British Children's Author Roald Dahl Celebrated with New Stamps

A set of Royal Mail stamps celebrating the work of children's author, Roald Dahl, is being released today.

Dahl, who died in 1990, was published in almost 50 languages, and his books have sold over 50 million copies in the UK alone according to Britain's Guardian.  

The Daily Mail reports Dahl, who was a fighter Ace in World War II, also wrote the screenplays for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond movie You Only Live Twice. He and American actress Patricia Neal were married for 30 years and had five children.

Dahl's daughter, Ophelia Dahl, is quoted as saying her father would have been "thrilled" about the stamps. "My dad wrote thousands of letters home throughout his life and never dreamed that one day one of his own characters would grace a stamp," she said.

Reporter Alison Flood mentions that Quentin Blake's illustrations of The Twits, Matilda and Fantastic Mr. Fox appear on the new stamps which are shown above.

According to a Wikipedia entry,  Blake has participated in the writing and/or illustrating of 323 books (of which he wrote 35 himself, and 18 were by Dahl).

For more on Quentin Blake, click here.

For more on Roald Dahl, click here.