"He was a very difficult man – very strong, very dominant ... not unlike the father of the Mitford sisters sort of roaring round the house with these very loud opinions, banning certain types – foppish boys, you know – from coming round."Roald Dahl, as described by his granddaughter Sophie Dahl. Imagine having Roald Dahl as your grandfather! Dahl was one of my favourite authors as a young girl (the other being Enid Blyton), and I credit him for turning me into a book-nerd. The BFJ, James and the Giant Peach, The Twits, George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Witches, Danny the Champion of the World, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – all of these books shaped my childhood. I remember reading them and being pulled into an incredible fantasy world where the imagination, and children, ran free. I would devour them, and immediately after reading one, would rush to write my own magical filled story. I still have my cherished copy of Matilda, read and re-read so many times that the spine is splitting, the cover ripped and the pages almost falling out. She was such a lovely and inspiring character – "sensitive and brilliant", a five-year-old reading all the great classics.
The December issue of UK Vogue featured a Tim Walker shoot inspired by Dahl’s body of work, with Lightspeed Champion as Willy Wonka, model Sophie Drake as Miss Honey and Karen Elson with a giant peach.
And of course, many of Dahl’s stories have been turned into films – Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – but the most recent is an animated adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson. According to a very reliable source (Wikipedia), it will feature the voices of Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, among others, as well as songs by Jarvis Cocker. Dahl, Anderson, Schwartzman, Murray and Cocker, all together in one project? I am actually speechless.
