Roald Dahl

Just months before his biography of Roald Dahl was set to be released, biographer Donald Sturrock has discovered a trove of letters that throw a new light on Dahl, prompting a halt to the publication. The letters, according to this brief report from the Telegraph, were a correspondence between Dahl and “the man he described as his closest friend,” Charles Marsh.

“The letters make my subject seem a lot more human,” says Sturrock. “Their discovery hasn’t involved a complete rewrite of the book, but significant sections of it needed to be amended.” Sturrock wouldn’t say how he campe upon the letters, though.

Sturrock and his publisher HarperCollins have set a new release date of a year from now, which is somewhat fortuitous timing: 2010 is the 20th anniversary of Dahl’s death.