Where will you hide when the night is over, and the sun beats down low.

On either side of the of the path there was a wilderness

 of nettles and blackberry thorns and long brown grass.

An enormous oak tree stood overshadowing the cottage.

Its massive spreading branches seemed to be enfolding 

and embracing the tiny building, 

and perhaps hiding it as well from the rest of the world.

Miss Honey, with one hand on the gate which she had not yet opened, 

turned to Matilda and said, "A poet called Dylan Thomas once wrote some lines 

that I think of every time I walk up this path."

Matilda waited, and Miss Honey, 

in a rather wonderful slow voice, began reciting the poem:

"Never and never, my girl riding far and near

In the land of the hearthstone tales, and spelled 

asleep,

Fear or believe that the wolf in the sheepwhite 

hood

Loping and bleating roughly and blithely shall

leap, my dear, my dear,

Out of a lair in the flocked leaves in the dew

dipped year

To eat you heart in the house in the rosy

wood."

There was a moment of silence, and Matilda,

 who had never before heard great romantic poetry spoken aloud, 

was profoundly moved.

 "It's like music," she whispered.

"It is music," Miss Honey said.

 And then, as though embarrassed at having revealed such a secret part of herself,

 she quickly pushed open the gate and walked up the path.

Matilda hung back. She was a bit frightened of this place now.

It seemed so unreal and remote and fantastic and so totally away from this earth. 

It was like and illustration in Grimm or Hans Andersen.

It was the house where the poor woodcutter lived with Hansel and Gretel

and where Red Riding Hood's grandmother lived 

and it was also the house of The Seven Dwarfs

and The Three Bears and all the rest of them.

It was straight out of a fairy-tale.

"Come along, my dear," Miss Honey called back,

and Matilda followed her up the path.

excerpt from "Matilda" by Roald Dahl

all photos by none other than Tim Walker

Sunday is birthday party day.

I'll be with so much family and friends

that I shall surely spend the day

laughing and twirling myself into exhaustion.

I can't wait!