Matilda (novel)

Matilda is a 1988 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published by Jonathan Cape. The story features Matilda Wormwood, a precocious child with an uncaring mother and father, and her time in a school run by the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

The book has been adapted in various media, including audio readings by actresses Joely Richardson, Miriam Margolyes and Kate Winslet; a 1996 feature film Matilda directed by Danny DeVito; a two-part BBC Radio 4 programme; and a 2010–2011 musical Matilda the Musical which ran on the West End in London, Broadway in New York, and around the world. A film adaptation of the musical, Matilda the Musical, was released in 2022.

In 2003, Matilda was listed at number 74 in The Big Read, a BBC survey of the British public of the top 200 novels of all time. In 2012, Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a US monthly. Time magazine named Matilda in its list of the "100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time". In 2012, Matilda Wormwood appeared on a Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp.