Teacher reunited with Roald Dahl's opal gift

Mark Taylor said it was like a fairy tale to visit the museum and see the opal stone on his first visit to the UK

A teacher from Australia was reunited with an opal gifted by his class to the children's author Roald Dahl more than 30 years ago.

Mark Taylor, 57, made a special trip to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, to see the precious gem while on a visit to the UK.

The world-renowned author had kept it on the desk in his writing hut at his home, Gipsy House.

He was given it by the class at Mintabie Area School in central Australia after doing a telephone link-up when he visited the country as part of his book tour promoting the recently published Matilda in 1989.

The opal stone is kept in the original spot on Dahl's desk in the museum

The children had been reading his books and were fascinated by the author, Mr Taylor said.

"He had a way of saying the most extraordinary and hilarious things, while remaining perfectly calm and teaching us at the same time," he added.

Mintabie, which is now an abandoned mining town, is more than 1,000km from Adelaide and a long way from facilities that other children would take for granted.

Mr Taylor said his students' faces transformed when Dahl told them how lucky they were to live in a place where treasures were dug up from the ground.

He recalled that Dahl told the class: "There could be treasures all around you, waiting to be found, and you might never know it. In fact, you could be sitting or standing on an incredible treasure now."

Mr Taylor said the author had asked if the students had ever found opal stones, to which the class responded they had.

An opal stone was duly sent to Roald Dahl via his publisher, Penguin.

Roald Dahl thanked the class for the opal stone in a letter

Steve Gardam, director of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, said: "The opal stone has been on the writing desk of Roald Dahl since he received it in 1989 and has remained there ever since.

"In 2011, Dahl's writing hut was transferred to the Museum and is one of the key exhibits here in Great Missenden."

Roald Dahl in his writing hut where he kept the opal on his desk along with the ball joint of his femur and shavings from his own spine