A Rather Peculiar Thing Happened

“After James Henry Trotter had been living with his aunts for three whole years there came a morning when something rather peculiar happened to him. And this thing, which as I say was only rather peculiar, soon caused a second thing to happen which was very peculiar. And then the very peculiar thing, in its own turn, caused a really fantastically peculiar thing to occur.”

If you’ve yet to read this story, a spoiler alert is in order…

For those already familiar, you might remember that James soon met an old man who handed him a bag of crocodile tongues and rattled off a few equally fantastical instructions that he promised, if followed correctly, would provide James with the full power of their magic. Before James had the chance to do as he was told, he was startled by the sight of his approaching cold-hearted aunts and dropped the bag, accidentally releasing the enchanted tongues under a withered peach tree near his dreadful home, where they quickly disappeared into the ground.

But because things often have a way of working out in the end, James would later learn that this mishap was actually a blessing in disguise. It provided him, nearly instantaneously, with a way to escape his horrible aunts: a peach that grew impossibly large overnight (think big enough to exist inside it). His aunts tried turning the peach into a money-making tourist attraction, but, while they slept, James snuck out, crawling into a hidden door along the bottom of the peach. With the help of his new anthropomorphic insect friends that he discovered within the colossal fruit, he cut the peach's stem and held tight as they rolled down the hill, squashing Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker along the way.

The unexpected journey that James and his friends embarked upon in that moment would not only forever release James from the grasp of his wicked aunts but it would also teach him valuable life lessons.

The story (which nearly featured a giant cherry 🍒, instead of a peach 🍑) was Roald Dahl’s second children's book (he previously wrote short stories for adults), and some think it may have been inspired by the renowned Japanese folktale Momotaro, which shares some similarities. Dahl revealed that many of the characters were inspired by his daughter, whose opinion that all of the interesting animals had already been written about by other authors led him to create a multi-legged cast of bugs—including an ostentatious, yet loyal centipede with fewer legs than he claimed to have.

While Dahl’s frequently challenged and banned book includes themes of death (James’ parents were eaten by a rhinoceros), good versus evil, and other macabre tropes, it also centers around the power of friendship, imagination, and personal growth. Dahl believed that his humorous and unconventional characters helped make darker themes easier for children to understand and cope with—especially when it came to overcoming adversity, as in James’ case.

Like the giant peach that set James free, the rotund, semi-black opals in our Peaches and Dreams ring conceal a magical quality, revealing colorful pinfire and flashes of peach for those who dare look within and imagine what is truly possible. With an ombré array of juicy peach sapphires, this epic fruit-borne voyage (and an inspiring secret message) awaits its destined owner.