Roald Dahl began to write in 1942 in Washington as assistant Air Attaché, This was after being involved in world war two he enlisted for the RAF at Nairobi, he was then severely wounded after joining a fighter squadron in Libya, but later he was a fighter pilot in Greece and Syria as the war ended he was a Wing commander. When he began to write he only wrote short stories all of his books have been translated all over the world and have become best sellers all over the world. Some of his more well known books are ‘James and the giant peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory,Mr fox and the twits’ He was also winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award with two fantastic books which will remain classics for the next generation of children, Matilda and the BFG. Unfortunately with loving memories Roald Dahl died in November 1990, The Times described him as ‘one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation’ Also in 2000 Roald Dahl was voted the nations favourite Author in the World Book Day Poll.
In the Speckled Band the murder is related by flashbacks at the beginning of the story which was told by Helen. Dr Roylett had ‘learned of the engagement when my sister returned, and offered no objections to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event occurred which has deprived me of my only companion.’ This tells the reader the murder had something to do with the wedding. After Helen had left, Dr Roylott entered and warned Sherlock Holmes to leave him and his family alone which raises suspicion already Sherlock then arranges to go to stoke Moran to investigate the scene of which the murder had taken place. He had found some very bizarre adjustments made to Julia’s room which Helen was now occupying which was also the place of the murder. These adjustments we will later on find out why they were made.
In Lamb to the slaughter the story we have to read along to find out what happens and where it happens plus also how it happens unlike the speckled band where it has already happened and they know where when also some speculation as to whom it may have been. In this story we do not know where when it will happen. But as we read along it involves a gentle kind devoted house wife named Mary Maloney and it starts of as her sitting in the front room waiting for her husband to come home as usual and then he told her some tragic news which the story does not actually state what the news was but when you read it you get the idea that he was about to leave her so she pretends not to hear it and goes into an automatic drive where she doesn’t know what she is doing and goes down to the cellar to cook dinner. She took a frozen leg of lamb and walked towards her husband and smashed it into the back of his head killing him instantly. She than awakes from her sleep like state and realises what she has done feeling very nausea. She than uses her polite honest friendly natured personality to lie to the shop keeper and the police who later came to check the body and Mary Maloney had gotten away with it. And perhaps with this new evil streak she may not stop with just her husband.
The setting at Stoke Moran is very sinister place as the book describes it ‘The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high central portion, and curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out at each side. In one of these wings the windows were broken, and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly caved in, a picture of ruin’ This seems like the perfect place for a murder, dark horrible lonely and crumbling to bits. The atmosphere this place creates is not one which you would like it will send a shiver down your spine just reading it. The atmosphere it would create would be gloomy and unfriendly, also unwelcoming.
The setting of Lamb to the slaughter is more normal and less exotic then that of Stoke Moran, and would be a less more likely place to be murdered. With a warm friendly gleam to the living room in which the murder had taken place, the book describes the room as ‘Warm and clean’ not a very murderous scene description, but one of a friendly homey sitting room, just a normal sitting room just like any other. The atmosphere created here is cheerful and loving, there is hardly any tension built up around the way the scene has been described.
