The vital ingredient of childhood

I cannot imagine my childhood without Roald Dahl. Without hoping that one night I would catch the BFG blowing a good dream into my room, or fearing that one day I would meet a witch (I never liked squared toe shoes, either...). Without trips to the Roald Dahl Museum or rewatching (for the 10000th time) Matilda on a rainy afternoon. I even had a Roald Dahl birthday party when I was about 8, and I took all my friends on a trip around the local wood as we looked for clues in a grand Roald Dahl book quiz.

I read every single children's book he ever wrote. And when I grew older, I bought the Collected Short Stories and read all of those too (actually, I may have skipped a few of the boring war-related ones but I read all the others thrice to make up for it). I devoured his fascinating biography by Jeremy Treglown and wasn't in the least put off by the often unflattering descriptions. Sexist, racist, terrible father - who cares, he still writes the most wonderfully revolting rhymes.

So imagine my shock when, double-checking wikipedia for the name of the sequel to his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book (it's the Great Glass Elevator, if you're interested) I discovered that there was a missing chapter to the story! How could I, devoted reader of all things Roald Dahl, have missed this?!? The chapter is called The secret ordeal of Miranda Piker. If you also loved Charlie and Willy Wonka when you were a child, have you read the missing chapter? If not, click here.

That is why I love newspapers! Continuing in that spirit, here are a couple of articles I read in the Guardian over the weekend. Whilst they have a tendency to publish irritatingly pretentious and 'controversial' articles, they are always thought-provoking.

Stealth shoppers shun stores and splash out on luxuries online

Discover your inner fairy godmother

What dost thou maketh of that??