Roald Dahl Quote
Then there was a hard brown lozenge called the Tonsil Tickler. The Tonsil Tickler tasted and smelled very strongly of chloroform. We had not the slightest doubt that these things were saturated in the dreaded anaesthetic which, as Thwaites had many times pointed out to us, could put you to sleep for hours at a stretch. If my father has to saw off somebody's leg, he said, he pours chloroform on to a pad and the person sniffs it and goes to sleep and my father saws his leg off without him even feeling it. But why do they put it into sweets and sell them to us? we asked him. You might think a question like this would have baffled Thwaites. But Thwaites was never baffled. My father says Tonsil Ticklers were invented for dangerous prisoners in jail, he said. They give them one with each meal and the chloroform makes them sleepy and stops them rioting. Yes, we said, but why sell them to children? It's a plot, Thwaites said. A grown-up plot to keep us quiet.
Then there was a hard brown lozenge called the Tonsil Tickler. The Tonsil Tickler tasted and smelled very strongly of chloroform. We had not the slightest doubt that these things were saturated in the dreaded anaesthetic which, as Thwaites had many times pointed out to us, could put you to sleep for hours at a stretch. If my father has to saw off somebody's leg, he said, he pours chloroform on to a pad and the person sniffs it and goes to sleep and my father saws his leg off without him even feeling it. But why do they put it into sweets and sell them to us? we asked him. You might think a question like this would have baffled Thwaites. But Thwaites was never baffled. My father says Tonsil Ticklers were invented for dangerous prisoners in jail, he said. They give them one with each meal and the chloroform makes them sleepy and stops them rioting. Yes, we said, but why sell them to children? It's a plot, Thwaites said. A grown-up plot to keep us quiet.
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About Roald Dahl
Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity.
Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, the Champion of the World. His works for older audiences include the short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.