Roald Dahl, a British author famous for his darkly funny, macabre, and often comically violent children’s books, published The Twits in 1980. Like many of his novels, it features grotesquely evil adult characters who prey on weaker children and eventually suffer a brutal, outsized comeuppance for their horrible behavior. Asked why he wrote this book, Dahl said that it was meant as an indictment of beards, which he thought were unhygienic.

The Smallest Fox drinks the cider) the Smallest Fox had sneaked a jar off the shelf and had taken a gulp As part of a plan to make Mrs. Twit feel that she is shrinking, he slowly extended her chair and cane until she was convinced that she was getting shorter. Earthworm, with his lovely smooth skin, was employed by a company that made face-cream commercials on televisionThe rest of the book comprises two unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other in not particularly humorous ways, followed by the addition of monkeys and a magical bird who then outwit them in a rather unconvincing manner. Gender-neutral terms have been added in places – where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Oompa Loompas were “small men”, they are now “small people”. The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach have become Cloud-People. Mrs. Twit is the hideously ugly, menacing wife of Mr. Twit. She is said to have quite a nice face once, but her ugly thoughts began to show on her face until she was so ugly, you couldn't bear to look at her. nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump I read a lot of Roald Dahl books as a child, and have read quite a few more to my own children, most recently to my disabled youngest daughter. The Twits was one of those.

There’s no way a Chief of Police is going to believe that you are the Head of the Norwegian Police.” “I am very good at persuading people,” she said. “Of course they believed me.” In The Twits, more than a dozen changes were made, including changing "ladies and gentlemen" to "folks" and removing words like batty, nutty, screwy, ugly, and hag. [13] [14] Original text For one such child as vile as he/Bad things happen, wait and see!/We cannot say we are surprised,/Augustus Gloop had been advised./ But then he took another sip/And now he’s going on a trip. went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling a b Cumming, Ed; Buchanan, Abigail; Holl-Allen, Genevieve; Smith, Benedict (24 February 2023). "The Writing of Roald Dahl". The Telegraph . Retrieved 20 March 2023.

A monkey named Muggle-Wump also appears in The Enormous Crocodile. A monkey bearing resemblance to Quentin Blake's illustration of the same character also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Quentin was the inaugural Children's Laureate (1999-2001), an experience he recorded in his book Laureate's Progress. During his time in the role, he celebrated children's books and children's book illustration with a range of projects and exhibitions, and conceived the idea for the House of Illustration, the world's first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms. were caves everywhere running into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the Cloud-Men’s wives were crouching over little stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husband’s suppers few women screamed. Others knelt down on the side-walks and began praying aloud. Strong men turned to one another and said things like, I guess this is it, Joe, and Good-bye, everybody, good-bye