Mr Twit hates his wife. Mrs Twit detests her husband. They like nothing more than playing wicked tricks on one another. Sooner or later, things are going to go too far…

Even in real life Roald Dahl was very suspicious of men with beards. He thought they must be hiding something sinister. Michael Rosen, who wrote a book called Fantastic Mr Dahl all about Roald and his stories, remembers that the first time he and Roald met, Roald told Michael’s son Joe that his beard was “disgusting.”

Mr Twit has a beard. His is dirty and has bits of food clinging to it. Quentin Blake’s illustrations in the original story show cornflakes, tinned sardines and even stilton cheese stuck in the bristles on Mr Twit’s face. In fact, he and his equally unlovely wife, Mrs Twit, are just about as horrible as can be – but there are a few characters who might just have found a way to outsmart this nasty pair…

The Twits, first published in 1980, may be about a pair of horrible twits, but it also features one of the most-quoted phrases in all of Roald’s books…