The Double Dangerous Book for Boys

COPYRIGHT

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

FIRST EDITION

Text © Conn Iggulden, Arthur Iggulden and Cameron Iggulden, 2019

Illustrations © Nicolette Caven, 2019

Cover and internal design © Simeon Greenaway

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008332983

Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008299682

Version 2019-10-28

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Introduction

Notes from the Treehouse

Picking Locks

Extraordinary Stories – Part One: Ernest Shackleton

Old British Coins

Flying Machines

Questions About the World – Part One: What is the tallest mountain on earth? Why does the earth have a magnetic field? Where are the hottest and the coldest places on earth? What was Pangaea? Is the earth slowing down? What are the longest rivers?

Tying a Windsor Knot

Advice from Fighting Men

Kintsugi

The Fastest Laces in the West

Finding the Height of a Tree

How to Start a Fire with a Battery

Questions About the Law – Part One: Can the Queen be charged with a crime? Is treason still a crime? When can the police stop and search you? What is the highest court authority in Britain? Can you be tried twice for the same crime?

Chess Openings

Great British Trees

Hanging Tools on a Wall

Interesting Chemical Reactions

Regiments of the British Army

Making a Board Game

Great Tales of the Past

Making a Stink Bomb

Gods of Greece and Rome

Balloon Dog and Sword

Johnny Ball – Maths Puzzles I

Famous Horses

The Rules of Ultimate Frisbee

Solving the Rubik’s Cube

Great Ruins

Things to Do: Two Table Tricks

The Endless Card

The Commonwealth

Stress Balls and Rollers

Three Greek Legends Every Boy Should Know

Things to Do: Two Table Games

Extraordinary Stories – Part Two: Mount Cook, 1982

Making Perfume

Empires of Gold: Akkadian, Persian, Greek, Mayan, Roman, Mongol, Aztec, Ottoman, British

Johnny Ball – Maths Puzzles II

Two Great Card Games: Nomination Whist and Cheat

The Paper Box

Five Great Speeches

Things to Do: Frustration Games

The History of Navigation: The Ancients to the Mars Lander

Casting in Clear Resin

Five More Poems Every Boy Should Know

Famous Battles: Cunaxa, Brunanburh, Towton

The Summer Meal: Starter, Lasagne, Tiramisu

British Birds

Shotguns

Forgotten Explorers

How to Wire a Plug and Make an Inspection Lamp

Writing a Thank-You Letter

Five Great Mathematicians: Pythagoras, Euclid, Newton, Einstein, Hawking

The Best Paper Aeroplane in the World – Take Two

The Twelve Caesars

Jumping Paper Frog

Extraordinary Stories – Part Three: Victor Gregg

More Quotes from Shakespeare

Making an Igloo

British Prime Ministers

Making a Pencil Catapult

British Sign Language

Forty Quotations Worth Knowing

Questions About the Law – Part Two: Does the death penalty still exist? What rights do you have in a police station once you’re under arrest? How and when can you legally use force in self-defence? Who has the right to enter your home and when? What happens if you’re maliciously targeted by the police?

Elastic-Band Gun

Making a Cup of Coffee

Polishing Boots like the British Army

Questions About the World – Part Two: How many active volcanoes are there? How many satellites orbit the earth? How deep can we go? How do we generate electricity? What is the universe made of?

Extraordinary Stories – Part Four: Hunting a King

Johnny Ball – Maths Puzzles III

Strength Exercises Every Boy Should Do

More Books Every Boy Should Read

Things that Didn’t Go In

Imperial and Metric Measures

The Last Word

Acknowledgements

Additional contributors

Picture credits

About the Publisher

In this long-awaited follow-up to his much-loved bestseller, written with his sons Cameron and Arthur, Conn Iggulden presents a brand-new compendium of cunning schemes, projects, tricks, games and tales of extraordinary courage.

