Unknown (main narrator, possibly Aaron Tracy)

But he keeps working.

He starts over and writes another one.

And then another one.

And he always keeps the stories just as dark and surreal as that first one.

Despite the lack of sales, he's positive that the stories work.

His own children love them.

And then in 1967, he convinces Knopf to take the first children's book he wrote, the one that flopped in America, and publish it in the UK.

Maybe the book needs to be read by British children.

Knopf agrees.

The first printing in the UK completely sells out.

And so does the next printing.

And the one after that.

And the one after that.

It took six years, but Dahl's first stab at writing a children's novel goes from selling just 2,600 copies to becoming one of the best-selling children's books in the history of the genre.

Roughly 20 million copies sold.

The volume of readership may have changed, but the title never did.

It's always been called James and the Giant Peach.

This story, along with Dahl's next, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, establishes his reputation as someone who understands that children crave more sophisticated, complex stories than what's typically offered to them.

Dahl later says that the two books taught him children are far more resilient and hungry for more adventurous stories than adults ever give them credit for.

This key insight will inform all his subsequent classics, from the BFG to Matilda to The Witches and on and on.