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Roald Dahl was inspired by a chocolate factory….


See Writer’s Almanac:

It’s the birthday

 

 

 

of Roald Dahl, (books by this author) born in Llandaff, South Wales (1916). He was sent off to private boarding schools as a kid, which he hated except for the chocolates, Cadbury chocolates. The Cadbury chocolate company had chosen his school as a focus group for new candies they were developing. Every so often, a plain gray cardboard box was issued to each child, filled with 11 chocolate bars. It was the children’s task to rate the candy, and Dahl took his job very seriously. About one of the sample candy bars, he wrote, “Too subtle for the common palate.” He later said that the experience got him thinking about candy as something manufactured in a factory, and he spent a lot of time imagining what a candy factory might be like. Today, he’s best known for his children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

http://www.roalddahl.com/

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Towns and Cities We Love…

Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco, September 2008 

My husband and I went on an anniversary trip to San Francisco. One of the prettiest places was Ghirardelli Square, and it was chocolate land! It smelled good, and there was a really beautiful mermaid sculpture.

I had one of the best chocolate shakes I’ve ever had — it was smooth, creamy, and truly chocolaty. I wonder if Roald Dahl got inspired to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory based on a real candy maker.

 

http://www.ghirardellisq.com/ghirardellisq/index.htm