Waving Goodbye

As my Archaeology degree comes to a close in a matter of months, it is now time to focus on that- but I have truly loved blogging on Roald Dahl for this short amount of time. 

I hope I have reminded you all to remember not to forget about books, especially Roald Dahl's, and to evaluate the way tales and fables have influenced you- even when you haven't realised!!

The blog will remain up and the comments still live, but it will probably act as more of an archive- but who knows what the future holds. Maybe one day there will be a role for heritage blogging, but for now I've got to get a degree- and then save the world one blog at a time.

Thank you all for reading, clicking, scrolling, commenting and getting involved.  As a leaving gift I, or rather Dahl, leave you this....

“We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that’s where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it’s full of your friends
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.”

-The Giraffe, the Pelly & Me, Roald Dahl 

La fin.

Your Series

YOUR SERIES

 This marks the first post, in what I hope to be a snowballing idea for Dahl heritage..

It's very simple, just send in, comment or tweet your earliest Roald Dahl memory so it can be added.

Then have a good time reading others tales of childhood terror and literature love- have fun guessing who's could possibly be who's.....

+) My earliest memory of RD- falling in love with charlie and the choc factory and wishing I would somehow find a golden ticket... also made lickable wallpaper thanks to Roald Dalh's revolting recipes book!

+) Although the storyline line is a little muddled, my earliest and most vivid memory was of the absolutely terrifying (when you're 6 years old, anyway) crocodile in "the enormous crocodile" - I could never get over the size of his menacing jaws and teeth - and its stuck with me ever since.

Oh and him being flung into the sunset at the end of the story!
  

+) Lying in bed listening to the BFG tapes when I was small, my heart would race all the way through thinking that giants would appear at my window too Making "Plate of Soil and Engine oil" from the Roald Dahl recipe book for Sunday lunch pudding, perhaps THE best chocolatey treat....

+) Every night my dad used to sit down with me and read a bed time story- he's really good at putting on daft voices for all the characters. One night he brought out a book with a collection of Dahl's stories; the Witches, Esio Trot, The Giraffe the Pelly and Me, and the Twits (the latter he began to read). To this day I still feel a bit uncomfortable when I need to itch my belly, as Dahl said - only ugly, nasty people get itchy bellies! Of course, for me, Dahl wouldn't be without Quentin Blake- together, they are magic, and I will most definitely be reading those books to my children one day. 

+) I used to listen to Dahl's autobiography in the car with my family on our annual summer drive to the south of France. When he's in Africa he's served rice with fried bananas in, on a big banana leaf (I think). We have a banana tree in France so at the start of the holiday I demanded from mother some banana rice on a leaf like Roald Dahl had. It was delicious, definitely recommend it.  

+) When I was little I was inseparable from my copy of the twits. I once went to the toilet and fell asleep reading it.  

+) The first time I remember was when we listen to his tapes. I don't know who did the audio voice over, but it was very calming and I would always fall asleep.  I think I had to listen them 5 or 6 times before I had heard the whole story between naps.

+) I rememeber when I was suddenly signed up to the Roald Dahl Kids club. I had a badge and new book mark. I was also given my first Dahl audiotape "The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me". I actually thought i was really sad when I first listened.

+) I once ate a worm because that's what happened in the twits. I'm still not ashamed of myself- rather proud if I say so


 

Interview: Paul Lyalls

Paul Lyalls is the current writer in residence at the Roald Dahl Museum. 

This blog has been lucky to track down this whoopsy-splunkers writer, and he has kindly agreed to be interview by us!!! 

I hope you agree Paul is Phizz-Whizzing and Whoopsy wiffling for getting involved- and his answer are whizz-popping!

Photo Credit: Paul Lyalls

1) How did you get involved with The Roald Dahl Museum? 
RD appoint a writer each year.  This year they wanted a poet.  I applied and got it.  To get the job you had to write for both children and adults and also be published for both and be able to perform and workshop with children and adults.

 2) What is your favourite aspect of the Museum? 
I like the dinkyness and old worldlyness of the place.  I like the fact that it's a museum with a lot to read and what a good read it all is.  I like the fact that it is in the writers home town and that it is just a converted stables or some such thing, full of quirky bits and pieces of his life.  It's like he's just popped out for a Kit-Kat, and will be back in 15 minutes!
 
3) What is your favorite Roald Dahl work? That's a tough one. Maybe Matilda because she is such a heroine and ultimate best friend.  I like the Twits as well because of the originality of the humour and the situations.
 
4) Do you feel Roald Dahl has influenced your work at all? 
It's starting to, I'm taking to branching out in some of the themes and making some situations much more surprising and much more extreme which is what RD did. My latest Kids collection which only came out a month into the residency reflects his influence, particularly in poems like 'Two types of parents' and 'Heaven'.
 
5) You run workshops at the Museum, what does this involve?  
Part show, part writing exercise, aimed at adults and children.  I have been getting people to write poems and also I've spent time sitting in the chair writing poems to order from people wandering past on whatever they've wanted (Dreams,  turning six, Spitfires etc).  Also I am visiting schools in Buckinghamshire on behalf of the Museum. These involve performing whole school assembly shows  and visiting selected classes for focused writing workshop.
 
6) How to both Children & Adults react to Roald Dahl's work? How do they react to the your workshops? 
Everyone seems to love RD's work and the fact that I am poet for RD goes down a storm.  Adults and kids are in awe at my appointment. It's the champions league of the residency world! 
I don't want to be the one to say it, but everyone loves my workshops and work.  All the stuff I do is fun and funny from start to finish and adults and kids love my poems and performances. 


