Headscratchers / Danny, the Champion of the World

• Why does Danny's father insist on walking Danny to and from school every day? From other events in the book (Danny hunting for the fire balloon by himself), it was still in an era of Free-Range Children. As the journey is two miles each way, it would mean a large part of each day when Danny's father was not at the filling station to serve customers with petrol, who might turn up at any moment. This also seems inconsistent with the day before the great poaching expedition, when Danny writes "when I got home from school, my father was in the workshop". Was it in an era when rural filling stations had very limited opening hours, which would be known by the locals? This is also inconsistent with Danny's father mentioning that he sees Mr Hazell driving past the filling station at nine o' clock every day of the week, when presumably he would be on his way back from Danny's school.
  • He walks him to school simply because he's very close to his son and loves spending as much time with him as possible, even insisting on doing so after having broken his leg. Leading up to the big poaching night he obviously needs to get things ready and so misses that day. As for the last point that may just be a slip up on Dahl's part unless Danny's school had different opening times to what we might expect.
• How did they get water at the filling station? No running water is mentioned, and there is no mention of any rivers or streams nearby, but it's possible there is running water in the workshop. However, when Danny's father asks for a bowl of water, Danny goes to the caravan to fill it.