The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is a collection of seven stories written by Roald Dahl. They are generally regarded as being aimed for a slightly older audience than many of his other children's books.

The stories were written at varying times throughout his life, and are believed by many to reflect some of his best fiction writing. One of the stories is autobiographical and describes how he first became a writer; this is followed by another autobiographical piece describing some of Dahl's experiences in World War 2. Another is a non-fiction account of someone finding some treasure. The book was first published in 1977 by Jonathan Cape.

Contents

The Boy Who Talked with Animals

This is a first person fiction piece of medium length writing, telling of how the narrator remembers a child that used to be able to talk to animals, and as a consequence of this is able to save a turtle that would otherwise have been killed by some malicious fishermen.

The Hitch-hiker

This is another fictional first person narrative that simply charts an eventful journey that the narrator had when he picked up a hitch-hiker that turned out to be an extremely skilled thief - a 'handsmith'.

The Mildenhall Treasure

This is a non-fiction account of a laborer named Gordon Butcher that uncovered a large quantity of Roman treasure in a field that he was ploughing for a farmer named only as Ford.

The Swan

This is a third person fictional account of two boys named Ernie and Raymond that bully a smaller child, Peter Watson. Peter is quite a clever intellectual whom the other two boys regard as "nerdish". Unfortunately, Ernie has just received a shotgun as a birthday present from his father; this shotgun is involved in their tortuous 'games' with Peter, 'games' that include tying Peter down to a railway track and leaving him there as a train comes. This culminates when Ernie shoots a swan and forces Peter to 'wear' its wings. When they finally want to shoot him however, he is able to fly away from them using those wings.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

This is the central, largest story in the book, and is a fictional account of a rich bachelor named Henry Sugar who discovers how to gain special 'yogic' powers that allow him to see through doors, and also to see the reverse side of playing cards. Being an addicted gambler, he spends many years learning how to see on the other side of a card in order to cheat at casinos. After he completes his solitary training he is able to easily win in any game at a casino, but he find that his desire for money has been greatly diminished. After throwing all of his recent winnings out of his London apartment window, he sets about with a number of accomplices in order to get as much money from as many casinos as possible, and subsequently use his winnings in order to set up Orphanages around the world.

Lucky Break

This is a non-fictional account, similar to Roald Dahl's Boy and Going Solo albeit in a much concise form. It discusses the events in his life that lead him to becoming a writer, including a meeting with the writer C. S. Forester.

A Piece of Cake

This is a non-fiction account, originally written for C. S. Forester in order that he may get the gist of Dahl's story as a fighter pilot in World War 2. However, he was so impressed by the story (Dahl at the time did not believe himself to be anything approaching an accomplished writer) that it was sent straight off to his agent who had it published in the Saturday Evening Post. It is an autobiographical text descibing Dahl's life during the war, and how he was eventually injured and forced to leave the Mediteranean arena.