A Confident Loner

Sophie couldn’t sleep.

A brilliant moonbeam was slanting through a gap in the curtains. It was shining right on to her pillow.

The other children in the dormitory had been asleep for hours.

Sophie closed her eyes and lay quite still. She tried very hard to doze off.

It was no good. The moonbeam was like a silver blade slicing through the room on to her face.

The house was absolutely silent. No voices came up from downstairs. There were no footsteps on the floor above either.

The window behind the curtain was wide open, but nobody was walking on the pavement outside. No cars went by on the street. Not the tiniest sound could be heard anywhere. Sophie had never known such a silence.

Perhaps, she told herself, this is what they called the witching hour.

The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.

As a child I used to be able to recite this story, The BFG, word for word for about twenty minutes. I had the cassette tape, and I always had a wonderful memory for things like that. (This now manifests itself in my ability to remember lyrics.) It's a stunning experience to re-read this as an almost-grownup. Even though I don't immediately recall the words of the story reading them now, it's as if I can faintly hear the echo of remembrance - and even stranger, I sense that this writing has influenced my thoughts and my own writing - without my even being aware of it.

Sophie Dahl, the inspiration for this character, is the granddaughter of the wonderful Roald Dahl, author of stories like James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches and, of course, The BFG. She has a cooking show on Food Channel in which she cooks according to certain themes or "moods" each week, such as melancholy or self-indulgence. She is quite captivating to watch and I have fallen a little bit in love. My mum and I have observed that her face reminds us of our friend Mari Day crossed with that of Petra Bagust. It's strange when people can remind us so strongly of others and be utterly unrelated.

Last week, "the delicious Miss Dahl" talked about dining alone. She said she always admires people who are confident enough to eat alone at a restaurant or a café - that those things which are deemed in school to be "uncool" become infinitely cooler as you get older. So today I took a leaf out of Sophie's book, and I went to a café with a book (a biography of Sylvia Plath) and a notebook & pen, and passed a wonderful afternoon as a confident loner. My verdict is: I thoroughly recommend it. There is no pressure to talk or to leave before you're ready - and you can people-watch quite unashamedly, without having to divide attention between the fascinating action playing out around you and conversation with somebody else!

Tell me about one of your favourite stories from childhood.
And: what are your views on dining alone? Or even going to films alone? That's something I haven't done yet.