Spiffing Stuff!

As the popularity of Schott’s Original Miscellany and Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze? have shown, in recent years there has been a huge public demand for books chock-full of strangely compelling nuggets of information that we can regurgitate to our enthralled friends at the dinner table. Canny brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden seem to have fully understood this fact, and in The Dangerous Book For Boys (HarperCollins, 2006), might even have created the most enduring read in the trivia text market.

The Dangerous Book For Boys is at its heart at a book for big kids; a tribute to old boys comics like Eagle, it’s a deliberately old-fashioned read stuffed full of things you weren’t even aware you wanted to know, from how to beat someone at conkers, to incredible stories of bravery and daring. It’s the way this information is related so tantalisingly that gives the book its greatest attraction; it’s so simple, yet filled with such verve and enthusiasm that instructions on how to make a bow and arrow will have you getting the saw and wood out and wondering why the National Curriculum didn’t teach us things like this. There’s even a section on how to understand- ewww! Girls! Which is bloody useful for those of us who don’t understand them now, never mind in childhood.

It’s also hard to resist the unashamed sentimentality for a lost Britain; this isn’t one for the PC brigade that hangs about making sure kids can’t get on the swings in case they get hurt. It’s got all manner of information on how to injure yourself in all manner of impressive pursuits, from how to build tree houses to constructing go-karts- something kids today just don’t seem to do. Given this fact, The Dangerous Book For Boys can even be interpreted as a sociological text that shows us, in spite of its primitiveness, that the pleasures and activities of a long-lost boyhood were ultimately far more rewarding and enjoyable than sitting round watching a TV all day.

For that reason, The Dangerous Book For Boys is ideal if you’d like to introduce children today to what it’s actually like in that place called outside.