a rogue I think, is unfortunately in our section . . .

  Love from

  Roald

  P.S. Please send my riding breeches as soon as possible.

  Also a pot of Marmite please. RD

  February 12th 1928

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thanks for your letter. There are exactly 23!!!!!!! boys with the measles! and all the other schools (boys) in Weston have got it. Hope Louis hasn’t had anything else wrong with him at the doctor. By the way, what a Salamander? You said the Kesslers had put one in the garden; Pears’ Dictionary sais it a kind of Lizard, uncombustable to fire!!

  . . . Yesterday we ‘made fire’!! with a stick and some wood, you know, I tried to show you once at Glentworth Hall. We’ve got four nurses (including matron) now, one is a night nurse.

  The French Play is on the 17th of March, do come and see it, Highton is acting, and on the following Sunday there is a kind of recital of some poem by Shakespeare; oh! Of course, you always go on in the afternoon don’t you.

  Highton is taking a Scholarship exam to a school called Oakham in Rutlandshire on the thirteenth of March; hope he gets it.

  Not much news this week.

  Love from

  Roald

  February 25th 1928

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thanks for your letter. Most of the measles boys are down, except about two . . . Ford is still very bad, he got better on Friday, but has again got very ill.

  I rode on Friday morning, and Hill’s horse cantered on in front, I was going to catch him up when he suddenly started off at full speed. My horse, Dilerish got very peeved at this and tried to catch Hill’s horse up, we both went an terrific lick, and nearly came off.

  Angel has just received a marvellous motor canoe, which is paddled by a man, all his joints move just like real, and if you set a thing at 20 yards it will go twenty yards turn and come back to you, or if you like it will right turn or quarter turn, its furthest is 35 yards which in all is 70 because it comes back and its least is 5 yds. We are going to try it in the boat pond today.

  Love from

  Roald

  P.S. We have just been informed that poor little Ford died early this morning.

  March 18th 1928

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  . . . When I come home, wouldn’t it be best for you, when you had met Alfhild, to stay in town and do your shopping etc. have dinner there and then come and meet me. It would save you from going backwards and forwards from Bexley. Yesterday we played St. Dunstans, and got beaten in both elevens, this was proved by two donkeys first, when (I went as linesman) when we go there we always pass a field with two donkeys in it, and when they are facing us we loose and when they’ve got there backs to us we win; it always comes true.

  By the way, HIGHTON has got a SCHOLARSHIP to Oakham, it’s jolly good because they get a half holiday. It the first scholarship to Oakham from this school!!!! He won’t be leaving till September, thank goodness!

  Love from

  Roald

  P.S. Have you heard from Louis, yet? This is a marvellous contraption of an X-ray, which I sent up for, and paid only 1s in stamps, you look through the little holes at some writing on the other side, then place a coin or something in between, you can still see, I’ll show you at home.

  Roald

  Duckworth Butterflies house photograph, 1928. Roald is in the middle row, first on the left.

  July 8th 1928

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  . . . Last Friday we went down to the station and saw the Duke and Duchess of York who came to Weston to open a Hospital (didn’t you see it in the Paper), we had to wait three quarters of an hour before they came, you see they came by the ordinary 1.15 from Paddington, except that they had a whole 1st class coach for themselves, we got quite a good view but not a long one, they were driving at about ten mile
s an hour.

  As the train was passing Yatton, just outside Weston, it ran over a man and killed him! And as they were driving through the streets of Weston, the iron monger, ‘Dover’ who’s a bit mad, fired 6 shots of a blank cartridge, and the Duke thought he was going to be assassinated, and nearly fainted!!!

  . . . At present I’m reading quite a decent library book, because I’ve finished From the East to the Moon*. You know, it didn’t say anything about finding dwarfs there, perhaps it is a shorter edition.

  Love from

  Roald

  February 17th 1929

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thank you for your letter. Have you had a lot of snow? We have! But, in spite of the cold, our water supply hasn’t frozen, like yours did . . .

