I’ve been having a bit of a Roald Dahl thing today. I’m tutoring a little girl to help her improve her literacy, and I thought that a great text to base the reading and writing activities around so that there would be an obvious theme for her while she practises writing for different purposes and gets to practise her reading would be George’s Marvellous Medicine.
There was always something which appealed to me about Roald Dahl’s description of George adding the various ingredients to the magic mixture which always appealed to me. Maybe it was partly George’s silly puns (Canary Seed – that ought to make the old bird sing) or the gloopy, glossy textures of paints, shampoos and ointments but I’ve always loved the great appeal to the senses in Dahl’s description, even though the stories are otherwise basic. I think that’s where their brilliance lies.
The lists of food Mr Fox stole from the mean farmers always made my stomach growl, never mind the descriptions of goodies in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. So I decided that I would bake a cake in tribute to Dahl’s food. A Bruce Bogtrotter vs Trunchbull masterpiece I am going to make a massive chocolate cake.
The Book and Biscuit 
Lovely post.
I’ve had the same copy of ‘The Twits’ for nearly 20 years, and it never fails to have me laugh out loud. Roald Dahl was my favourite author as a child so thanks for bringing back some memories
Thanks Ruthy 🙂 You can have a piece of the chocolate cake for that!
It’s funny that you meantion all the foodie references Dahl puts in his books, because years ago (when i was a pre teen) I stumbled upon a Roald Dahl cookbook in my library.
http://www.amazon.com/Roald-Dahls-Revolting-Recipes-Dahl/dp/0140378200
There’s great stuff in there, from sweet Willy Wonka treats, to gross concoctions out of the Twits, to THE famous medicide (in this case, a classic chicken soup).
It’s a cracker 🙂
I think I remember there being a Roald Dahl cookery programme for kids on the BBC when I was younger, though I may have invented it, but I’m sure they cooked the chocolate cake from that book on Blue Peter!