Boy: Tales of Childhood

Dahl attends Llandaff Cathedral School, a religious school for boys that is located about a mile from the family home, for two years between the ages of seven and nine. One of his two memories from this time is seeing a boy a few years older than him speeding down a hill on his bicycle with his arms folded “casually across his chest” (24). This leaves an impression because the young Dahl is impressed with the boy’s confident nonchalance.

Dahl’s other main memory from these years is having to face the terrifying Mrs. Pratchett, owner of the Llandaff sweetshop. Her shop contains alluring treats that the boys buy as often as their pocket money will allow, but to buy the sweets they must interact with Mrs. Pratchett, who is terrifying in her manner and revolting in her appearance. Dahl also remembers his friend Thwaites’s story—told to him by his father—that liquorice is made by boiling and crushing rats.

Dahl and his friends begin keeping sweets and other knickknacks under a loose floorboard at the back of their classroom. One day, inspecting their collection, they find a dead mouse. The boys, led by Dahl, hatch a plan to surreptitiously place the mouse in a jar of sweets in the sweetshop, hoping to scare Mrs.