Between two writers there is often literary influence and sometimes more than influence – words, lines even whole plots can be plagiarised. But, here the ‘borrowing’ of structures is concrete rather than poetic – taking the form of a literal writing room…
Roald Dahl, arguably the greatest children’s author of all time, built his famous writing shed after visiting Dylan Thomas’s writing hut in Laugharne, Wales. Figuratively speaking, he picked it up, from its cliff-top perch overlooking the Tâf estuary and placed it at the bottom of his garden in Buckinghamshire.
Dylan Thomas’s original writing shed that became the model for Roald Dahl’s hut.
It was built to the exact dimensions of the Welsh poet’s retreat, 6ft x 7ft. And it was meant as a retreat – an escape from Dahl’s domestic life to a world of his imagination – a space of rather humble dimension, which could then open out into limitless dreaming.
The interior of Dylan Thomas’s writing hut at Laugharne.
The interior of Roald Dahl’s writing hut, originally at his house in Buckinghamshire and now moved piece by piece to The Roald Dahl museum.
Dahl told his children that wolves lived in the hut to stop them from disturbing his writing process! A process that involved sharpening six pencils, angling his lamp, and in the winter, climbing into a sleeping bag.
It was a daily habit caught beautifully in this comic animation made by a fan, using commentary by Dahl himself. Below, I have also included the original source, a classic Pebble Mill interview that is also well worth watching:
