I spent an inspiring few hours at the Roald Dahl museum this afternoon. Although I’ve read just a few of his books (and watched the film version of ‘Matilda’), I just realised that Dahl is more than just a writer for children.
Did you know that he was in the Airforce, but had to quit when his plane crashed and he suffered head injuries? His first story sold to Cosmopolitian in the early 1940s, when he was 26 or 27. He was still working with the RAF at the time and writing on the side. From that first sale, his successes were steady as big names bought his stories (Walt Disney, for example).
The museum itself is fun and for a writer, truly inspiring. Irrespective of whether you like his books, relate to children’s writing or care for chocolate, the museum will restore your faith in your passion for writing and give you hope for the future.
The rooms of the exhibits are littered with glimpses into his writing life. Copies of his letters to his mother, scraps of his stories, limericks and sketches on his favorite yellow lined writing pad give us an insight into how Dahl worked.
My favorite part, though, was the Idea room exhibit. While kids were encouraged to make new words, put color into postcards or check their grammar, I found a whole room devoted to writers and how they practice their craft. A television screen showed Dahl, JKR, Joanna Lumley and a whole host of writers talking about how they wrote, where they got their ideas from and tips for aspiring writers. The room had laminated sheets with such advice from various writters like Mark Haddon (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time), Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate) and Jacqueline Wilson among others.
Most writers have an obsession with where they write and the eternal quest for the elusive ‘room of one’s own’. Dahl did have his own room – in fact his was a shed at the bottom of his garden, “my nest, my womb”, he called it. A simple, cluttered room, but one where he did his best writing.
Take a virtual tour of his writing room here.
My lesson from the trip: If he could sit in an old armchair (with a hole at the base so that his spine could rest, and a tube of cardboard to raise his writing board ‘with soft green billboard velvet’) and do a lot of productive writing, who am I to grumble about the lack of a writing room and use that as an excuse to procrastinate?
As inspiration and a reminder to stop grumbling and get on with the writing, I bought a little postcard with a painting of his writing hut.
Then I sat down and wrote for two hours.
If that’s the kind of inspiration a little museum can provide, then I should really visit more often!
Pictures coming soon.
