The Twits

The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by publishing house 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.