STORY BEHIND ROALD DAHL’S WRITING HUT

THAT LOOKS CHARMING: Dahl was inspired by Dylan Thomas’s writing shed. His friend, local handyman Wally Saunders, put it up for him in the mid-Fifties. Big-eared Wally was, allegedly, the inspiration for the BFG.

WHAT WAS INSIDE? As well as an armchair and writing board, it was full of ephemera — a piece of Dahl’s hip bone, removed in an operation, droppings from their pet goat, Alma, and a ball made from chocolate wrappers.

WHERE IS ALL THAT NOW? Inside the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, Bucks, where the author lived.

ANYTHING ELSE? Dahl described his hut as ‘ ... a place for dreaming and floating and whistling in the wind, as soft and silent and murky as a womb … ’

CAN I VISIT? Yes, the Roald Dahl Museum re-opens (it was closed after flooding) on October 20. Adults £7, children £4.70, roalddahl.com.