Great Missenden

Roald Dahl spent most of his writing life in Great Missenden, turning out stories in which comfortable, greedy grown-ups get exactly what's coming to them, and the village has very politely never taken it personally. The coaching inn that once watered horses on the London road is now an estate agency, which is the most honest rebrand on the High Street. Prime ministers and a spy novelist once lived here and took the train into Marylebone, and it still carries itself as if it expects them back. It is the first stop on the line outside the London fare zones, and it has priced itself like the last one inside.