A Dahl day in Buckinghamshire

Steve McKenna heads down memory lane at a phizz-whizzing museum dedicated to the author.

At first glance, Great Missenden looks like your typically prim Buckinghamshire village. Hugging the gently rolling Chiltern Hills, 60km from London, it has an affluent air and a picturesque high street lined with snug Georgian cottages, independent boutiques and a smattering of enticing pubs and restaurants.

Yet, for 36 years, this well-to-do slice of conservative Middle England was the home and workplace of one of the world’s most offbeat storytellers — the man responsible for characters such as Willy Wonka, the BFG and the Twits, and the inventor of a long list of wacky superlatives such as “flushbunking” and “swizzfiggling”.

Halfway down the high street, these tongue-twisting words are etched in giant letters on to the facade of a 16th-century former coaching inn, which is now the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

I was advised to visit by my brother, who had brought his eight-year-old daughter here during a recent school holiday. Both of them loved it, and it’s easy to see why. For adults, it’s a nostalgia-inducing experience — and you’re also bound to discover stuff you never knew about this multifaceted author (who was also a fighter pilot, diplomat, spy and writer of steamy adult stories and murder mysteries).

For kids, the museum is an entertaining introduction to the timeless delights of Dahl.

While drawing most of its inspiration from the 20th century — Dahl was born in Cardiff, to Norwegian parents, in 1916 and died in Oxford in 1990 — this is very much a 21st-century attraction, with a blend of video and audio feeds, interactive push-button screens and contraptions, and hundreds of still exhibits.

The centrepiece is Dahl’s famous Writing Hut, in which he would shut himself away from the real world and craft his weird, wonderful and often sinister creations. Dahl’s “little nest” used to be in the back garden of Gipsy House, his Great Missenden home, but it was moved inside the museum a few years ago. Its cluttered interior remains, more or less, as Dahl left it.

The museum has many insights into what made this unique writer tick. Decorated with black-and-white photographs, teachers’ reports and even an old school uniform, the Boy Gallery demonstrates Dahl’s dark, mischievous sense of humour from an early age, listing some of the childhood tricks he played on family, friends and foes.

Dahl was eight when he and four mates were caned by their headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop.

Their target was a Mrs Pratchett, a “mean and loathsome” woman who appears to bear a slight resemblance to the vile Miss Trunchbull from Matilda (along with other revolting authority figures of Dahl’s, which were so vividly brought to life by the illustrations of his long-time collaborator Quentin Blake).

The museum in quaint Great Missenden. Picture: Steve McKenna

While Dahl’s stories were spiked with supernatural elements, he admitted in interviews that his characters were often wildly exaggerated versions of real people.

So, for example, if someone was bad, Dahl would make them really bad — and if they were nice, he’d make them really phizz-whizzingly nice. Meaning “fantastic or truly amazing”, phizz-whizzing is an example of Gobblefunk, Dahl’s quirky made-up language.

The seeds for arguably his most magical story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, were planted when Dahl was at boarding school in Derbyshire and was among a group of pupils tasked with testing new chocolates sent by the Cadbury factory.

It took years, and myriad drafts, for Dahl — an ardent chocolate lover — to complete the story.

The museum has letters from Dahl’s agent offering constructive criticism on how to improve the plot.

Now printed in more than 50 languages, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — first published in 1964 — has inspired two spin-off movies and several stage musicals, and remains staggeringly popular, selling about half-a-million copies around the world annually.

The many eye-catching sights in the museum include a life-size photo of Dahl, who was 1.98m tall. However, most kids are drawn towards a cabinet containing the purple outfit worn by Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s 2005 flick.

A diverse selection of Dahl’s books are on sale in the museum shop; while next door, you can enjoy “delumptious” homemade refreshments in Cafe Twit.

The museum has leaflets for self-guided trails which show how Dahl weaved the local area into his stories.

Points of interest include the timber-framed house on the village high street that inspired Sophie’s “norphanage” in The BFG, and nearby Angling Spring woods, which Dahl imagined as the home of the Fantastic Mr Fox.

Sat atop a hill overlooking Great Missenden, the graveyard of the Church of St Peter and St Paul is where Dahl was laid to rest.

In true eccentric style, it’s said he requested to be buried alongside some of his favourite objects.

These apparently included snooker cues, HB pencils, a power saw and — naturally — chocolates.

FACT FILE

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is open Tuesday to Friday, 10am-5pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11am-5pm. Tickets are £6.60 ($13.25) for adults and £4.40 for children (five to 18) and concessions. A family ticket is £21. roalddahl.com/museum.

Trains for Great Missenden leave London’s Marylebone station every 20-30 minutes and take about 45 minutes. chilternrailways.co.uk.

For more on visiting the UK, see visitbritain.com.