Roald Dahl's daughter contracted measles and died from complications, this is their story.

[MLAA]

14. I should have posted a few paragraphs, sorry.

“Stephenson asked me, the youngest journalist in the office, to “have a chat with him and see if he regrets any of that nonsense.” I did. He didn’t. The author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox and the rest told me, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews,” and “I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere. Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason”. He said that when he was in the forces during World War Two, he and his friends never saw any Jewish fighting men.

I told him my father was Jewish, that Jews were over-represented in the Allied armies, and that what he had said was repugnant. He muttered something and then – always clinically polite – said goodbye. But it wasn’t goodbye to the article and for almost 40 years it has regularly resurfaced in articles and books about Dahl.

Larger than life

Now it’s in the news again as the basis for a major play, Giant, at the Royal Court, starring John Lithgow as Dahl. That’s why I’m in the UK a little earlier this year. The playwright, Mark Rosenblatt, first contacted me three years ago and at the time I assumed little more would come of it. I was clearly wrong. I’m mentioned in it of course, and the wonderful Richard Hope plays my voice on the phone. I knew about this, but it all felt far more eerie on press night, sitting in my seat at one of the world’s major theatres, watching a drama about my interview play out on stage. Part of me wanted to disappear into the floor, another to jump up and shout, “That’s me!” When John Lithgow, as Dahl, said, “Who’s Mike Coren?” I think I blushed. Thank God it was dark. But the play is far more important than that – it is a vital discussion of anti-Semitism, a wound more open now than at any time in my life. I expect reactions to it will say a great deal about the bitter reality of it all. That, frankly, isn’t entirely reassuring.”