James's aunts, Spiker and Sponge, are always calling him names. They beat him and starve him and make his life a misery. If only his parents hadn't been eaten by an angry escaped rhinoceros, he wouldn't be in this mess. But one day he meets a mysterious man who gives him a bag of magic crocodile tongues and so begins the adventure of his dreams.

This is one of the many Roald Dahl books I haven't read, and it remains one of the more famous. I'm looking forward to seeing what makes it so popular, and enjoying Dahl's inimitable style.