Yes, quite the intriguing blog title, isn’t it? What I actually mean by it is that my birthday (today: 14th September – Happy Birthday to me!) happens to fall right in the middle of the birthdays of two of my favourite authors. I mean, what are the chances?
Let me explain…
On September 13th 1916, the whizzpopping Roald Dahl was born and on September 15th 1890, the world was gifted the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie – hence, I am the filling in a rather wonderful author birthday sandwich!
The Fantastic Mr. Dahl
Roald Dahl has sold over 250 million copies of his books – both his beloved children’s fiction and adult stories – truly cementing his place as one of our greatest authors.
Fantastic Mr. Fox was the first book I remember finishing all by myself as a child and I still own my copies of Matilda, The BFG and James and the Giant Peach that I read so, so many times. He had a huge impact on my love of reading as a child and I’ve enjoyed his adult stories in recent years, too.
Record Breaking Agatha
Mr. Dahl’s sales figures are very impressive but fall a little short of Agatha’s estimated 4 billion. Yes, BILLION. She is listed as the best-selling fiction author in the world (alongside Shakespeare) and wrote novels, short-stories and plays.
Her acclaimed play The Mousetrap holds the title of the longest running play in the world, having been performed continuously in London’s West End since 1952 (I’ve seen it – it’s brilliant).
She also wrote six romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. I’ve yet to read these but am very intrigued to see Agatha’s loving side. I only read my first book by her in 2017, but I’ve quickly become a huge fan.
What can I say? September is a pretty amazing month to be born in (if you need any more evidence of this, see: Beyonce, September 4th).
Now, if only someone could make me an actual author birthday sandwich… what would that taste like??
Books on the 7:47 
Clever of your mum to organise your birth like that…
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Ha, I know! Although I think the thrill of sharing a birthday with one of them might actually be better!
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Happy birthday! We have a few literary birthdays in our family, my mum shares her birthday with Sylvia Plath, mine is the same day as JK Rowling, my husband shares his birthday with George Orwell and my daughter has same birthday as Charles Dickens. ☺️
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Thank you! OK that is a very impressive literary birthday list! You’ve inspired me to cross check the dates of my family members 😂
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Happy Birthday! Its got to be a good thing your birthday is sandwiched between two writing greats such as these. I love Roald Dahl. I read pretty much all his books with my boys as they were growing up. Do you have a favourite by Roald Dahl? I was going to tell you mine but I can’t pick. 😄
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Thank you! Yes Roald Dahl is so good – have you read his adult books? They are also brilliant. From childhood my favourite is always Matilda ❤
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I haven’t read his adult books. Just been looking into it and there are some short story collections that look interesting. From childhood I love Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny The Champion of the World, The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Matilda, and The Twits, just can’t pick a favourite!! 😍 😍 I did read ‘Playing With The Grown Ups’ some years ago by Sophie Dahl, which I recall I quite enjoyed, despite some mixed reviews.
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Yes, all the adult books I’ve read by him have been short stories – they still have his tone of voice, just with a more sinister edge in most cases!
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I’m intrigued to read some. I will add some of his short stories to my list!
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