Writers’ Cribs

Roald Dahl

When Roald Dahl and his family were living in Gipsy House in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, UK, he realized his kids were so noisy that he needed his own writing space. After seeing Dylan Thomas’s shed in Wales, he built a shed of his own in his garden.

Dahl wrote all his major works here, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda.

Dahl collected lots of photos, objects, and memorabilia, including part of his own hip bone.

Jane Austen

For the last eight years of her life (during which four of her novels were published), Jane Austen, her mother, and her sister lived in a cottage in Hampshire, along the southern coast of England. The cottage