Tremendous. Mr Sturrock's fondness for Roald comes through, but in a clear seeing way...no cover-ups, we see all sorts of disaggreeable features to Dahl's life, and yet it all adds up to a man who left an interesting, unique legacy. ( )

It took Sturrock 568 pages to claim that Dahl was complicated when it sounds like he was just an ass. ( )

This is a great and detailed look at a fascinating author. My only quibble is that it is SO detailed. As in, every detail. ALL of them. Together. Which can be useful, but is also a bit of a slog to get though at times. It took me ages to finish, even though it was an interesting story, and I'm pretty sure that is solely because there were days where I was reading only about a family member's health issues. Which is relevant to the overarching story, but not always riveting in the moment. ( )

What I love about biographies is the tiny glimpse you get of the author as a person and not necessarily a writer (for the most part I only read the biographies of writers, I don't know why). For that reason I prefer to read them after the subject has already died :-) Dahl was an intriguing character-bigger than life at times, and incredibly, horrifically petty at others. I guess these biographies help remind me to not place my writer idols on a pedestal-they are only human and have the same foibles as any of us. I don't think I actually have anything of real value to say about this book, just that the author did a pretty good job of portraying Dahl as a man, and not a superhuman. ( )

I'm over biographies of "great" men. Inspiring right up to the part where they start cheating on their wives. ( )