Roald Dahl children's novels in a survey published by "School Library Journal", a monthly with primarily US audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer: "Matilda", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The Witches", and "The BFG". In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life he most admires. In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters,
Roald Dahl the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army. In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman with service number 774022. After a car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men; only three others of these survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;