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

The Way up to Heaven

by Roald Dahl

Read the Book Online: The Way up to Heaven

Listen to the book: The Way up to Heaven

This week in the Tales from the Library Book Club we are reading another story from Roald Dahl 'The Way up to Heaven'. It was first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1954 and was later republished in 1960 in the collection of short stories 'Kiss Kiss'. This story also featured in 'Tales from the Unexpected'.

The story is being posted rather late this week so it felt apropriote that the story in question should be all about an obsession with being late! 

Mr and Mrs Foster are a mature, wealthy married couple living in New York. Mrs Foster has recently begun to suspect her husband of purposely exacerbating her pathological fear of missing a train or plane. She is continuously badgered by her husband, Eugene, who makes a habit of waiting to leave the house until after the proverbial last second has already passed. But perhaps this one time she may be pushed too far...

Watch the televised version: Tales Of The Unexpected 'The Way Up to Heaven'

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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