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I should probably give this 5 stars as I really enjoyed this, liked this and it's so good. I mean there is a lot of pain here and it's so funny.

Dahl is telling stories from his childhood. He would holiday in the summer in Norway with his family every year. He also went to boarding school. You can see how this is the seeds for almost all his stories. All the horror of adults he tells come from his experience at school. I can't believe some stuff he had to live through. It was abusive.

There was caning and students could also use corporal punishment on each other. Teacher would single out students and yet he makes it all funny. It was too short and probably a good thing. You see where Charlie and the chocolate factory come from. I mean the Trunchbull from Matilda is right out of his experience.

In the last chapter, I got tickled the most. So the chapter is called fagging. In British boarding school an older boy would have younger classmen under him that did chores and things for him and he was called a fag. This is back in the 20s or 30s before the meaning of the English word took over. One of the boys forces Dahl to go and warm up the outhouse toilet seat for him by sitting on it for 15 minutes or more. He tells Dahl something like, "You have a warm bottom, I don't like a cold bottom fag, I like hot bottom fags." I know it's childish and I simply died laughing. I mean, so funny sounding. How strange the past interacting with the future. There term is still derogatory in a different way. I mean it's still sad they had that kind of power over underclassmen and hopefully it is better for kids now. I guess school has always been hell.

This is worth the read.