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The Twits
The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by Jonathan Cape. The story features The Twits (Mr. and Mrs. Twit), a spiteful, lazy, and unkempt couple who continuously play nasty tricks on each other to amuse themselves and exercise their devious wickedness on their pet monkeys.
Dahl's disgust at beards was the inspiration for Mr. Twit. As Dahl stated, he penned The Twits in an effort to "do something against beards". Dahl's biographer, fellow children's author Michael Rosen, recalls the first time the pair met. Dahl leaned across to Rosen's son Joe and said of his father's beard: "It's probably got this morning's breakfast in it. And last night's dinner. And old bits of rubbish, any old stuff that he's come across. You might even find a bicycle wheel in it".
In 2003, The Twits was listed at number 81 in The Big Read, a BBC survey of the British public of the top 200 novels of all time. Nine years later, the titular Twits appeared on a Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp. In 2023, the novel was ranked by BBC at no. 87 in their poll of "The 100 greatest children's books of all time". The Twits was adapted for the stage in 2007 and an animated film adaptation, directed by Phil Johnston, was released on 17 October 2025 on Netflix.
Penguin Books has released the book in audiobook form thrice: in 2001 read by Simon Callow, in 2013 read by Richard Ayoade, and in 2024 read by Sara Pascoe.
The idea of The Twits was inspired by Dahl's desire to 'do something against beards'. The first chapter of the book is called "Hairy Faces" while the first sentence of the book is: "What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays". Additionally, the third chapter is called "Dirty Beards".
A hideous, vindictive, and spiteful married couple known as the Twits live together in a house without windows. Mr. and Mrs. Twit loathe and hate one another and amuse themselves by playing cruel pranks on each other, such as hiding worms in their spaghetti or putting a live frog in their bed. The Twits, who are retired circus monkey trainers, also keep a former family of pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, and are trying to create the first upside-down monkey circus; subsequently, the monkeys spend every waking hour uncomfortably standing on their heads.
Mr. Twit uses glue called "Hugtight" to catch birds every Tuesday so that Mrs. Twit can make bird pie on Wednesdays. One Tuesday night, a group of four boys see the ladder next to this tree and they decided to climb up, not thinking or knowing that glue was on the tree. The following morning, Mr. Twit sees that the boys have scared the birds away. Out of rage, he charges at the boys, but they escape by taking their trousers off. The monkeys try to warn the birds before they land on the tree, but the English-speaking birds do not understand the monkeys' African language. One day, the Roly-Poly bird flies to visit the monkeys, and they tell him to secretly save the birds by acting as an interpreter. After Mr. Twit tries and fails several times to catch the birds, he and Mrs. Twit angrily decide to go shopping for guns.
With their owners gone, the Muggle-Wumps come up with an idea to use Hugtight to attach the Twits' furniture to their ceiling with help from the birds. The job is just finished as Mr. and Mrs. Twit return, and then two ravens drop glue from a paintbrush on the Twits' heads when they return. The Twits go into their home and see the resulting mess. Mrs. Twit is alarmed, thinking they are upside down, so Mr. Twit suggests that they stand on their heads so that they are "the right way up" which traps them in place. The Roly-Poly bird then flies the Muggle-Wumps to Africa so they can be free.
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The Twits
The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by Jonathan Cape. The story features The Twits (Mr. and Mrs. Twit), a spiteful, lazy, and unkempt couple who continuously play nasty tricks on each other to amuse themselves and exercise their devious wickedness on their pet monkeys.
Dahl's disgust at beards was the inspiration for Mr. Twit. As Dahl stated, he penned The Twits in an effort to "do something against beards". Dahl's biographer, fellow children's author Michael Rosen, recalls the first time the pair met. Dahl leaned across to Rosen's son Joe and said of his father's beard: "It's probably got this morning's breakfast in it. And last night's dinner. And old bits of rubbish, any old stuff that he's come across. You might even find a bicycle wheel in it".
In 2003, The Twits was listed at number 81 in The Big Read, a BBC survey of the British public of the top 200 novels of all time. Nine years later, the titular Twits appeared on a Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp. In 2023, the novel was ranked by BBC at no. 87 in their poll of "The 100 greatest children's books of all time". The Twits was adapted for the stage in 2007 and an animated film adaptation, directed by Phil Johnston, was released on 17 October 2025 on Netflix.
Penguin Books has released the book in audiobook form thrice: in 2001 read by Simon Callow, in 2013 read by Richard Ayoade, and in 2024 read by Sara Pascoe.
The idea of The Twits was inspired by Dahl's desire to 'do something against beards'. The first chapter of the book is called "Hairy Faces" while the first sentence of the book is: "What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays". Additionally, the third chapter is called "Dirty Beards".
A hideous, vindictive, and spiteful married couple known as the Twits live together in a house without windows. Mr. and Mrs. Twit loathe and hate one another and amuse themselves by playing cruel pranks on each other, such as hiding worms in their spaghetti or putting a live frog in their bed. The Twits, who are retired circus monkey trainers, also keep a former family of pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, and are trying to create the first upside-down monkey circus; subsequently, the monkeys spend every waking hour uncomfortably standing on their heads.
Mr. Twit uses glue called "Hugtight" to catch birds every Tuesday so that Mrs. Twit can make bird pie on Wednesdays. One Tuesday night, a group of four boys see the ladder next to this tree and they decided to climb up, not thinking or knowing that glue was on the tree. The following morning, Mr. Twit sees that the boys have scared the birds away. Out of rage, he charges at the boys, but they escape by taking their trousers off. The monkeys try to warn the birds before they land on the tree, but the English-speaking birds do not understand the monkeys' African language. One day, the Roly-Poly bird flies to visit the monkeys, and they tell him to secretly save the birds by acting as an interpreter. After Mr. Twit tries and fails several times to catch the birds, he and Mrs. Twit angrily decide to go shopping for guns.
With their owners gone, the Muggle-Wumps come up with an idea to use Hugtight to attach the Twits' furniture to their ceiling with help from the birds. The job is just finished as Mr. and Mrs. Twit return, and then two ravens drop glue from a paintbrush on the Twits' heads when they return. The Twits go into their home and see the resulting mess. Mrs. Twit is alarmed, thinking they are upside down, so Mr. Twit suggests that they stand on their heads so that they are "the right way up" which traps them in place. The Roly-Poly bird then flies the Muggle-Wumps to Africa so they can be free.