Danny Champion of the World

"It’s Victor Hazell. He comes in to this community and he doesn’t understand how things are done and he tries to bring in abrupt changes, mostly to line his own pockets. Danny and his dad aren’t going to let him get away with this – and they do so in increasingly imaginative and hilarious ways. It’s glorious. It’s softer and gentler than the other Roald Dahl books . I knew people who were like the characters in this book. I recognised them. It was such a good story. It felt like my world and it connected with me as a little kid because I grew up in a forest and it’s all about the woods and going into the woods—these things were just completely familiar to me. Danny seemed plausible to me. I was very much inclined not to be on the side of Mr Victor Hazell. Honestly, I have never quite trusted people who say, “My favourite Roald Dahl is Matilda .” I tend to think, ‘you just don’t understand, you have to read Danny Champion of the World! ‘ It’s one of those books that I’ll read and reread."

"Yes. Danny and his dad are the two main characters in Danny Champion the World . My dad read a lot of these books to me and I loved this one. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me was the first one he read to me, which is why it’s my number one favourite of all time. But even when I was little, I loved the relationship between Danny and his dad, and I love the fact that Danny’s dad had to be sparky and interesting and that was what made Danny’s dad so much more amazing than any of Roald Dahl’s other adults, really. If you compare him to Matilda’s parents, Danny’s dad is on another level. Sign up here for our newsletter featuring the best children’s and young adult books, as recommended by authors, teachers, librarians and, of course, kids. And, again, it was the rural, pastoral themes that I knew about that attracted me. I had lots of pheasants around me. And I love the idea of two underdogs tricking really nasty evil people. And there’s so much great imagery in the book. There’s a bit where Danny and his father manage to poach pheasants by using sleeping powder poured into raisins. And there’s some lovely detailed imagery of slicing open the raisins, popping the capsules of sleeping powder, pouring in the white powder, sewing up the raisin, then giving them to the pheasants and the pheasants falling down with soft, fluffy bodies, going ‘thump’, or something like that—I paraphrase. There is so much beautiful, detailed imagery. It’s so evocative with loads of different senses to think about. It was a book that you could really fall into. No, you’re right—right at the end, Danny and his father walk off with some of the pheasants and go to buy an oven to cook them for dinner. Victor Hazell. Victor Hazell is the nasty man who owns the forest. He doesn’t let Danny and his father poach in them and he turns up at Danny’s father’s petrol station and is very rude."