Whether it’s building a flying machine, learning how to pick a lock, discovering the world’s greatest speeches or mastering a Rubik’s cube, The Double Dangerous Book for Boys is the ultimate companion, to be cherished by readers and doers of all ages.

EPIGRAPH

‘Boys – you are here to study, and while you are at it, study hard. When you have got the chance to play outside, play hard. Do not forget this, that in the long run the man who shirks his work will shirk his play. I remember a professor in Yale speaking to me of a member of the Yale eleven some years ago, and saying: “That fellow is going to fail. He stands too low in his studies. He is slack there, and he will be slack when it comes to the hard work on the gridiron.” He did fail.

‘You are preparing yourself for the best work of life. During your schooldays, and in after-life, I earnestly believe in each of you having as good a time as possible, but making it come second to doing the best kind of work possible. And in your studies, and in your sports in school, and afterwards in life in doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow this rule – a rule I once heard preached on the football field: Don’t flinch, don’t foul, and hit the line hard.’

THE ADVICE OF US PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT, GIVEN TO THE READERS OF THE BOY’S OWN PAPER IN 1903

INTRODUCTION

In 2006, there didn’t seem to be many books of the kind I used to love. I wanted adventures, catapults, crystals, knowledge, history and craftsmanship. I wanted to read dozens of chapters, each different from the last. In short, I wanted a book I could hide in a treehouse – after I’d used it to build one. With my brother Harry, I worked for six months in a shed and wrote chapters on all the things that interested us – from cloud formations and astronomy, to juggling and tripwires. When it was finished, we sent it to the publishers. We didn’t set out to write a bestseller. We just wanted to celebrate the wonderful, daft ideas of boyhood – when all doors are open, the future is unwritten and summers seem to last a really long time.

Thank you to all those who recommended it to friends and family. You made the publisher reprint that red and gold hardback over and over. You gave the book to a wider audience – to sons, grandsons, nephews, brothers and fathers. We said it would appeal to ‘every boy from eight to eighty’ and that was about how it turned out. If I am remembered for just one book, if my tales of Caesar and Genghis and the Wars of the Roses are all forgotten, I don’t mind too much if someone dusts off the Dangerous Book in an attic and settles down to read with a smile.

I wrote this one with my two sons. One has become a young man since the original Dangerous Book came out. The other has reached the age of ten. He runs around like Huckleberry Finn and should wear shoes more often, probably. I thought for a while that I’d covered everything in the first book, but there’s nothing like raising boys for surprising you.

Twelve years have passed since I first roughed out a chapter on conkers for a publisher. I wrote then, ‘In this age of video games and mobile phones, there must still be a place for knots, treehouses and stories of incredible courage.’ That’s just as important today – though how we missed picking a lock, making an elastic-band gun and learning sign language, I’ll never know. In the intervening years, I wrote down a good idea whenever I heard one. Perhaps I always knew I’d go back and do another book. These are all new chapters, from casting things in resin, doing table tricks and wiring a lamp, to learning strength exercises, the twelve Caesars, stress balls and ancient ruins. There is also a design for a paper aeroplane – and, yes, it’s even better than the last one. The world is full of fascinating things. You’ll see.

Conn Iggulden

NOTES FROM THE TREEHOUSE

For us, this has been a chance to act like boys without consequences: to make catapults, build igloos and mix chemicals. We spent two days casting our grandfather’s beans in resin to preserve them for ever, and who knows how many evenings playing cards with our family. We learned to make a paper frog jump and to polish shoes like the British Army.

Yet it was also a chance to show our dad some of the things we knew and he didn’t. Those sunny afternoons the three of us spent learning sign language or struggling to teach him how to solve a Rubik’s cube will be some we never forget. For all that, we are very grateful.

So when we have sons of our own and we pick up this book, what will stay in our minds and our memories will not be individual triumphs and disasters.

No. In the end, what matters most is that we did these things together.

Cameron Iggulden Arthur Iggulden

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