Grapevine will handle PR for the growing portfolio of merchandise across five of Dahl’s much loved stories.

The stories include Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, and The Enormous Crocodile within the UK.

Working closely with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Grapevine is initially focusing on consumer PR for the key Christmas gifting period ahead. The team has spent the last month working together to develop the first ever Roald Dahl Christmas Gift Guide, a stylish and visually-led booklet, which is being issued to key consumer media in both print and PDF format. The booklet will also be available from the Press Office and the DRi stand at BLE.

Other Christmas activity includes media desk drops, as well as leveraging retail partnerships and engaging with social influencers. Looking ahead to 2019, the focus will shift to year-round gifting and retail consumer PR, utilising the broad range of merchandise across all the licensed Roald Dahl properties.

Stephanie Griggs, licensing & design director at The Roald Dahl Story Company, commented: “We have a wonderfully vibrant and fun stable of products from our brilliant licensees, which are worthy of media coverage and are perfect for gifting year-round across many different categories. Kirsty is both a Great Missenden local and a Roald Dahl fan, and immediately understood our needs in driving consumer product to a wider audience. We’re delighted to be working with her and Julia to bring the wonderful world of Roald Dahl to consumers beyond just the storybooks.”

Kirsty Barr of Grapevine Global added: “I grew up with the world’s favourite storyteller, so have my own children, and I love living in the Buckinghamshire village where he lived and wrote his wonderful stories. My motto has always been that you have to truly believe and have passion for the brand in order to PR it with all you’ve got, and I can’t think of a better example to reinforce my belief. We are delighted to have been appointed by Steph and the team.”