It all starts with Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl – if you haven’t read this top 5 kids book of all time, then you are missing out. It’s a beautiful story of a boy who is cared for by his dad, his mum having passed away when he was tiny. They live in a rickety caravan with little possessions, but his dad cooks up all manner of homemade excitement via go-karts, fire lanterns, kites etc.
The meat of the story kicks off when Danny finds out that his dad is a poacher, disappearing off in the dark of the night to pinch pheasants from the very rich and exceedingly unpleasant landowner, Mr. Victor Hazel. His passion was in turn passed down from Danny’s grandfather, who was himself a highly creative poacher. Given the pheasants are protected by gamekeepers, who aren’t afraid to use their shotguns, his clever techniques meant the difference between a bounty of tasty birds and a bum full of shot.
Danny’s father then introduces a couple of these techniques – the first is the Horse-hair Stopper. I don’t want to spoil the story, so suffice to say it’s a simple but brilliant way to improve your chance of catching a pheasant.
The second technique is the Sticky Hat:
“Listen carefully,” he said, glancing again over his shoulder as though he expected to see a keeper or even the Duke of Buckingham himself at the caravan door. “Here’s how you do it. First of all you dig a little hole in the ground. Then you twist a piece of paper into the shape of a cone and you fit this into the hole, hollow end up, like a cup. Then you smear the inside of the paper cup with glue and drop in a few raisins. At the same time, you lay a trail of raisins along the ground leading up to it.”
“Now, the old pheasant comes pecking along the trail, and when he gets to the hole he pops his head inside to gobble up the raisins and the next thing he knows he’s got a paper hat stuck over his eyes and he can’t see a thing. Isn’t that a fantastic idea, Danny? My dad called it The Sticky Hat.”
Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
Aside from being just the most fabulous, warm, and adventurous book, I love that it describes these inventive poaching methods. I was always intrigued by their cleverness but also their simplicity; they stem from an interest in the world, a capacity for playfulness, and a sense of intellectual adventure.
Those are the values I hope to convey here.