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Monday, July 8, 2013

Visiting Roald Dahl's BFG


The BFG? What's a BFG? If you have a fourth-grader around, you probably know the story of the Big
Johnny Depp's costume
Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl. Or maybe James and the Giant Peach? How about the Gremlins?  Okay then, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
Visiting the Roald Dahl museum  in Great Missenden, England opened my eyes to just how whimsical he was. He wrote everything by hand sitting in a yellow chair with a lap desk out in his little writing hut. They even have the hut: 
Chocolate door anyone?




The replica
The hut
The real deal
    What is impressive about Roald Dahl is that before he was a children's author, he was a war pilot who had been shot down and injured. His character, the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) speaks to children about humanity. The BFG explains to Sophie that she has to have faith to accept that some things do exist even they cannot be seen. He shows Sophie the secret world of the giants who have been stealing and eating children. Even though the BFG speaks with mixed-up words, he explains to Sophie that animals don't kill their own kind and points out that humans are the only creatures on earth killing each other. The story, full of creative names like "wizzpopper" and ideas like "dream-catching" ends with the simple Giant and little Sophie convincing the Queen of England to help them trap the giants.

The giftshop cafe has a BFG menu: Wizpopper hot cocoa 
And across the street is the Araminta Fizzackerly chocolate shop which originally was the Willy Wonka candy store.












2 comments:

  1. What an amazing experience to have! Now I'm craving chocolate....

    ReplyDelete
  2. The door even smells like chocolate! I'm sure they wouldn't notice a bite missing.........

    ReplyDelete