Roald Dahl Day: Seven fantastic facts about the author

Roald Dahl Day is marked on 13 September - his birthday - to remember the author who wrote more than 20 children's books, including The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Witches.

Many of the famous books have been turned into films and even musicals, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda.

Dahl died on 23 November 1990. This year would have been his 109th birthday, so we thought we would share some fantastic facts about his life.

Let us know in the comments below your favourite Roald Dahl books or characters, and what you think makes his stories so good!

He invented more than 500 new words and character names

Roald Dahl was incredibly creative and came up with more than 500 new words and character names.

Such as the Oompa-Loompas and scrumdiddlyumptious from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and snozzcumbers and frobscottle from the BFG.

He called his language Gobblefunk, and loved to play around with words and invent new ones or meanings.

Oxford University Press even created a special Roald Dahl Dictionary, featuring almost 8,000 real and imaginary words which he loved to use.

He wrote most of his books in his garden shed

This small little hut in Buckinghamshire is where Roald Dahl wrote many of his famous stories, including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl spent around four hours every day writing stories from his garden shed.

He is said to have had a cosy old armchair and a specially designed writing board which would sit on his lap.

He would also only write his stories using a pencil and yellow paper.

One of his most famous books almost had a different name

James and the Giant Peach was almost called James and the Giant Cherry.

It was changed from a cherry to a peach because Dahl said a peach was "prettier, bigger and squishier than a cherry".

His original idea would have been for the giant cherry to be slowly pushed along a stream by water boatmen.

However, this was later changed to a giant peach which falls from the white cliffs of Dover.

His books were inspired by the people and things around him

Many of the characters and stories created by Roald Dahl were inspired by the people and places around him.

For example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was inspired by his childhood.

The chocolate maker Cadbury's used to taste-test their chocolate bars at Roald's school, and he used to dream that he would invent a new chocolate bar and win praise from Mr Cadbury.

The foxes' home in Fantastic Mr Fox was inspired by a huge tree which grew outside Roald Dahl's home in the village of Great Missenden, in England.

Roald even named one of the main characters in the BFG after his first grandchild - Sophie.

Roald Dahl fought in WW2 and was a spy

There's even a Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the north-west of London, which opened in 2018

Before he became an author, Roald Dahl was a pilot for the Royal Air Force.

During World War Two, he flew a Hawker Hurricane plane.

Roald also became a spy for MI6 when he was recruited by the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson. As part his work as a spy, Dahl sent secret facts and information.

James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was released in 1968

His work as a spy also saw him work with James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Roald Dahl wrote the film storyline for the fifth James Bond movie You Only Live Twice, and he also adapted Ian Fleming's children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the big screen.

His first ever children's book was The Gremlins

In 1943, Roald wrote his first official story aimed at children.

It was called The Gremlins and was inspired by his time as a pilot.

The story was about a bunch of naughty little creatures called Gremlins, who would cause all sorts of mechanical problems on aeroplanes.

It later become the inspiration behind the hugely popular film Gremlins, which was produced by famous Director Steven Spielberg in 1984.