  On Friday, it snowed again so that in the end the snow was about six inches deep. Yesterday we had a really topping time . . . we all went to Uphil by Charabanc and we found a topping slope there, something like the one at Bexley only longer, and quite as steep, we went at least 35m.p.h.; you see, Ragg lay on top of me.

  On the side of this was a very steep slope, which I tried three times but each time I came off. We got very wet but that didn’t matter at all because we were in our footer clothes . . .

  By the way you haven’t yet told me what kind my bike is, although you’ve told me all about it.

  Love from

  Roald

  P.S. (i) I’m quite warm enough thanks, I don’t think I want a scarf or a Pullover.

  Roald

  P.S. (ii) Please enclose a bulb for my Nonox torch when you send my watch, as my mine has bust.

  Roald

  October 13th 1929

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thanks awfully for the Roller skates, they are topphole. Were they the largest pair? At full stretch they fit toppingly, but if my feet grow much more they won’t fit. We skate on the yard; we had a fine time last night after tea; You see, the chaps who haven’t got pairs, pull you. At one time I had eight chaps pulling me with a long rope, at a terrific lick, and I sat down in the middle of it; my bottom is all blue now! We also have ‘trains’; you get about ten chaps to pull, and with a long rope, and all the roller-skaters hang on to each other, and go around; but if one chap falls all the ones behind him come on top of him! The yard is getting quite smooth now . . .

  By the way, I had a birthday present from Marshali yesterday. It was a thing called a ‘Yoo Yah’ which runs up and down on a string, but is very hard to work.

  It is very fascinating, but she confessed that it was bought at Woolworths; and she said that it was the craze there. I show you when I get home . . .

  Love from

  Roald

  November 3rd 1929

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Somerset

  Dear Mama

  Thanks awfully for my pen and the chocs. The nib is not functioning properly yet, but I hope that is only because it is new; otherwise it is fine.

  Roller-skating is going toppingly, and the whole school, with the exception of about five is now on wheels!

  I am glad you did’nt get me another pair of gymshoes; you know, the ones I bought in Bexley and you said they smelt like a cats crap. Well, they fit wonderfully on to my roller-skates, (or, rather, the other way around), and on Friday when we box, we are allowed to skate, and no one else is able to, much, because roller-skates wont fit onto other gymshoes. Oh dash, I’ve just dropped my pen onto the letter, and there isn’t time to write it out again. Incidentally, the pen thought it necessary to make a blotch over a certain word [CRAP], but it did not quite succeed in covering it up!!

  P.T.O.

  Last Sunday we had a cinematograph, about the Navy it was jolly good.

  Isn’t Alfhild a lucky dog getting two pounds from Parrain, I must write to him!

  Love from

  Roald

  November 10th 1929

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Dear Mama

  Thanks for your letter; my pen nib is topping now, and is just right. So glad the balloons and fire-works went well, where did you have the bonfire?

  . . . I had a letter from Ashley the other day, and he told me about the fire-balloons, but he didn’t mention the maroon. He must be having a fine time now; he said he sits down and smokes, and watches bugs through his microscope.*

  . . . We also had our fire-works on Wednesday, as it rained on Tuesday. The bonfire was enormous, with a topping Guy on the top, and when it had been covered with petrol it was set alight; you can imagine that there was a blaze. And we each had our fire works, and it was great fun.

  Yesterday we had a lecture on China, it was jolly good, and the person described a Chinese Doctor, and said their prescriptions for flu’ was generally as follows:

  A Rats tail.

  A snake.

  Chickens legs.

  Grass.

  Ashes of paper.

  Tiger bone-tea.

  And the shavings of a Rhinoceros Horn.

  I think that that would beat any of Ashley’s!

  Love from

  Roald

  December 1st 1929

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Somersetshire

  Dear Mama

  Thanks awfully for your letter, and Else’s. I think you are quite right about the presents for the masters. Only don’t get books which they have read, for instance, they have all read ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. I expect one of the animal books will do for Capt. Lancaster, because he is especially interested in animals.* Then you will get Mr. and Mrs. Francis something in the way of a flower vase or something like that; but please don’t forget to address it to me.

