''The Magic Finger'' is a British 1966 children's story, written by

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

. It was first published in the United States, by Harper & Row, as a picture book illustrated by

William Pène du Bois William Sherman Pène du Bois (May 9, 1916 – February 5, 1993) was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for ''The Twenty-One Balloons'', published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 194 ...

. Allen & Unwin published a Pène du Bois edition in the U.K. in 1968. Later editions have been illustrated by Pat Marriott,

Tony Ross Anthony Lee Ross (born 10 August 1938) is a British author and illustrator of children's picture books. In Britain, he is best known for writing and illustrating his Little Princess books and for illustrating the Horrid Henry series by Frances ...

, and

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake, (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his ...

. The novel was adapted into a 1990 TV special.

Synopsis

''The Magic Finger'' is narrated by an unnamed 8-year-old girl (voiced alternately by Anne Clements and

Caroline Quentin Caroline Quentin (born Caroline Jones; 11 July 1960) is an English actress, broadcaster and television presenter. Quentin became known for her television appearances: portraying Dorothy in ''Men Behaving Badly'' (1992–1998), Maddie Magellan in ...

in the United Kingdom), who is growing up on a remote rural

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

in the English

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, ...

, next door to the Gregg family who has a passion for hunting animals and birds. The title "Magic Finger" is an ability she has that activates inadvertently whenever she gets angry: the finger itself shoots out a beam of electrical energy that apparently seeks out whoever has angered the girl, with unpredictable consequences. One day, the girl sees Mr. Gregg and his two sons, (Philip and William, Philip also 8 years of age and William Gregg 11 years old,) returning home from a hunt with a deer that they have just killed, and they make fun of her when she shouts at them. In a rage, the unnamed 8-year-old girl puts the Magic Finger itself on the entire family: then they wake up the following morning to find that they have shrunk to bird-size and developed "ducks' wings" in place of their arms and hands. While trying out their new wings, the Greggs fly out of their beloved house, which is promptly occupied by four human-sized ducks with human arms and human hands, and they are all soon forced to build a nest in an old tree for the night. The following morning, the Greggs all find that, in a major reversal of their

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

s, three out of four of the ducks are holding the Greggs' hunting guns in their hands. Desperately, Mr and Mrs Gregg both persuade the ducks not to shoot them, but the mother duck (the only duck who never holds a gun) taunts them about their own fondness for shooting, especially since the previous day, they somehow shot all 6 of the duck's precious children. Mr Gregg tells the duck mother to give up shooting and he destroys all 3 guns with a big hammer, swearing never to hurt another

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

"or anything else again": the four ducks then head back towards the

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

where they live, before letting the Greggs leave their tree. Then, the Greggs all find themselves returned to normal by magic. The 8-year-old girl comes by the Greggs'

to see that the Gregg family (now changing their surname to

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

) have fully changed their ways and are now feeding and caring for the birds. As Philip and William tell the girl their entire story, the sound of

gunfire A gunshot is a single discharge of a gun, typically a man-portable firearm, producing a visible flash, a powerful and loud shockwave and often chemical gunshot residue. The term can also refer to a ballistic wound caused by such a discharge ...

in the distance attracts the girl's attention, and she feels the Magic Finger charging up again. The story ends, as the girl runs towards the sound that she can hear in the distance.

Television adaptation

In November 2021,

Magic Light Pictures Magic Light Pictures (founded in 2003 by producers Martin Pope and Michael Rose) is a London-based independent production company, which produces films and manages the children's brand ''The Gruffalo''. Productions Since 2009, ''Magic Light ...

(founded in 2003) announced that they and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

would team up to adapt ''The Magic Finger'' into an animated short for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

2022.

Voice Cast (UK)

* Rosabel Lawson as the 8-year-old

girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary ...

(the

Narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

) *

Tamsin Greig Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig (; born 12 July 1966) is an English actress, narrator and comedian. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Black Books'', Dr Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Green Wing'', Beverly Lincoln in Br ...

as Mrs Gregg and the Duck Mother *

Rob Brydon Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He played Dr Paul Hamilton in the Australian/British comedy series ''Supernova'', Bryn West in the BBC sitcom ''Gavin & Stacey'' a ...

as Mr Gregg *

Isaac Hempstead Wright Isaac Hempstead Wright is a British actor. He is best known for his role as Bran Stark in the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), which earned him a Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Supporting Actor in a TV Seri ...

as Philip Gregg * Dylan Issberner as William Gregg *

David Walliams David Edward Williams (born 20 August 1971), known professionally as David Walliams, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little B ...

as Mrs Winter (the 8-year-old girl's teacher)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Finger, The Children's books by Roald Dahl 1967 children's books British picture books Harper & Row books American picture books Hunting in popular culture British fantasy novels Books about magic