35 years ago, on 14th October 1982, Roald Dahl’s children’s book, The BFG, was published.
In the same year, the book won the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award, and has sold over 37 million copies in the UK alone.
Since then, it has been adapted for the small screen as an animated series, and for the big screen in last year’s Spielberg directed live-action film, and is beloved by children all over the world.
The story of young orphan Sophie and the dream-collecting Big Friendly Giant started as a scribbled note in one of Dahl’s ‘Idea Books’. The BFG went on to make his first appearance in 1975’s Danny the Champion of the World, as the subject of a bedtime story said to last more than fifty nights.
Even before this, Dahl was telling his children of the dream catching giant, climbing a ladder outside to their bedroom window and pretending the be the giant himself, blowing in good dreams. He later told the story to his grandchildren, naming the hero after his first child, Sophie.
The enduring appeal of The BFG, like all of Dahl’s children’s books, lies in the child hero. Sophie is kind and brave, and wishes to bring justice to her giant friend. Another affectionate detail is the language of the BFG, painstakingly created by Dahl, named ‘gobblefunk’, which names humans as ‘human beans’.
The fantasy of catching dreams with a trumpet (or crumpet, in gobblefunk) and travelling to Dream Country will forever appeal as the perfect bedtime story, offering the comfort to children all over the world that in a cave somewhere, bad dreams are being destroyed by a sweet, gentle giant that eats only snozzcumbers.