Headline, June05, 2013

'''THIS -DANGEROUS​- AUTHOR'''

Before Conn Iggulden and his younger brother, Hal,  dropped a literary cheery bomb called : The Dangerous Book For Boys on Britain's parenting class, Conn was known mainly as the acclaimed, best selling author of the ''Emperor'' series of historical novels, about Julius Caesar.

Hal was director of the Holdfast Theatre Company, in Leicester, England. But during the first half of 2005, the brothers got together at Conn's Hertfordshire home to relive their childhood by carving arrowheads from chunks of flint, reviving old coin tricks, and occasionally, having it out with each other.

''My brother did describe me as a 'control freak stress monkey' at one point,'' he says.

The book that the Igguldens produced was not a memoir of their youth in the analog 70s and 80s but a testosterone fueled throwback of a field guide, a compendium, as Conn describes it  ''of everything we'd ever been interested in as kids.'' plus a few things the brothers thought were important now that they were adults.

Along with tutorials on how to fold a paper airplane, build a go-cart, study the heavens, and construct a homemade battery, the Igguldens layered in guides to proper English usage and Shakespearean quotes, and series of ''Extraordinary Stories'' such as the exploits of World War II R.A.F. fighter Ace Douglas Bader, who racked up the fifth-highest number of kills in the Royal Air force despite his flying with prosthetic legs.

None of the activities involve a computer, but because some of them require power tools, penknives, and  -in the case of a procedural on rabbit-hunting  -an air rifle and entrail work, Conn, who has three children of his own, says he and Hal, were prepared for some backlash. The outcry never came.

Instead, very soon thereafter, The Dangerous Book For Boys had spent 38 weeks on the London Times best-seller list, 12 of them in the No 1 spot, and had been short listed for the Galaxy British Book Awards of the Year. Later, only months later saw the release of the American Version.

In are Battle of Gettysburg and Stickball; out, the history of The British Empire and Cricket. But thumper still gets it in the end. As Conn explains, it is really not about penknives and air rifles, ''It's to do with the way the children are raised and what they consider important.''

Which is why he considers : ''Extraordinary Stories'' vital to the book. ''If you put in a story of incredible endurance or courage, you are saying that these are impressive values,'' he says.

''Boys today,won't get heroic stories in the way I did. And I they are desperately important.''

So, we are it seems, back to Boyhood Basics. Maybe Everything You Need  To Know You Could Learn From Conn.

With respectful dedication to all the parents in the world.

To Be Or Not To Be! 

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless