At the weekend we were invited to lunch with friends at their home in the charming Buckinghamshire village of Great Missenden.
I lobbied beforehand for a visit to the Roald Dahl Museum, which is situated on the high street, but as we were in the hands of our hosts, I wasn't certain we would be able to go along.
As luck would have it, a stroll through the woods, down the hill into the village, took us past the museum and everyone fancied stopping for a drink in the courtyard cafe outside.
My eight-year-old fancied a look and we took a quick tour of the rooms inside, which were decked out with Dahl displays and memorabilia.
I particularly liked hearing the author talking about his own stories in a filmed interview, and it was interesting to see that Johnny Depp has lent the purple coat and black hat he wore as Willy Wonka in the film of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Perhaps he drops in every now and then to reclaim the garments when he is in the mood for dressing up.
Dahl will always be remembered for his children's stories but he was a prolific writer and when I got home I searched my library to find copies of Boy and Going Solo, his memoirs, a chunky collection of his short stories, and Jeremy Treglown's biography, once borrowed and then kindly returned by my father-in-law.
A quick check of Dahl's bibliography reveals just how prolific he was, and there are some lesser-known works that I will now try to acquire.
His verse for kids is good too, particularly when it is accompanied by Quentin Blake's illustrations.
I won't bang on too much about how good a writer Dahl was — most people have worked that out already.
But I will recommend a visit to the museum, which has carefully recreated the interior of the author's writing shed.
I presume the actual shed is still situated at Gipsy House, which is just down the road from the museum, and the garden, I believe, is sometimes open to visitors as part of a national gardens scheme.