Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. After school in England he went to work for Shell Oil Company in Africa. He began to write after "a monumental bash on the head", sustained as an RAF pilot during the Second World War. Roald Dahl is one of the most successful and well-known of all children's writers. His books, which are read by children the world over, include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and The Witches, Winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award. He died in 1990 at the age of seventy-four. Quentin Blake, born in the suburbs of London in 1932, began his career as a cartoonist for magazines, most notably The Spectator and Punch. He moved into children's book illustration where his inimitable style has won him enormous acclaim. Alongside this he has pursued a teaching career and was head of the illustration department at the Royal College of Art, and is now a visiting Professor. Quentin Blake was awarded the OBE in 1988 and he became the first ever children's laureate in 1999.