In the summer of 1998 I received an email from Axel Stein, a German man living in England who had actually visited Roald Dahl’s home, Gipsy House, in Great Missenden. I wrote him back and asked if he would mind sharing some of the photos he took there. Here is Mr. Stein’s reply, along with the wonderful pictures he sent to me as well.
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- Gipsy House front garden
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- Visitors in Gipsy House front garden
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- Inside Roald’s writing hut…
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- Gipsy caravan immortalized in Danny the Champion of the World
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998
From: Axel Stein
To: Kristine Howard
Subject: Re: Roald Dahl Page
Hi Kris !
Thank you for your fast reply. I have already prepared four pictures I will attach to this letter. I have made some more of the garden, his study and the small maze in the garden he probably planted and never saw finished.
I come from Germany, near Hamburg, and I am living here [in England] with my family. . .since three years and enjoying every minute here.
So one September day in the first time here my wife said, let’s visit Great Missenden, where Roald Dahl lived. It was less than one hour drive and we first came to the graveyard. The peaple from the church were selling tea and cake. We had our tea and I asked them to show me the grave of Roald. Later we drove through the village and asked someone for Gipsy House, which we soon found. There was a notice on the fence that there is no possibility to visit the house but next year on 22 June the Garden is open.
We marked this in our diary (actually our wedding anniversary ) and one year ago we went there again. It was raining, we spent half an hour in a greenhouse talking to other guests, then the rain disappeared and the crowds came. We ate chocolate cake from his recipe and listended to a man from the Dahl society telling about his life in Great Missenden. He showed us the ball of chocolate paper Roald had formed from several treat–remainings. It was a great Sunday afternoon.
I would really like to contribute to your Dahl-page. I have a scanner but also a digital camera, so I will certainly visit Aylesbury and take some fotos and post it to you. The pictures I have now enclosed are taken with a normal camera and scanned from my photo-album.
Enjoy the pictures and see whether you can use them for your page.
Axel