Paul will be sitting in Roald Dahl's chair again and writing poems for anyone on Sunday 12th Jan 11am to 3pm if you would like a poem written there and then, come along,  if you can't make it contact him here- see if you can arrange to tell him what you'd like a poem about and he'll write it in the chair for you.
You can also follow Paul on Twitter (@PaulLyalls) or have a click around his website.

Paul's latest books show that poetry is necessary for all ages! 'Catching the Cascade' (adults)& 'A Funny Thing Happened' (kids) can be found on Amazon and at most good bookshops (and probably a few indifferent ones too).
His latest collection "Do me a favour & favour" is new this year!  Available from The Roald Dahl Museum or The big Green Bookshop.

Merry Christmas

"Where art thou, Mother Christmas?
I only wish I knew
Why Father should get all the praise
And no one mentions you.

I'll bet you buy the presents
And wrap them large and small
While all the time that rotten swine
Pretends he's done it all.

So Hail To Mother Christmas
Who shoulders all the work!
And down with Father Christmas,
That unmitigated jerk!"

Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake wrote this poem for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in 1988. It part of a full anthology found in the Roald Dahl Treasury

Mother Christmas- the busiest mum on earth at this time...

Picture: Quentin Blake

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a happy new year and a lovely break from work (giving you more chance to read some Dahl books!)

PREVIEW: The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre

Find out more about tomorrow's blogpost with this Phizz-Whizzing video:

Dahl's Childhood: An Overview

Dahl's Childhood played a phenomenal part in his writing, drawing influences for characters or wonderful ideas from his own life. Many ideas come from the tales his mother use to tell him from her Norweign folk stories, as well as his childhood hate for teachers, rules and punishments. 

Tales such as Matilda, the BFG, the Witches and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory are written from a child's perspective and portray adults as the Villans.

Photo Courtesy of the Reading Project

Dahl's childhood experiences formed the tales behind Boy: Tales of 

Childhood (1984).

Photo Courtesy of The Telegraph

An exert from Boy details The Great Mouse Plot of 1924.

Aged Seven, when Dahl attened Llandaff Cathedral School in Cardiff, he and his friends had a grudge against the local sweet-shop owner, Mrs. Pratchett. Mrs Pratchett was a sour, elderly widow who gave no thought to hygiene. They played a prank on her by placing a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar. They were caned by the headmaster as a punishment, while Mrs. Pratchett watched, laughing and encouraging him to cane them harder.

Aged 13, Dahl moved to Repton School in Derybshire. Having had the choice between Marlborough and Repton, Dahl choose Repton because it was easier to pronounce. 
At Repton the boys were delivered sweets and tasters from the Cadbury factory. The weekly deliveries inspired Young Dahl to dream of working as an inventor for Cadbury. An idea he has said later bore Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. 

Image Courtesy of weheartit.com

While Dahl hardly excelled as a student, his mother offered to pay for his tuition at Oxford or Cambridge University when he graduated. Dahl's response, as quoted from his autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood, was, 

"No thank you. I want to go straight from school to work for a company that will send me to wonderful faraway places like Africa or China." - Roald Dahl

Photo Courtesy of The Telegraph

Dahl's childhood was sprinkled with sadness as both his elder sister and father died when Dahl was three years old. His family remained in England to receive a British education- arguably the time that fueled Dahl's imagination the most. 

The wondrous childhood of Roald Dahl shaped the stories we now treasure.

After his education, Roald Dahl joined the war effort, but what exactly did this extra ordinary man do?

James & The Giant Peach

"But the peach ... ah, yes ... the peach was a soft, stealthy traveller, making no noise at all as it floated along. And several times during that long silent night ride high up over the middle of the ocean in the moonlight, James and his friends saw things that no one had ever seen before."
-Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach, released in 1961, tells the tale of a young boy- James Trotter- who escapes from his abusive aunt in a magic peach. He travels away from his problems with his new friends Grasshopper, Ladybug, Spider and Centipede.

This recipe is inspired by the Peach that grew from those Magic Beans... 

 You will need:

1 ripe peach

35g unsalted butter

20g plain flour

20g brown sugar (+ some for sprinkling)

Ice Cream, Honey, Cream, Crème fraîche or a topping of your choice

              Oven at 180°

Cut the peach in half and remove the stone.

  Sprinkle some sugar inside the peaches dip, adding 5g of butter into each half.

 Place these into the oven whilst you make the crumble topping. This is the same crumble topping found on apple or rhubarb crumble- so its super easy to make.

Crumble together, using your fingers, the flour and remaining cubes of butter.

  Once you've done this, you should be left with something that resembles breadcrumbs.  

The next step is tor stir in the brown sugar. Try to make sure it is even across the mixture.
 

 Once this is done, grab the peaches back from the oven and sprinkle the crumble mix over the butter and sugar mixture.

 I recommend piling the topping especially high, so the peaches are super Gloriumptious.

 Place in the oven for 20 minutes, whilst you help with the washing up!

Then remove and enjoy with Ice Cream, Honey, Cream, Crème fraîche or all the above!!

 

Please remember if you are in the kitchen under the age of 13, ask Mum or Dad for some help, especially when using knives or the oven!

"And James Henry Trotter, who once, if you remember, had been the saddest and loneliest boy that you could find, now had all the friends and playmates in the world."
-Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

Roald Dahl Gobblefunk- Gloriumptious: Glorious and wonderful.