Danny
Danny is the protagonist and narrator of the book. Living alone with his father in a caravan behind their car service station, Danny lives a pleasant childhood helping his father with mechanical work. Danny is grateful for his father's kindness and support. When he learns his father poaches pheasants, Danny worries. However, he helps his father, devising a strategy for catching more birds than ever before.
William
William is Danny's father. He is a poor mechanic who operates a service station that he owns. William is an intelligent, loving, and creative man. He surprises his son when he reveals that he loves to poach pheasants using techniques he learned from Danny's grandfather. Danny comments on the way his father smiles with his eyes, which lends his smiles a genuine quality.
Mr. Victor Hazell
Mr. Hazell is a wealthy brewery owner who also owns all the land surrounding Danny's father's filling station. Hazell looks like a pig, and has a pink face. He drives an expensive Rolls-Royce car. None of the locals like Mr. Hazell, whose authority they routinely undermine.
Doctor Spencer
Doctor Spencer is an elderly doctor and friend of Danny's father. Spencer is small and elf-like. Like most of Danny's father's friends, the doctor dislikes Hazell and once purposefully gave him an injection with a blunt needle.
Mrs. Clipstone
Mrs. Clipstone is the vicar's wife. As a "respectable woman," she is responsible for delivering the stolen pheasants to everyone Danny's father wants to share them with.
Danny's Mother
Danny's mother died when Danny was a four months old. Danny's father references her occasionally in the story, discussing how she also liked to poach pheasants with him, and how she was a fast sewer and knitter who made her own clothes. Danny comments that he doesn't know what to say when his father talks about his mother.
Sergeant Samways
Sergeant Samways is a local police sergeant with whom Danny's father is on good terms. When Hazell gives Danny's father grief about poaching his pheasants, the sergeant arrives on his bicycle to intervene, deceiving Hazell in the process. Sergeant Samways doesn't pronounce the aitches (i.e. the letter "H") at the beginning of words but will add unnecessary aitches to other words.
Rabbetts
Mr. Rabbetts is the head gamekeeper in Hazell's Wood. It is his responsibility to patrol the private forest and make sure no one poaches Mr. Hazell's pheasants. Danny and his father encounter Rabbetts after distributing their laced raisins in the clearing. Rabbetts always returns home for dinner after sunset, a fact Danny's father exploits when they return to poach pheasants after dark.
The Vicar
The vicar is the head of the local church. Although Danny presumes he is a law-abiding person, Danny learns that the vicar and his wife are connected to the underground world of poaching.
Captain Lancaster
Captain Lancaster is Danny's schoolteacher. Likely traumatized by WWII, Lancaster is a ruthless disciplinarian in the classroom. When he suspects Danny of cheating, he hits Danny's open palms with a cane he keeps in the room.
