Roald Dahl’s children’s books were influenced by experiences of his early life, including the death of his sister and father when Dahl was three years old and his dismal boarding school education. Notably, many of Dahl’s books, such as James and the Giant Peach (1961) and Matilda (1988), feature orphaned children or villainous teachers and headmasters.
His classic novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) may have been inspired by Dahl’s childhood experience as a chocolate bar tester for Cadbury. While he was a student at Repton, a renowned school in Derbyshire, England, Cadbury opened a facility nearby and recruited Dahl and his classmates to test and rate chocolate samples.