Useful Organisations No.39: The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre

The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre

81-83 High Street

Great Missenden

HP16 OAL

Tel: 01494 892192

Website: www.roalddahlmuseum.org 

A whole generation has grown up on the subversive and anarchic stories of Roald Dahl and even in the age of Hogwarts, Dahl’s popularity remains undimmed. June saw the launch of The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre in Great Missenden, the Buckinghamshire village where Dahl lived and worked in his famous Writing Hut. There is no other Museum in the UK dedicated to the work of one writer and this one also houses his extensive literary archive. The Museum is a venue of two parts. The Boy and Going Solo Galleries (the Boy gallery is entered through a chocolate door) focus on Dahl’s life and work through touch screen activities and access to wonderful archive material including early letters home from boarding school (kept, with astonishing foresight, by his mother). The Story Centre is there to promote a love of reading and creativity in young and even not so young minds, encouraging visitors to have a go at working out plots, characters and vocabulary in all sorts of fun ways and it includes hints and tips from other famous contemporary writers. The Museum is beautifully designed – much of its ‘look’ is based on the artwork of Quentin Blake. Advance booking strongly recommended.