Roald Dahl `sexiest` British spy!

London, Aug 31: Move over, fictional spies like

James Bond.

US during World War II.

Yes, one of the world's greatest children authors of

best-selling classics, Dahl, was a languid seducer who bedded

"everybody on the east and west coasts" of America before he

turned to writing, according to a new book.

His conquests included ...

heiress to a Standard Oil fortune; and Clare Boothe Luce, the

sexually frisky wife of the publisher of 'Time' magazine and a

right-wing Congresswoman, the upcoming book has claimed.

Dahl, whose best-selling classics include 'The Twits'

and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', had even befriended

Eleanor Roosevelt, the glamorous wife of former US President

Franklin D Roosevelt, and also became a regular visitor to the

White House, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

"Dahl's superiors watched his rake's progress

with grudging admiration.

condoned, especially when it was for a good cause," Jennet

Conant, an American journalist, wrote in 'The Irregulars'.

In fact, in the book, Conant has supported her claims

about the British spy's sexual life with corroborating quotes

from Antoinette Marsh Haskell, the daughter of Dahl's closest

American friend Charles Marsh who was a newspaper magnate.

"Girls just fell at Roald's feet.

with everybody on the east and west coasts that (was worth)

more than USD 50,000 a year.

according to Haskell.

Dahl was sent to the British Embassy in Washington as

an undercover agent after he was injured during training as an

Royal Air Force pilot in the Middle East.

world of codenames and secret passwords, before he discovered

a talent for writing in 1943. He died in 1990.

Bureau Report