Love from Boy

''Dear Mama,
I am having a lovely time here. We play football every day here. The beds have no springs . . .''

So begins the first letter that a nine-year-old Roald Dahl penned to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, under the watchful eye of his boarding-school headmaster. For most of his life, Roald Dahl would continue to write weekly letters to his mother, chronicling his adventures, frustrations and op...