# My Favorite Roald Dahl story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2002, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-roald-dahl-story/102639 "2002-04-09T08:09:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-roald-dahl-story/102639/41 "2002-04-12T02:59:12Z")
I always liked “Neck,” with the moment at the end where everyone realizes what’s about to happen. That butler kicks ass. I also liked the one about the vicar who is being pursued by all the young single women, and is driven insane. I especially like the part at the end where he says he has been trying to write a sentence that somehow works out as a circle. Makes no sense. Although I get a bit tired of his obsession with upper-class old people. Oo! What about the one with the nouveau-riche millionaire whose servants are stealing his wine? That was a nice one too. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-roald-dahl-story/102639/42 "2002-04-12T07:14:42Z")
You know what? a. The OP described a short story which is correctly titled “The Visitor.” b. “My Uncle Oswald” is, in fact, about a sperm bank. It was Dahl’s first full-length novel, published in 1980. This Uncle Oswald is the main character in the short story I was describing. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394510119/qid=1018595133/sr=1-79/ref=sr\_1\_79/104-4198675-5232754](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394510119/qid=1018595133/sr=1-79/ref=sr_1_79/104-4198675-5232754) Dahl recycled characters and plot elements all the time - “Danny Champion of the World” was the children’s version of - oh, hell, I can’t find it, thought it was “Claud’s Dog” but it isn’t. Someone here will know, certainly I’m not to be trusted on such matters. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-roald-dahl-story/102639/43 "2002-04-12T13:01:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DocCathode \* > \*\*Semi-Hijack-Shel Silverstein wrote such children’s classics as The Light In The Attic, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and The Giving Tree. He was over 6 feet tall. He shaved his head and grew a large beard. He often wore leather boots, leather pants and a leather jacket. The contrast between those two sides of his personality reminds me a lot of Dahl. \*\* He also wrote music, most of which was performed by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show – _Sylvia’s Mother, On the Cover of the Rolling Stone, Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie_, etc. One song they didn’t record was [Stacy Brown Got Two](http://www.banned-width.com/shel/works/stacy.html) He was much like Dahl in having a dark, adult side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-roald-dahl-story/102639.md?page=2)