Roald Dahl began his career as a short-story writer after suffering through the horrors of severe canings and other punishments in oppressive British schools during the 1920s and 1930s and after enduring the horrors of military service as a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot in World War II. In the latter context he was severely injured in an airplane crash, and extensive surgery and hospitalization were required to save his life. The importance of Dahl's school experiences is evident in his choosing to write children's stories late in his literary career, as well as in his late autobiographical work Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984). In Roald Dahl (1992) Mark West comments that Dahl's mind-set in all his works is that of "an outsider--one who distrusts not only society's authority figures but also the socializing process in general."

The centrality of Dahl's RAF service to his writing can be seen in...