An adventure (a snozzcumbing, phizzwiggling, gollumptious adventure)

It’s my birthday weekend! I love how overly excited that sounds, but it is and I am milking it in what I am callling “The Spectacularly Self-Indulgent Birthday Weekend” (patent pending).

Yesterday I went on phase one: a trip to The Roald Dahl Museum. OMG I KNOW RIGHT? Such a thing exists!! It is in Great Missenden. Transport wise, it’s very easy to get to if you have a car and there’s a station within comfy walking distance of the museum (I yomped it myself). And right opposite the museum, is a restorative and incredibly over-exciting sweet shop to sugar you up 🙂

So what did I think of the museum? It’s split into several galleries, looping around the side of a pretty (and enclosed) courtyard where you can sit and have drinks etc from Cafe Twit. You can do a virtual tour of the bigger gallery, the Solo Gallery, here.

Obviously it was heaving due to it being school holidays and it’s not a big site . If you want it quieter, I’d suggest going out of school holidays. There were obvious space pressures in certain galleries due to the presence of buggies and lots of children, and I could imagine that might prove intimidating to the shyer child (and adult!).

The museum itself is very much focused on interactivity and story creation, rather than the actual nature of Dahl’s books. I found this really interesting because it didn’t seem to mention the ‘darker’ side of his stories that much and instead focused on the creative process. Which is fine, just different. And I LOVED how they broke the creative process down in the room called ‘The Story Centre’. This was great and featured a lot of interactivity that thrilled me. It was mucky interactivity, it was getting hands dirty and doing stuff with words and it was probably the best part of the entire museum for me.  (And if you’re reading this Roald Dahl Museum, you SO need to introduce an adults only night…!).

What else? I LOVED THE TOILETS. Yes, I know that’s terribly random (and mum, do stop shaking your head 😉 ) but hear me out? I went in, to do, you know, what you do, and I almost had a heart attack of joy. Every now and then sound pipes out and you could wash your hands to the sounds of Dahl reading a story out loud, or do your … you knows …. to a comedy sound effect! Do note this if you’re going with children that are sensitive to surprises as it’s something that can be turned off if required (access statement here).

Enjoy the pics! 🙂

Tree Tunnel! Hold your breath.

The outside of the museum. Do you see the BFG?

The courtyard. Recognise those gates?

I loved the levels of exhbitis. There’s a lot of stuff very low to the ground.

A height chart of things in the Dahliverse.

I LOVE YOU GRAND HIGH WITCH.

The bench that greets you in the front corridor.

Wonka bar!

A segment of a display board. Really loved the mixtures of displays used throughout.

FINGERS. And they were hidden in a drawer that you had to open!

Words on the ground leading into the Writing Hut. Gorgeously done.

Magnet writing!

Here’s one I made earlier.

Some of the books hidden in one of the book nooks (hello Ella’s Big Chance!)

And some of the books in the other nook. Hi Malorie Blackman!

The creative room tucked away. Loved the displays and the focus on the kids work throughout.

Some of the colouring in sheets.

Roald Dahl on his way to work – I found this massively moving.

The stop motion set of Fantastic Mr Fox.

“Leaf us a message” – the museum’s comment board.

Exfabcoolo!

My favourite museum comment ever.

The sign on the front of the staff offices.

Some of the books in the story room.

And the story room itself.