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 bibliography in his children's books. His mother also nurtured a passion in the young Dahl for reading and literature. During the Second World War Dahl was a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF) until he crashed in the Libyan desert; the subsequent injuries left him unfit to fly. He was posted to Washington as an assistant air attaché, ostensibly a diplomatic post, but which also included espionage and propaganda work. In 1942 the writer C.S. Forester asked him to provide details of his experiences in North Africa which Forester hoped to use in an article in "The Saturday Evening Post".