Matilda

by Roald Dahl

Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones.

“And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.

“Do you think that all children’s books ought to have funny bits in them?” Miss Honey asked. “I do,” Matilda said. “Children are not so serious as grown-ups and they love to laugh.”

“Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY. That spells difficulty.” “How perfectly ridiculous!” snorted the Trunchbull. “Why are all these women married?

A strange feeling of serenity and confidence was sweeping over her and all of a sudden she found that she was frightened by nobody in the world. With the power of her eyes alone she had compelled a glass of water to tip and spill its contents over the horrible Headmistress, and anybody who could do that could do anything.

What she needed was just one person, one wise and sympathetic grown-up who could help her to understand the meaning of this extraordinary happening.

table. But I see no point in teaching it to them backwards. There is little point in teaching anything backwards. The whole object of life, Headmistress, is to go forwards.