Danny, the Champion of the World

For the film based on the book, see Danny, the Champion of the World (film).

Danny, the Champion of the World
Original book cover of Danny, the Champion of the World featuring an illustration by Jill Bennett
Author(s)	Roald Dahl
Illustrator	Jill Bennett (original) Quentin Blake
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's
Publisher	Jonathan Cape (original) Penguin Books (current)
Publication date	1975
Media type	Print (Hardback, Paperback)
Pages	224
ISBN	0-435-12221-5

Danny, the Champion of the World is a 1975 children's book by Roald Dahl. The plot main centers on a young English boy, Danny, and his father, William, who live in a Gypsy vardo fixing cars for a living and partake in poaching pheasants. The story is based on Dahl's adult short story "Champion of the World" which appears in Claud's Dog. The book was first published in 1975 in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape. The book was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 1989 by Thames Television.

Plot

Danny was only four months old when his mother died and lived with his widowed father William in a Gypsy caravan, where William operates a filling station and garage, which alone of the surrounding land is not owned by the unpleasant local landlord, Mr. Victor Hazell. When Mr. Hazell threatens Danny without cause, William refuses to serve him; whereafter several inspectors visit the station, presumably at Mr. Hazell's direction. When Danny is only nine years old, he discovers that William has habitually taken part in poaching pheasants from Mr. Hazell's estate. William reveals methods of poaching, by placing a raisin inside a "Sticky Hat", so that the pheasant cannot flee, and by having a horse's tailhair, threaded through a raisin, cause the raisin to become lodged in the pheasant's throat. This in turn causes the pheasant to become preoccupied with trying to swallow the raisin, so that a poacher can easily catch it. On one occasion, Danny, waking up at around 2:10 a.m., discovers William's absence, and fearing that some misfortune has befallen him, drives an Austin Seven motor car to Hazell's Wood, where Danny eventually found William in a pit-trap, disabled by a broken ankle, and brings him home. William is treated by Doc Spencer, who is a friend of theirs and another poacher on Mr. Hazell's estate.

While William is recovering from his injury, he and Danny found out that Mr. Hazell's annual pheasant-shooting party is approaching, which he hosts to curry favor and prestige among the gentry, and decide to humiliate him by luring all the pheasants away from the forest, so there will be no pheasants to shoot. Danny suggests that he and William should put the contents of sleeping tablets prescribed by Doc Spencer inside raisins which the pheasants will then eat; and William dubs this new method the "Sleeping Beauty". Having poached 120 pheasants from Hazell's Wood, William and Danny hide the drugged pheasants at the local vicar's house, while they took a taxicab home. The next day, the vicar's wife delivers the sleeping pheasants in a specially-built oversized baby carriage. As she is walking toward them, the pheasants attempt to escape, but they fall back. With the help of Sgt. Samways, the local constable, William and Danny herd the groggy birds onto Mr. Hazell's Rolls Royce, where the birds scratch the paintwork and defecate on his car. When the pheasants have woken completely, they depart, and Mr. Hazell drives off in disgrace, his fancy car and shooting party ruined. The book ends when Danny is hailed as "the champion of the world" by William, Doc Spencer, and Sgt. Samways, of whom most acquire several pheasants who had died of taking too many sleeping-pills. William and Danny walk off towards town, intending to buy a new oven for cooking their pheasants. As they go, Danny dwells in his narration on William's imagination and vivacity.

TV Movie

Main article: Danny, the Champion of the World (film)

The book was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 1989 by Thames Television. It was directed by Gavin Millar and starred Jeremy Irons as Danny's father and his son Samuel Irons as Danny, with Robbie Coltrane as Victor Hazell. It was released to Region 2 DVD in 2006.

Relations to Other Roald Dahl Books

Danny recalls a bedtime story that his father used to tell him of a giant called the BFG who captures dreams and blows them into children's bedrooms at night. Roald Dahl had developed the character within the bedtime stories which he used to tell to his own children. He would later use the concept as the basis for the full length novel entitled The BFG.

Editions

• ISBN 0-435-12221-5 (hardcover, 1975)
• ISBN 0-14-032873-4 (paperback, 1988)
• ISBN 0-224-03749-8 (hardcover, 1994)
• ISBN 0-14-037157-5 (paperback, 1994)
• ISBN 0-224-06469-X (paperback, 2002)
• ISBN 0-375-81425-6 (hardcover, 2002)
• ISBN 0-375-91425-0 (library binding, 2002)
• ISBN 0-141-31132-0 (hardcover, 2004)