Backlash as Dahl Wants £500,000 to Save Grandad’s Garden Shed

Garden sheds aren't often cause for controversy but Sophie Dahl, model, TV chef and wife to jazz singer Jamie Cullum, has caused a stir by pleading to the public for £500,000 to save the garden shed in which her grandfather Roald Dahl wrote many of his timeless children's classics.

The Dahl family are bidding to raise the exorbitant fee in order to transport this most famous of garden sheds from the Dahl family home, to the nearby Roald Dahl Museum. In the Garden shed, Dahl wrote some of his most famous work, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Big Friendly Giant, James and the Giant Peach and The Twits.

Untouched since his death in 1990, the garden shed still holds the author's favourite armchair, old yellow legal pad. The children's favourite wrote all of his work in pencil and wrapped his legs in a sleeping bag when the shed got cold.

Dahl's widow Felicity stressed that 'terribly important to save it for years to come', but not everybody has been so supportive of the cause; some believing that garden sheds, however significant, might not warrant such a huge outlay.

Expressing his opinion on Twitter, writer Nicholas Pegg said 'Top model (& Jamie Cullum's wife) Sophie Dahl wants us to raise £0.5 million to save her best selling grandpas shed. Am I'm missing something?' and he didn't stop there:

'A preposterously wealthy family pleading for cash for its legacy? It sounds like a lost Dahl story'

Others were perhaps even less gracious, one Twitter user exclaiming 'Roald Dahl's shed needs to be renovated – Sophie could earn that on one modelling job. The Big Stingy Giant'.

The Roald Dahl Museum already charges for admission and is owned by the Dahl estate. Amelia Foster of the Dahl Museum said that the Dahl family had already made a significant financial contribution to the project, and Sophie Dahl has since tried to temper the response by saying that they were not begging for the cause, but the public could donate if they so wished.

As far as garden sheds go, the one at the bottom of the Dahl garden is fairly controversial indeed.