Guaranteed to challenge, delight and amuse Dahl enthusiasts everywhere. Here are over 300 questions and answers based on six of Dahl’s best-loved titles: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, George’s “Marvellous Medicine”, “Fantastic Mr Fox”, “Esio Trot”, “The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me” and “Matilda”. With Quentin Blake’s illustrations throughout.
To identify: Authorial copyright statement with the date of publication followed underneath by ‘Published by British Railways Board’ published in softcover and not priced
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Description
This is a small publication of 24 pages plus covers which would be described as “wraps” or cardboard similar to paperback covers. In this case, the whole thing is stapled together, not glued.
The copyright is on the inside cover. It states:
British Railways Board asked Roald Dahl
to write the text of this book,
and Quentin Blake to illustrate it,
to help young people enjoy
using the railways safely.British Railways Board gratefully acknowledges
their willing co–operation
Copyright Felicity Dahl 1991 and the
Executors of the Estate of Roald Dahl for so long
as the period of executorship subsists under the said Estate.
Published by British Railways Board
Produced by Michael Benn and Associates
(0937) 844515
Designed by Clinton Banbury
Printed by Hunterprint Group Plc.
As Dahl relates in the introduction, he started the research for this book by making a call to the celebrated ghost-story anthologist/writer, Lady Cynthia Asquith. He then went to the British Museum Library, and read a total of 749 tales before selecting 14 for this anthology. His criterion: “Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story. It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” Included here are not only acknowledged classics by Robert Aickman, Edith Wharton, J. S. Le Fanu, and F. Marion Crawford, but also tales by lesser–known writers such as L. P. Hartley, Rosemary Timperley, Jonas Lie, Mary Treadgold, and A. M. Burrage. The Washington Post writes, “Dahl’s taste, it will surprise no one, is impeccable.”
Reviews
“Some shudders, and memorable exotic tales” by Ralph Elliott from February 18, 1984 issue of The Canberra Times – Canberra, Australia (read online)
Covers
Jonathan Cape, 1983
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984
Penguin, 1985
Penguin, 2012
Catalan Covers – Històries de fantasmes
Estrella Polar, 2017
Dutch Covers – Het griezelkabinet van Roald Dahl
Meulenhoff Amsterdam, 1984
French Covers – Histoires de fantômes
Livre de poche, 1985
Hachette, 1988
Hachette jeunesse, 2008
German Covers – Roald Dahl’s Buch der Schauergeschichten
Rowohlt, 1985
Rowohlt, 1985
Rowohlt, 1990
Italian Covers – Il libro delle storie di fantasmi
