James and the Giant Peach

"Yes, absolutely. I think it is one of his darkest books and a very sad book. It’s very gruesome, very macabre. It was Dahl’s first ever children’s book, written in 1961, fresh off the back of writing his short stories. One of his editors suggested to him that now he’d got the short story form down, maybe he could write books for children—because they’re short and because Dahl was very good at getting from A to B in an imaginative, wonderful way. It’s definitely darker and less measured than lots of his later children’s books, which are a bit nicer and a bit happier. I reread James and the Giant Peach recently. Right at the beginning it’s so sad that in James’s house, where he lives with Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, he can literally look out and see his old house, where he used to live with his parents. You find that out on the second page, and it’s just such a heartbreaking little detail that Roald puts in. So James is darker, but it’s equally fantastical, funny, comical and brilliant. It’s got all the good stuff. I think it’s really emblematic of Roald Dahl’s writing. James is a boy with a tragic backstory, unfortunately. His parents died in an accident and he lives with his horrible aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, and he comes across an old man who offers him glowing green seeds. They’re called ‘crocodile tongues’ in the books. The old man gives him some of these and tells him that they will change his life. And James is running back to his house and trips and falls and drops the crocodile tongues, which sink into the ground. When he wakes up the next day, there’s a giant peach on his tree. The peach breaks off and rolls away and James climbs in and meets all the insects who have been around the tree. They have also been affected by these crocodile tongues, and are now life-sized and can talk. “There is so much beautiful, detailed imagery. It’s so evocative with loads of different senses to think about. It was a book that you could really fall into” James and the insects go on this fabulous adventure across the sea, get circled by sharks, fly into the clouds—all sorts of adventures—and then eventually end up in New York and everyone lives happily ever after. That’s the story in a nutshell. I think it’s fair to say that his appeal is very enduring. There are lots of things coming out based on Roald Dahl; there’s The Witches film coming out in 2020. There are lots of different adaptations of his work. When you think you’ve seen them all, there are always new things to say or new ways to tell the story. We have all of Roald Dahl’s original manuscripts for all of his books, which are just a wealth of information. There are always items from the archive on display, as well as loads of family-friendly, hands-on activities about Roald Dahl’s life and stories. You can even peek inside Roald Dahl’s Writing Hut , where he wrote all his books for children. This was moved into the museum in 2012. One of the first things I did when I started here was just to read everything I could get my hands on. He made so many changes. You think Roald Dahl is an amazing author, which he is, but not even he could write a story without making a few mistakes along the way. He had to rein himself in. For instance, in Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl’s initial idea was to have the foxes stealing from the supermarket rather than the farmers. And it was an editor who actually said, ‘You know, what? Why doesn’t Mr Fox steal from some farmers instead?’ Dahl thought this was just such a brilliant notion. He took this seed of an idea from his editor and went off and created Boggis, Bunce and Bean. So, if it wasn’t for some input from others along the way, we wouldn’t have Fantastic Mr Fox . It was nice to discover that Roald Dahl was human. He made mistakes. No one can create a Fantastic Mr Fox at the first go—not even Roald Dahl. It takes skill and talent and effort and, gosh, he wrote so much, so many drafts for all his books. He put his heart and soul into them. And I think that’s something you can really see in the archives here. Editor’s note: In some countries boxsets of Roald Dahl’s books are available, very useful for entertaining children and as gifts."