But the man behind the mesmerizing stories has remained largely an enigma. A single-minded adventurer and an eternal child who gave us the iconic Willy Wonka and Matilda Wormwood, Dahl was better known during his lifetime for his blunt opinions on taboo subjects—he was called an anti-Semite, a racist and a misogynist—than for his creative genius. His wild imagination, dark humor and linguistic elegance were less than fully appreciated by critics and readers alike until after his death.Granted unprecedented access to the Dahl estate's extraordinary archives—personal correspondence, journals and interviews with family members and famous friends—Donald Sturrock draws on a wealth of previously unpublished materials that informed Dahl's writing and his life. It was a life filled with incident, drama and adventure: from his harrowing experiences as an RAF fighter pilot and his work in wartime intelligence, to his many romances and turbulent marriage to the actress Patricia Neal, to the mental anguish caused by the death of his young daughter Olivia. Tracing a brilliant yet tempestuous ascent toward notoriety, Sturrock sheds new light on Dahl's need for controversy, his abrasive manner and his fascination for the gruesome and the macabre.A remarkable biography of one of the world's most exceptional writers, Storyteller is an intimate portrait of an intensely private man hindered by physical pain and haunted by family tragedy, and a timely reexamination of Dahl's long and complex literary career.

    But strange packages left by Anna, an unwanted Samaritan turned unlikely friend, cause him to desire the unattainable love. Battling the nobleman determined to lock him away, Erik must control his demons and tame a heart unexpectedly beating for two opposite women: Christine, who he longs to love, and Anna the woman who saw beyond his bitter soul to the man beneath the mask. In the midst of a brutal manhunt, can he be loved for himself or is he condemned to be The Phantom of the Opera? Murderer, Maestro, Magician, Mastermind.

    But the craggy, homely old Dean, lived locked in by shyness... when an obscure watchmaker, the timid, fearful little Isaac Peabody, a genius of a clockmaker, strikes up an unlikely friendship with the Dean. It leads to an unusual spiritual awakening in both men, and this unexpected friendship of these two men; also leads the Dean's remarkable awakening to the healing force of unselfish love; and the miracles wrought as he reached out to other human hearts to console them. It eventually reaches out to the entire community. And in the background there are Polly and her beloved Job, Bella and old Mrs Montague.