The Magic Pudding
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The Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is an Australian children's book written by Norman Lindsay. The story features a walking, talking pudding that likes to be eaten and never runs out. The pudding is owned by three companions (Bill Barnacle the sailor, Bunyip Bluegum the koala, and Sam Sawnoff the penguin) who engage in various adventures, happily eating all the while except when forced to defend their property from pudding thieves.
There are many short songs interspersed within the book, usually additional verses to a sea song, which begins with verses describing the merchant seaman's plight. Unlike those in Alice in Wonderland these do not appear to be parodies of pretentious poems. One song describes how the penguin rescued a girl (the only female in the book) and married her.
The book is divided into four "slices", referring to the pudding. And its origin is that of magical creation by the cook of Bill and Sam's merchant ship after it had sunk and all were starving on an iceberg - except for the cook, whimsically named "Curry and Rice". When Bill and Sam learned of the pudding, they apparently pushed the cook into the sea, and then forgot about it so they would not appear vicious. This they tell to Bunyip once he meets them.
The plot of each subsequent slice concerns absurd, childish masquerade as the party move about Australia. First, Bunyip Bluegum puts Bill Barnacle's hat on, and pushes its top in, so that he will not be recognized, and retrieves the pudding from a wombat and a possum. The wombat and the possum put on top hats and long black coats, to look respectable, and begin a lawsuit against the three heroes in the last "slice". During the period of the trial, the judge for the case and a court usher take the pudding and enjoy eating it themselves. The book ends abruptly with a happy ending that the three heroes settle down in a treehouse on land owned by a dog market-gardener who helped them in the last "slice" so that they will no more be pursued by those who wish to steal the pudding.
Lindsay, a well-known artist, illustrated the book himself with numerous black and white drawings. First published in 1918, The Magic Pudding is considered to be a children's classic, and continues to be reprinted.
A critcally derided animated feature-length film adaptation was released in 2000, with John Cleese in the starring role. It deviated heavily from Lindsay's book and was not a financial success.
[edit] Interesting Fact
This is often told by the tour guides and volunteers at Lindsay's estate, did you know Lindsay actually wrote the book on a bet with a fellow writer Bertram Stevens. Lindsay's assertion was that all anyone needed to capture the hearts of children in literature was "food and fighting". The fact that the book continues to be published 70 years on would seem to bear this out.
