in the rains

Dahl- the violent author?

 google celebrates roald dahl's birthday -www.google.com i was reading some of his story summaries and frankly, 
i was shocked. i mean the guy who wrote matilda and james and the ...
 
also wrote-
" Finally his turn is called, and he is led to the "schackling area" where the pigs are grabbed, looped about the ankle with a chain, and then dragged up through a hole in the roof. While he is watching, one of the workers slips a chain around Lexington's ankle and before he knows what is happening he is being dragged along the path as well. "Help!" he cries. "There's been a frightful mistake!" But no one stops the engine, and he's carried along to the sticker, who slices open the boy's jugular vein with a knife" -review of  short stories by roald dahl - 'PIG'

and ..

"but when bringing a leg of lamb to the kitchen for the evening meal, she encounters her husband. In a fit of rage she kills him with a blow to the head from the leg of lamb. Thinking quickly, she goes to the local store to create an alibi for herself, and when she returns home, calls the police. They come quickly, and after verifying her alibi, they begin the search for the murder weapon, unaware that it is cooking right in front of them. After a fruitless hunt for the weapon, Mary Malone offers the officers the now cooked lamb. As they discuss the location of the weapon, Mary begins to giggle.." - lamb to the slaughter
all his adult fiction is the same..crude violence

rethinking his childrens fiction , they too had a violent humour..maneating giants, children almost dying in a choclate factory etc...

he remains to be one of my favorite authors