Sophie Dahl (born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977)[1][2][3] is an English author and formerfashion model. Her first novel,The Man with the Dancing Eyes, was published in 2003 followed byPlaying With the Grown-ups in 2007. In 2009, she wroteMiss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookery book which formed the basis for a six-partBBC Two series namedThe Delicious Miss Dahl. In 2011, she published her second cookery bookFrom Season to Season. Her first children's book,Madame Badobedah, was released in 2019. She is the daughter ofTessa Dahl andJulian Holloway and the granddaughter of authorRoald Dahl, actressPatricia Neal, and actorStanley Holloway.
Dahl was born in London in 1977 to the actorJulian Holloway and the writerTessa Dahl, who were unmarried.[4][3] Dahl's parents separated shortly after her birth.[5] Through her mother, Dahl has three half-siblings.[4] As a child, Sophie frequently spent time at both her maternal and paternal grandparents' houses inGreat Missenden, Buckinghamshire, andEast Preston, West Sussex, respectively.[6][7] Dahl has noted that her childhood was "an odd one, but with such magic".[8] Dahl attended 10 schools and lived in 17 homes in various locations including London, New York, and India.[8]
In 2003, Dahl published her first book, an illustratednovella and Times bestseller,The Man with the Dancing Eyes (Bloomsbury Publishing).[9] From 2005, she was a contributing editor and regular columnist atMen's Vogue, until its closure in 2008. Her next books werePlaying with the Grown-Ups (2007)[10] and two cook books,Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights (2009)[11] andFrom Season To Season (2011).[12] She was a contributor to an anthology,Truth or Dare, edited by Justine Picardie, which included works byZoë Heller andWilliam Fiennes.[13] She also provided introductions to the Puffin Classic new edition ofThe Secret Garden byFrances Hodgson Burnett,[14] and theVirago Press re-issue ofStella Gibbons' 1938 novelNightingale Wood – both released in April 2009 – and Nancy Mitford'sDon't Tell Alfred, reissued by Penguin in March 2010.[15]
In March and April 2010, a six-part cookery series, "The Delicious Miss Dahl", which Dahl wrote and presented, was broadcast onBBC 2. She wrote and presented a social history documentary about the Victorian cookIsabella Beeton, which was transmitted on BBC 2 on 29 September 2011.[16]
Dahl was a contributing editor at British magazineVogue for a decade, writing about subjects from cultural identity and the journey of refugees to Britain[17] to the Proustian response to scent, winning a Jasmine Award for her column.[18] She is a contributing editor atCondé Nast Traveller, and has written essays for amongst others,The Guardian,[19] the American edition ofVogue,The Observer[20] andThe New York Times Magazine.[21]
It was announced in theBookseller in 2019 that Dahl had been signed to a four-book deal withWalker 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 aKate Greenaway Medal. It received aParents' Choice Gold Award, and was selected as a 2019 Best Children’s Book by both the Guardian and The Sunday Times.[22][23][24][25][26] Dahl's second book with Walker,The Worst Sleepover in the World, illustrated byLuciano Lozano, was published in October 2021.[27]
Her seventh book, and third children's book,Madame Badobedah and The Old Bones, was published by Walker Books in October 2023.
In 2020, Dahl became a monthly columnist and contributing editor atHouse & Garden magazine.[28]
Dahl started modelling at the age of 18 after a chance meeting withIsabella Blow, who was then an editor atBritish Vogue.[29] The following year she made her debut on the catwalk at Lainey Keogh's London fashion week show, modelling Autumn/Winter knitwear.[30] She went on to appear in advertising campaigns forVersace,Alexander McQueen, Boucheron,Pringle, Godiva,Banana Republic,Gap and Boodles amongst others.[31][32] She appeared on the covers of both British and ItalianVogue,[33][34] along with the covers of Elle,[35]Harpers Bazaar,[36]Red,[37]Numero, andTatler.[38]
Dahl's paternal grandparents were the actorStanley Holloway and his wife, Violet (née Lane), a former chorus dancer.[42] Dahl's paternal lineage has been associated with the stage since at least 1850; Charles Bernard (1830–1894), a great-uncle to Stanley Holloway, was a Shakespearean actor and theatre manager in London and the English provinces. Bernard's son,Oliver Percy Bernard (1881–1939), was an architect and scenic designer, responsible for the sets forSir Thomas Beecham'sRing Cycle atCovent Garden.[43][44] Through Bernard, Dahl is related to his sons, the poet and translatorOliver Bernard, the photographerBruce Bernard,[45] and the writerJeffrey Bernard.[42][45] Dahl's maternal grandparents were the authorRoald Dahl and the American actressPatricia Neal.[46]
On 9 January 2010, Dahl married the singerJamie Cullum.[47] They had their first child, a daughter, in 2011.[48] The couple had a second daughter in 2013.[49] The family lives inBuckinghamshire.[50][51]
Dahl is an ambassador for Place2Be, a charity which provides mental health support and advocacy in schools across the UK.[52]