  Just now, I asked Mr. Francis what they meant by having to wear ‘tail-coats’, so he took me up and dressed me in his, they are horrid things, coming right down at the back.*

  Yesterday we played Walton Lodge at Clifton, but as their field was flooded, we played in another big field, where there was another navvy game in progress; it was very amusing; they argued with the referee, saying things such as this: ‘He’s no more off side than I am’

  ‘Garn, stop yer gob, ref, or I’ll come along and clump you over the ear’ . . .

  You must excuse my writing going rather bad at the end, but as Mr. Francis put that coat on me! I hadn’t much time left. The coat looked awfully funny.

  Love from

  Roald

  [probably December 14th]

  St Peter’s

  Weston-super-Mare

  Somersetshire

  Dear Mama

  I am writing to tell you that this afternoon I received quite safe and sound the vase in an enormous box. There is no chip or anything, and it is topping, and at the moment, not knowing where to put it, I have left it in the charge of Miss Farmer, the Matron, for that is where some other chaps have left their leaving presents. And I think it will be quite safe there . . .

  I suppose you know I am coming home on FRIDAY 20th by the 8.20 train (in the morning) I believe it arrives at about 11.30, but you better look it up. As I said in my last epistle, I can easily come home alone, if you don’t want to come up. Let me know.

  Please excuse this bad writing, but I am writing it in Prep, under rather a bad conditions, also, and an excuse is that someone is singing downstairs and the noise closely resembles that of a fly’s kneecap, rattled about in a billious buttercup, both having kidney trouble and lumbago!

  Love from

  Roald

  CHAPTER 2

  —

  “Graggers on your eggs”

  1930–1934

  Roald arrived at
Repton in January 1930. Originally a sixteenth-century foundation, the school had been revitalised by Victorian energy in the nineteenth century and was now an archetypal British public school, located in a strip of rolling English countryside not far from Derby. Roald was placed in the Priory—one of nine boarding houses that were scattered around the town. Each was a community of its own: around fifty boys, roughly twelve from each academic year. It was where Roald ate, slept, and studied; where he made friends and enemies; and where, dressed in the regulation school uniform of pinstripe trousers, starched butterfly collars, and long black tailcoats, he would write home once a week to his mother about his adventures and experiences.

  Charles Pringle was a couple of years junior to Roald in the Priory and, even at the age of eighty-eight, could still vividly recall its complex routines. Each new boy, he remembered, was assigned a study—occupied by around five others and run by a senior boy, a “studyholder”—as well as a bedroom dormitory or “bedder.” The studies were small. “Each person had a little desk, in which they kept their books . . . Prep [preparation for the next day’s classes] was done communally for the first two years, then in the study.” Bedders were also shared by between five and seven boys of all ages and there were similarly strict rules of seniority. “Each boy moved bedder every term, moving up the room as you got more senior. There were communal washing facilities, and communal loos, with no doors on the loos. These were out in the open by the yard near the fives courts opposite the boot room.”26

  The school practised the custom of “fagging,” in which younger boys were treated by older boys almost as if they were their personal servants. Tim Fisher, another ex-student and the son of Dahl’s first headmaster, Geoffrey Fisher, explained the system to me. “The new boy was the ‘bim fag,’ the junior fag, then there was the ‘tip fag,’ the senior fag who would show him the ropes and [help him] discover how the place worked.” The fag’s tasks included cleaning the study, supplying it with coal for the fire, keeping the fire lit, and polishing the studyholder’s shoes, buttons, badges, and buckles.27 The studyholder might also have been a school prefect or “boazer” and these—at least according to Roald—were the most dangerous and feared characters in the school. If they did not exactly have “the power of life and death” over younger boys, they certainly had the capacity to inflict mental pain on them, as well as physically punishing them.28