Follow the buzzyhum to the Roald Dahl Museum this summer. Find out about the creepy-crawlies, animals and birds in Roald Dahl’s books and discover the Chiltern countryside that inspired the stories. Learn about Dahl’s love of nature and follow his footsteps into the local woods…

 

Meet some marvellous authors and listen to their animal-tastic tales; hear about Dave the Pigeon’s adventures from Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey and Fables from the Stables with Gavin Puckett. Find out all you need to know about bird spotting with Mike Langman, bird expert and illustrator of the National Trust’s Complete Bird Spotter’s Kit, and Meet the Minibeasts with the Natural World Experience.

Make some crackling crafts including Paw Print Plates and Buzzwangling Bird Feeders, decorate some chocolate cattypiddlers, enjoy some Bird and Bug Games and find out more about Roald Dahl’s passion for growing plants in the Science-y Seeds workshops.

 

Set off on foot from the Museum and explore the village, woods and fields nearby. Every Tuesday you can enjoy guided Village and Countryside Trails, which take in sights such as the author’s grave at the church and Angling Spring Wood, where The Minpins live. Channel your inner artist on the Wondercrump Draw ‘n’ Walk with artist Sue Pownall, where you can sketch in the wood that inspired Fantastic Mr Fox.  Don’t miss the Swishwiffling Storytelling Walk around the village and into the woods with Chip Colquhoun, featuring local folklore and the stories told to Roald Dahl by his mother when he was a chiddler.

Roald Dahl Country

Roald Dahl lived in the Chilterns for over 40 years and wrote all his famous children’s books in his little writing hut in Great Missenden, now on display in the Museum. His stories were often inspired by the surrounding landscape. Danny, the Champion of the World and Fantastic Mr Fox are set in the countryside around Great Missenden and Matilda toddled down to the village library every day when her mother went off to play bingo in Aylesbury. Sophie was plucked from her bed in a little house on the High Street by The BFG.  In My Year, published posthumously in 1993, Dahl beautifully observes and describes the changing seasons in the Chiltern countryside.