Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

At the Roald Dahl museum, I saw in the first room his life as boy, it had different letters he had sent to his mum from school.  They were private, funny and showed Dahl's sense of humour.  There were also photos of him and his family.  

The next room was more about his life as an adult and ideas for his books. There was a sizing chart on the wall of the possible height of his different characters. Unfortunately I was the same size as Mrs Twitt. 

There was a replica of his writing hut, which contained his chair and items which were important in his life e.g. a ball of foil, gradually made up from adding another wrapping from his daily Cadbury chocolate bar.  There are some quite bizarre items e.g. shavings from his spine and the ball from his hip bone.  There are also copies of his book covers and pictures drawn by his children.  The routine he went through before writing was recorded as it was important to go through a ritual before starting the day's writing.  

There was a section of the museum about films that have been made based on Dahl's books which I found particularly interesting - including the costume worn by Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate factory.  It was interesting to see a film costume up close and seeing all the detail.  This one was designed by Gabriella Pescucci. I hadn't noticed the details of Willy Wonka's cane before.  It had tiny hundreds and thousands trapped inside.  It has showed to me that I need to take more notice of details in film costumes.  I noticed that Johnny Depp is smaller than he looks on telly.

 There were also two sets from the Fantastic Mr Fox animation. The first was Mr Fox's study.  It contained a replica of Roald Dahl's writing chair, which I thought was a nice touch. There was also the model of the pub from the same film.  Again there was a great deal of  detail - dustbins, Acer leaves and waste-pipes.  

The Museum visit has been helpful. It has reminded me not to be so serious about the project.  Dahl loved humour and I need to reflect this in my work. I am planning on making a mood board from the day.