Roald Dahl

Something by a fellow Twitter friend caught my eye this evening: news about Roald Dahl’s shed and how they want to raise £500k to move it down the road in great Missenden to the museum and fully restore it. Like Scott and Shackleton’s Cabins in the Antarctic, I am sure that piece by piece the items (toys, scraps of paper etc) on the table will be placed back exactly as found.

Now I, like other curious fans, might want to see this, for example, I can’t wait to get to Farley farm, where photographer Lee Miller lived and I found it fascinating to see Architect Ricardo Poro’s drawing table, where he designed those modernist Cuban schools.

But, to ‘move’ the writing hut? Oh I do understand that the Dahl family do not want tourists plundering through their garden and destroying the evidence in the shed and yes the temporary shed is withstanding some powerful winters, so perhaps move it to where people can see it whilst preserving it?

I do understand, but my gosh for me the writing shed and garden IS the writing shed. I am so curious to learn about how a space makes you react, create and behave and it is not simply the building alone, it is the total ambience of the place, the quiet of the land, the sound of the birds, the rustle of the trees….?

Well, I do understand as Roald Dahl is only with us in verse so perhaps……and his family do want to share him….. so…. on this occasion…IF they take photos of the garden and shed contained within….

Roald Dahl’s shed on BBC news

….In all honesty….. I would love a writing shed / photographic dark room….!

La

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