Danny, the Champion of the World

British author Roald Dahl first published Danny the Champion of the World in 1975. This award-winning children’s novel was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 1989. The story follows Danny and his single-father, William, as they concoct a plan to poach all of the pheasants from a mean, rich landowner’s woods.

Dahl’s children’s books are humorous and unsentimental, usually featuring a heroic young protagonist and an obnoxious adult antagonist. Dahl’s other works for children include The Gremlins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The BFG, The Twits, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, and Georges Marvelous Medicine. 

Plot Summary

Nine-year-old Danny lives with his father, William, in an old Romani caravan. Their caravan sits on a small piece of land in the south of England beside William’s filling station and workshop, where he makes a living as a mechanic. Danny’s mother died when he was four months old, so William raised him alone, and as far as Danny is concerned he had the best childhood a boy could wish for. William is a loving, attentive father, who teaches Danny everything there is to know about car mechanics, the countryside, and the local wildlife. Their life together is simple but idyllic.

Up until the age of nine, Danny believes his father is perfect. However, Danny wakes up one night to find William missing. On his return, William confesses to Danny that he has a deep, dark secret: He loves to poach. William describes the art of poaching, which has been passed down through generations, and shares wonderful poaching stories from his youth, sparking Danny’s interest. With Danny’s permission, William goes again to poach pheasants from Hazell’s Wood, which belongs to an obnoxious, wealthy landowner, Victor Hazell. William promises Danny he will be home by 10:30pm. At 2am, William is not home, so despite not knowing how to drive, Danny takes a customer’s car and drives to Hazell’s wood. Danny finds William with a broken ankle in a pit dug by Hazell’s game keepers. Together, they struggle out of the woods and back home.

On his return from the hospital the following day, all William can think about is getting revenge. Every year, Mr. Hazell holds an extravagant pheasant shooting party for all the “fancy folk” in England to start the season, and William wishes he could poach all of Hazell’s well-fed pheasants before the event but can’t fathom how. Danny comes up with the plan to lace raisins (pheasant’s favorite treat) with sleeping powder the doctors prescribed for William and scatter them in Hazell’s Wood before dusk. They call the plan “Sleeping Beauty.” William and Danny perfect the plan, and after a thrilling evening and night in the woods they poach a record-breaking 120 sleeping pheasants.

Many members of the tightknit community, who also despise Mr. Hazell, help William carry out their caper. Unfortunately, as the vicar’s wife is transporting the pheasants hidden in a modified baby carriage, the birds wake up. Clouds of dozy pheasants settle on William’s filling station, only to be spotted by Mr. Hazell as he drives past on his way to pick up his arriving guests. Furious, Mr. Hazell demands the birds be returned to him. However, since Mr. Hazell is unable to prove that William stole them, and the law says that pheasants belong to the persons whose land they settle on, Mr. Hazell can do nothing but fume. The village sergeant is William’s friend and thoroughly enjoys adding to Mr. Hazell’s misery by shooing the birds onto Hazell’s fancy Rolls Royce, pretending to help. Mr. Hazell drives away, distraught. Six pheasants overdose on the raisins and never wake up, enough for William, Danny, and their friends to plan their much-anticipated roasted pheasant dinners. Even though William and Danny lost most of their catch, they had a wonderful adventure together, and as they walk into town holding hands they plan their next escapade, trout ticking.