A Day out with the Authors

Friday August 2nd

Mary has been wanting to go to the Roald Dahl Museum since she read Boy and Going Solo which are his Dahl's autobiographies. The museum is in the village of Great Missenden which is only a short drive away from here.
She was not disappointed.  There are two main parts to this museum, the Boy and Solo Galleries.  You walk through chocolate doors to discover how Roald Dahl's school days inspired his story ideas in later life.  There are stories about the tricks he played and the teachers he would never forget.

In the solo Gallery they have carefully removed and conserved his writng hut that was in his garden at his house in the village. Every object was taken and placed back exactly as it was in hut before they moved it.

We got to listen to a really good talk all about his life and I got to sit in his writing chair.  It was not his real chair; that was behind glass, but it was replica that children and folk like me are allowed to sit in.  He sat in a comfy chair with a board and wrote from 10 -12 each day and again from 4 -6.  He said  4 hours a day was enough work for anyone.  It took him a year to write a book. All his famous books were written in his chair in the hut.

After we left the museum we went on the village walk and up to the churchyard to find his grave.

The grave of Roald Dahl in the churchyard of St Peter and Paul Great Missenden.
There were other places in the village that inspired Roald Dahl.

The petrol pumps at 64 high Street inspired the description in Danny the champion of the World.
"It was a very small filling station surrounded by fields and woody hills."

The Crown house is a timber framed building at 70 high Street and was Roald Dahl's inspiration for Sophies "norphanage" in The BFG.  "From across the street, Sophie watched and held her breath."

A view of the main street in Great Missenden.

When we left there we had time to go to another property so Alan asked to go to Milton's Cottage which was also close by.
Milton’s Cottage, situated in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, was once the home of John Milton (1608-1674), one of England’s greatest poets. It is now a museum of his work and times. We were greeted by an very enthusiastic curator who showed us around and spoke with great knowledge and enthusiasm about Milton.  He expected us to be very knowledgeable about English history before stepping into the cottage, and was appalled about the lack of History teaching in British schools today.  He was very passionate about Milton and also very entertaining.
Paradise Lost was completed by Milton at this very Cottage in Chalfont St. Giles to which he escaped the plague in 1665.  We were in the room where he wrote out. Our friendly guide made sure we realised this several times.

This is the only cottage garden in the Chilterns listed by English Heritage as a Grade II Registered Historic Garden, worth visiting in its own right.

Milton's Cottage which happens to be on Dean Way.

Here's a couple of Deans in the garden.