![\"Graham](\"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/article-images\/Graham_Laurie.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Date: <\/strong>10 September 2016<\/p>\n Time: <\/strong>2pm<\/p>\n Cost: <\/strong>\u00a35 per person (recommended for families with children aged 10 and over)<\/p>\n One of Britain\u2019s most iconic writers, Roald Dahl will be the focus of a talk taking place at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford next month.\u00a0 Celebrating the 100th<\/sup> birthday of Roald Dahl, the talk entitled \u2018Roald Dahl\u2019s War\u2019 will delve into his life before he became an iconic writer, including his career in the RAF.\u00a0 Presented by historian Graham Laurie, the talk will take place at 2pm on Saturday 10 September 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n During this talk, Graham will examine Roald Dahl\u2019s career from the moment he left school through to his employment with the oil company Shell, his first overseas post in Africa and his life in the Royal Air Force.\u00a0 Dahl eventually went on to become a giant in the world of children\u2019s books, making characters like \u2018The BFG<\/em>\u2019, \u2018Matilda<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/em>\u2019 household names for millions of children.\u00a0<\/p>\n So famous were his popular novels, Dahl\u2019s Royal Air Force career is often one that\u2019s over looked.\u00a0 Following the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, at the age of 23 Dahl enlisted in the RAF and quickly began his training in Tiger Moths.\u00a0 Once qualified, he travelled to Iraq for advanced training on Hawker Harts and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve and posted to 80 Squadron based in North Africa.<\/p>\n In 1940 on a flight to deliver new aircraft to his Squadron on the coast, Dahl came into difficulties and was forced to make a landing during which the aircraft overturned.\u00a0 As a result he suffered severe head and back injuries requiring almost six months recovery in a British military hospital in Alexandria, Egypt.\u00a0 The following year he re-joined 80 Squadron near Athens, Greece, flying a Hurricane Mk 1 and went on to take part in \u2018The Battle of Athens\u2019.\u00a0 After suffering debilitating headaches as a result of his crash in Libya and no longer able to fly, Dahl returned home to Britain and was discharged from the RAF.\u00a0 The insight into Dahl\u2019s military career and life before his famous books will be presented by guest speaker Graham Laurie. Now a historian and an ambassador of the RAF Benevolent Fund, Graham was a pilot in the RAF for 36 years and during the latter half of his career he flew members of the Royal Family and senior government ministers.\u00a0<\/p>\n RAF Museum Cosford Events Manager Abi Betteridge said:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking forward to celebrating 100 years of Roald Dahl here at the RAF Museum Cosford and honoured to be able to share the stories of his time serving in the RAF with our visitors.\u00a0 He was such a significant writer to children and adults alike and we look forward to our guest speaker, Graham Laurie telling us more about a side to the author many people know little about.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n Admission to \u2018Roald Dahl\u2019s War\u2019 lecture is \u00a35 per person and is recommended for families with children aged 10 and over.\u00a0 For further information or to book your place visit: www.rafmuseum.org\/cosford<\/a>.\u00a0 The museum is open daily from 10am and entry to the museum is FREE of charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Date: 10 September 2016 Time: 2pm Cost: \u00a35 per person (recommended for families with children aged 10 and over) One of Britain\u2019s most iconic writers, Roald Dahl will be the focus of a talk taking place at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford next month.\u00a0 Celebrating the 100th birthday of Roald Dahl, the talk entitled … Continue reading Roald Dahl and his RAF journey to literacy stardom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[263,50,10,195],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-museum-news","tag-263","tag-august","tag-news","tag-raf-museum-cosford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1042,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis illustrated talk contains many of Dahl\u2019s own photographs and is given by kind permission of The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.\u00a0 The talk will take place at 2pm on Saturday 10 September, just three days before what would have been Roald Dahl\u2019s 100th<\/sup> birthday.\u00a0 Places are limited so anyone interested in attending is advised to book their place now via the museum\u2019s website www.rafmuseum.org\/cosford<\/a>.\u00a0 Spaces on the day will be subject to availability.<\/p>\n