The author and former model Sophie Dahl, 42, is the granddaughter of the American actress Patricia Neal and the children’s author Roald Dahl – she was the inspiration for Sophie in the book The BFG. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, the jazz musician Jamie Cullum, and their two daughters, Lyra, 8, and Margot, 6.
From the start of my modelling career, I was written about in a heavily sexualised, Benny Hill-ish, jokey way. I was 18 and that definitely influenced how I felt the world saw me. The paparazzi in the early Noughties were quite scary. You’d be alone, walking down a street and suddenly six guys would jump out from behind a car and call you a whore to try to get
What I’ve learnt: Sophie Dahl
‘One of the greatest gifts my grandfather gave my family was that he made writing a viable career option’
Sophie Dahl
PA