A group of school children have been invited to Windsor Great Park’s Cumberland Lodge to explore the recently discovered connection between the building and the Roald Dahl book The BFG.
Back in 2016 the University of Wales Press carried out some research on Dahl. It came to the conclusion that the house given to the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) at the end of the book was in fact Cumberland Lodge.
At the end of the much-loved novel, Dahl describes how the Queen gives the BFG a house in Windsor Great Park in which to live. It is described as having “tremendous high ceilings and enormous doors.” The researchers found that Dahl’s own chidlhood home in Cardiff was called Cumberland Lodge and that he had visited the Lodge just a few years before the book came out.
In celebration of the link between the Lodge and the BFG some 20 children from the Royal Windsor School visited the lodge with an expert in children’s literary, Dr Ann Alston of the University of West of England.
The lodge is now used as an educational charity that is intended to encourage social progress and challenge the causes of social division. It runs various events throughout the year, some of which are open to anyone who wants to join.
