Conn Iggulden - The Double Dangerous Book for Boys

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Thank you to the brilliantly named Jack Fogg of HarperCollins, as well as Zoe Berville and Sim Greenaway. I thanked Bernard Cornwell in the first book, as he helped us out of a very tricky situation. That still stands. Id like to thank Katie Espiner and Susan Watt as well, for everything they did. Victoria Hobbs, too, as my agent. I hope its understood that strong women, like strong men, are a joy to heaven.

On that subject, Id like to thank my daughters, Mia and Sophie, for all their help, despite the eye-rolling. I love you all more than you know. Not you, Bernard.

Contents

Thank you to all those who gave their time and knowledge when I needed it.

In particular: Johnny Ball, Andrew Snow, Helen Stone, David Iggulden, Daniel Martin, Shelagh Broughton and Ella Iggulden.

I n 2006, there didnt 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 treehouseafter Id 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 usfrom cloud formations and astronomy, to juggling and tripwires. When it was finished, we sent it to the publishers. We didnt set out to write a bestseller. We just wanted to celebrate the wonderful, daft ideas of boyhoodwhen 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 audienceto 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 dont 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 Id covered everything in the first book, but theres 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. Thats just as important todaythough how we missed picking a lock, making an elastic-band gun and learning sign language, Ill never know. In the intervening years, I wrote down a good idea whenever I heard one. Perhaps I always knew Id 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 airplaneand, yes, its even better than the last one. The world is full of fascinating things. Youll see.

Conn Iggulden

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

F or 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 grandfathers beans in resin to preserve them forever, 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 Army.

Yet it was also a chance to show our dad some of the things we knew and he didnt. Those sunny afternoons the three of us spent learning sign language or struggling to teach him how to solve a Rubiks 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

T o open a padlock or the cylinder lock of a door without a key, you need to have an idea of how that lock works. The process of picking the lock is actually fairly simple and involves just two tools. When we were young, all the spies and heroes on TV seemed to be able to do it in five seconds with a bent hairpin. It felt a little like a superpower. The truth is that its a little trickier, but not that much. While researching this, we managed to open an old padlockand that was one of the most satisfying moments of a lifetime.