Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach was first published in 1961.
The book follows James Henry Trotter, an orphan who escapes a miserable life by entering a magically enlarged peach. Inside, he meets giant versions of familiar creatures, including a spider, a centipede and a grasshopper. The story combines fantasy, adventure and Dahl’s characteristic dark humour.
Dahl originally developed the story from an idea about a peach growing unusually large. The setting helped distinguish it from his earlier children’s work, The Gremlins, and it became one of his most enduring books. Illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert accompanied the original American edition.
Readers sometimes confuse the publication date with later film adaptations. The live-action and stop-motion film James and the Giant Peach was released in 1996, more than three decades after the novel appeared.