Aaron Tracy

Listen to Saigon on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Patricia Neal.

The movie star Roald Dahl met at the end of our last episode, talking about the beginning of their relationship later in life on The Arlene Herson Show.

And so begins the defining relationship of Dahl's life, one that's going to last 30 years and produce five children.

Get ready.

As noisy and epic as you think Dahl's professional and social lives have been so far, it is nothing compared to the intensity of what you're about to hear in his family life.

For My Heart Podcast, Imagine Entertainment, and Parallax, I'm Aaron Tracy, and this is The Secret World of Roald Dahl.

Episode four.

Let's pick up just before Dahl meets Patricia Neal.

It's 1952.

Dahl is now 36 years old.

He's already lived so many lives.

The businessman, the fighter pilot, the spy, the screenwriter.

The question is, now what?

He decides to try making a living at the craft he's had some sporadic success with.

It's the next mask he's going to put on.

He's going to become a great novelist or die trying.

Keep in mind, this is many years before Dahl's success with James Bond.

Right now, he's desperate to write important fiction, like his hero, Hemingway.

Dahl can feel the talent inside of himself.