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Join us on Thursday at 3PM to chat about the book!

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

by Roald Dahl

Read the Book as a PDF: Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

Listen to the story as an Audiobook: Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

This week we will be reading 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life' by Roald Dahl. This short story comes from the book of the same name 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life', a 1989 short story collection by Roald Dahl. The book is a collection of seven of Dahl's stories published in various magazines and collections in the 1940s and 1950s. Containing much black humour, the book contains sickening and grotesque stories about ratcatching, maggot breeding, poaching, and the mysteries and eccentricities of rural life.

The first story 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life' talks about the trouble of taking a cow to be mated with a prime bull. Mr Rummins is an expert at helping the mating process, in which he can guarantee the gender of the offspring.

About the Author

Roald Dahl is the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, and a treasury of original, evergreen, and beloved children’s books. He remains for many the world’s No. 1 storyteller.

Born in Llandaff, Wales, on 13th September 1916 to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg, Dahl was named after Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian who had been the first man to reach the South Pole just four years earlier. A heroic start in life. But his early years were blighted by the tragic deaths of his older sister, Astri, and his father.

Wanting the best for her only son, his mother sent him to boarding school - first to St Peter's, Weston-super-Mare; then, in 1929, to Repton - where many bizarre and memorable events would later be recounted in Boy. Pupils at Repton were invited to trial chocolate bars, a memory that stayed with Dahl throughout his life, inspiring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Despite his death in 1990 Dahl’s own life story continues to play out through his fiction. In many of his stories the reader experiences Dahl’s metamorphosis into his own characters – with similarities seen between Dahl and several of his heroic creations in his children’s books.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

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