Somehow I missed this 1982 children’s book and ALL the adaptations.

In fact, it’s my 1st Roald Dahl book.

Surprising, since he ranks amongst the world’s best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 300 million.

The BFG (short for The Big Friendly Giant) … was ranked number 88 among all-time best children’s novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a US monthly.

Sophie, an eight-year-old girl in an orphanage, befriends a mysterious Giant, the BFG.

The 24-foot-tall giant carries her away to the land of the Giants, a place not on any map.

The BFG is a vegetarian. But his 9 neighbours are much bigger and stronger giants, who all happily eat humans every night.

Sophie persuades the BFG to approach the Queen of England for help with the other giants. They plot to imprison the hungry man-eating giants in a deep pit.

I was most entertained by Dahl’s inventive, playful use of language. He invented over 500 new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.

Horror stories for kids? Yep.

His obituary in The Times was titled “Death silences Pied Piper of the macabre“.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.