Sophie Dahl Dahl was a contributing editor and regular columnist at "Men's Vogue", prior to its closure in 2008. Dahl is the author of three other books: "Playing with the Grown-Ups" (2008) 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" which was released
Frances Hodgson Burnett stressed the age difference—Townsend was ten years younger than she—and she referred to him as her secretary. Biographer Ann Thwaite doubts he loved her. She claims at that time the 50-year-old Burnett was "stout, rouged and unhealthy". Thwaite believes Townsend needed her to help with his acting career and support him financially. Within months, in a letter to her sister, she admitted the marriage was in trouble. She described Townsend as scarcely sane and hysterical. Thwaite argues Townsend blackmailed her into the marriage: he wanted money from her and he wanted to control her as a husband. Unable to bear