Which British children's author created Matilda Wormwood?

Roald Dahl created Matilda Wormwood, the brilliant child at the centre of his 1988 novel Matilda.

Matilda is unusually gifted: she teaches herself to read as a toddler, exhausts the children’s books in her local library, and moves on to major works such as Animal Farm and The Grapes of Wrath. Her parents, however, dismiss her intelligence, while her teacher Miss Honey recognises it. At school, Matilda also faces the cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

The story combines domestic comedy, fantasy and a celebration of reading. Matilda eventually develops telekinetic powers, which she uses to challenge injustice and help Miss Honey. Dahl’s original draft portrayed Matilda as a much darker, more troublesome child, but revisions transformed her into a book-loving heroine.

Readers sometimes confuse the 1996 film or the later stage and film musicals with the original work. All are adaptations of Dahl’s novel, and the 2022 musical film is not a separate literary creation.