Roald Dahl

Toby Young, in his regular column in The Spectator, last week wrote about how he was looking forward to seeing the new film "Fantastic Mr Fox" because the story "is a favourite in our household mainly because it is so gloriously 'off message'..... Instead of the usual homilies about inclusion and tolerance (in other children's books), it is a celebration of criminality". He was greatly disappointed because Wes Anderson, who directed and helped write the script, had "shoehorned" a politically correct message into the story. There's no political correctness in Roald Dahl stories.
About 20 or so years ago I picked up a book in the library: modern children's literature. I had not heard of most of the writers and didn't know anyone who had. I looked for Roald Dahl, he being one of the most popular of children's writers at the time.... he wasn't mentioned. Pretty obviously he wasn't considered good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with this elite bunch.
There was a time when Enid Blyton was one of the most popular of children's writers; I doubt very much if she would have secured a place in a not so modern version of such a book. She had the reputation of not being wanted on the shelves by librarians. They'll stick yards of Mills and Boon there but not Enid Blyton (incidentally, I heard a librarian say to an audience once that they bought Mills and Boon books "by the yard").
But while Enid Blyton is (still) popular with kids she is simply unreadable by adults surely whereas Beatrix Potter can be enjoyed when you've matured into a bitter old bugger who can't stand kids.
Roald Dahl though is a writer of quite great stature: his short stories are wonderful - I particularly like "The Man from the South".
"There are some national treasures that simply shouldn't be entrusted to the Americans and the author os 'Fantastic Mr Fox' is one of them". So says Toby Young and I think I agree with him.