Sophie Dahl (born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977) is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, The Man with the Dancing Eyes, was published in 2003 followed by Playing With the Grown-ups in 2007. In 2009, she wrote Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookery book which formed the basis for a six-part BBC Two series named The Delicious Miss Dahl. In 2011, she published her second cookery book From Season to Season. Her first children's book, Madame Badobedah, was released in 2019. She is the daughter of Tessa Dahl and Julian Holloway and the granddaughter of author Roald Dahl, actress Patricia Neal, and actor Stanley Holloway.
Early life and education
Dahl was born in London in 1977 to the actor Julian Holloway and the writer Tessa Dahl, who were unmarried Dahl's parents separated shortly after her birth. Through her mother, Dahl has three half-siblings. As a child, Sophie frequently spent time at both her maternal and paternal grandparents' houses in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, and East Preston, West Sussex, respectively. Dahl has noted that her childhood was "an odd one, but with such magic". Dahl attended 10 schools and lived in 17 homes in various locations including London, New York, and India.
Writing career
In 2003 Dahl published her first book, an illustrated novella and Times bestseller, The Man with the Dancing Eyes (Bloomsbury Publishing). From 2005, she was a contributing editor and regular columnist at Men's Vogue, until its closure in 2008. Her next books were Playing with the Grown-Ups (2007) and two cook books, Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights (2009) and From Season To Season (2011). She was a contributor to an anthology, Truth or Dare, edited by Justine Picardie, which included works by Zoë Heller and William Fiennes. She also provided introductions to the Puffin Classic new edition of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and the Virago Press re-issue of Stella Gibbons' 1938 novel Nightingale Wood – both released in April 2009 – and Nancy Mitford's Don't Tell Alfred, reissued by Penguin in March 2010.
In March and April 2010 a six-part cookery series, "The Delicious Miss Dahl", which Dahl wrote and presented, was broadcast on BBC 2. She wrote and presented a social history documentary about the Victorian cook Isabella Beeton, which was transmitted on BBC 2 on 29 September 2011.
Dahl was a contributing editor at British magazine Vogue for a decade, writing about subjects from cultural identity and the journey of refugees to Britain to the Proustian response to scent, winning a Jasmine Award for her column. She is a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveller, and has written essays for amongst others, The Guardian, the American edition of Vogue, The Observer and The New York Times Magazine.
It was announced in the Bookseller in 2019 that Dahl had been signed to a four-book deal with Walker Books. The first of these, Madame Badobedah, a children's picture book illustrated by Lauren O'Hara, was published in October 2019 and received a number of nominations and awards including a nomination for a Kate Greenaway Medal. It received a Parents' Choice Gold Award, and was selected as a 2019 Best Children’s Book by both the Guardian and The Sunday Times. Dahl's second book with Walker, The Worst Sleepover in the World, illustrated by Luciano Lozano, was published in October 2021.
Her seventh book, and third children's book, Madame Badobedah and The Old Bones, will be published by Walker Books in October 2023.
In 2020, Dahl became a monthly columnist and contributing editor at House & Garden magazine.
Modelling career
Dahl started modelling at the age of 18 after a meeting with Isabella Blow, who was then an editor at British Vogue. The following year she was initially referred to as "voluptuous". Losing weight during her twenties, she would subsequently model at a size some "considered too thin". Dahl made her debut on the catwalk at Lainey Keogh's London fashion week show, modelling Autumn/Winter knitwear. She went on to appear in advertising campaigns for Versace, Alexander McQueen, Boucheron, Pringle, Godiva, Banana Republic, Gap and Boodles amongst others. She appeared on the covers of both British and Italian Vogue, along with the covers of Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Red, Numero, and Tatler.