Wonka, p.1
Wonka, page 1
Books by Roald Dahl
The BFG
Billy and the Minpins
Boy: Tales of Childhood
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Danny the Champion of the World
Dirty Beasts
The Enormous Crocodile
Esio Trot
Fantastic Mr. Fox
George’s Marvelous Medicine
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Going Solo
James and the Giant Peach
The Magic Finger
Matilda
The Missing Golden Ticket and Other Splendiferous Secrets
Revolting Rhymes
The Twits
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
The Witches
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
First published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books UK, 2023
First published in the United States of America by Viking,
an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2023
Story and cover art copyright © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
WONKA and all related characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s23)
Text copyright © 2023 by The Roald Dahl Story Company
ROALD DAHL is a registered trademark of The Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
Viking & colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
The Penguin colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Books Limited.
Visit us online at PenguinRandomHouse.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 9780593528686 (hardcover)
ISBN 9780593690758 (international edition)
ISBN 9780593528709 (ebook)
Design by Dynamo Limited, adapted for ebook by Andrew Wheatley
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
pid_prh_6.1_145816690_c0_r0
How Willy Became Wonka
The Journey of an Incredible Story
Willy Wonka—Roald Dahl’s marvelous chocolate inventor from his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—inspired the story behind the major motion picture Wonka. Paul King drew from the classic book to create this story, which he co-wrote for the screen with Simon Farnaby, of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician, and chocolate-maker becomes the Willy Wonka we know today. It has been adapted and brought to the page by bestselling children’s author Sibéal Pounder—an expert in crafting stories full of irreverent humor, charismatic characters, and magic for young readers.
Roald Dahl was the author of the much-loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many other brilliant stories. It is the world and characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and in particular the character of Willy Wonka, that inspired this story of how Willy became Wonka.
Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian, and medical inventor. In addition to writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he was the author of Matilda, The BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and many more.
Paul King is a lifelong fan of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and for his movie Wonka, he decided he wanted to tell the story of the events before the book takes place. He created the adventure you hold in your hands and partnered up with Simon Farnaby to write the screenplay for the film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka.
Paul King is a BAFTA-nominated writer/director who works in both film and television. In 2009, King wrote and directed his first feature film, Bunny and the Bull, starring Simon Farnaby and Edward Hogg. King directed all three series of The Mighty Boosh, earning him a BAFTA nomination for Best New Director in 2005. The BBC comedy aired in the US on Adult Swim. His most recent work for the small screen includes directing and executive producing episodes of the 2020 Netflix series Space Force, starring Steve Carell.
King then went on to co-write and direct Paddington in 2014, a film which received both critical and commercial success worldwide, including BAFTA nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best British Film. King next co-wrote and directed Paddington 2, released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2017 to great critical acclaim. Both Paddington movies were co-written with Simon Farnaby.
Simon Farnaby co-scripted Wonka, alongside Paul King, and appears in an on-screen role. He is an actor and writer whose starring film credits include Burke & Hare (directed by John Landis, 2010); Your Highness (directed by David Gordon Green, 2011); Bill (directed by Richard Bracewell, 2015), for BBC Films, loosely based on the early life of William Shakespeare; and Bunny and the Bull (directed by Paul King, 2009), for Film4. He also appeared in writer/director King’s critically acclaimed BAFTA-nominated hit Paddington and reprised his role for the equally acclaimed sequel, Paddington 2, which he co-wrote with King, receiving two BAFTA nominations himself.
Sibéal Pounder, bestselling children’s author, has brought this story to the page, adapting it from the screenplay with extraordinary skill.
She is the author of the bestselling Witch Wars and Bad Mermaids series of books, Neon’s Secret Universe, and the Christmas tale Tinsel. Her debut, Witch Wars, was shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. The Bad Mermaids series was a World Book Day title and a Sunday Times bestseller. Before becoming a full-time author, Pounder worked for the Financial Times.
Contents
Prologue: Here Comes Wonka
Chapter 1: City of Dreams
Chapter 2: Scrubitt and Bleacher
Chapter 3: Hoverchocs
Chapter 4: Always Read the Small Print
Chapter 5: Silver Linings
Chapter 6: The Vault
Chapter 7: The Aristocrat
Chapter 8: The Party Choc
Chapter 9: The Green Ledger
Chapter 10: A Magic Trick
Chapter 11: You’ve Never Had a Chocolate Like This
Chapter 12: Gotcha!
Chapter 13: The Shop
Chapter 14: That Girl
Chapter 15: Dog
Chapter 16: The Grand Opening
Chapter 17: Poison
Chapter 18: A One-Way Ticket
Chapter 19: Settling the Bill
Chapter 20: Three Letters
Chapter 21: Uncovering the Code
Chapter 22: Abigail Is on the Loose
Chapter 23: Flamingo Jam
Chapter 24: The Vault and the Truth
Chapter 25: Death by Chocolate
Chapter 26: Oompa-Loompa in an Elevator
Chapter 27: The Empty Jar
Chapter 28: Arrest Them
Chapter 29: Dreams and Promises
Chapter 30: Z
Epilogue: Wonka
_145816690_
Prologue
Here Comes Wonka
Some children are born to be chocolate makers. This was certainly true of Willy Wonka.
Yet, for a long time, no one would’ve thought it. For starters, he almost never ate chocolate. In fact, he ate only one bar a year.
One day, he would grow up to live in the world’s biggest chocolate factory, but as a young boy, Willy Wonka lived on the world’s smallest boat. It was an old narrow boat, with a tiller painted in multicolored stripes and a cozy cabin with handsewn curtains. Inside there was just a single bed with a soft knitted blanket (where Willy slept), an armchair (where his mother slept), a stove, and a kitchen filled with broken cupboards and a worm-eaten dining table. The woodworms ate more at that table than the Wonkas ever did.
Everything about the beginning of this story is small—the small boy, the small quantity of chocolate, the small boat, and the small family who lived aboard it. Willy Wonka’s family was almost as small as a family could be. There was Willy, of course, and his mother.
They moored their small boat on a quiet stretch of the river, and, as not many people from town ventured there, they often had the lush riverbank all to themselves. It was one of Willy’s favorite places. There was tall grass for lazing in, sprinkled with buttercups and rhododendrons flowering in colors of pink and mauve and red. Willy’s favorite part was the gigantic willow tree, with its thick branches that swooped low over the boat before dipping into the river. He thought of the tree as another member of the family—a twiggy old protector of their small but grand life.
Not many people would see their life as grand, of course, but Willy Wonka did. He could see what others couldn’t because he had the most w onderful imagination. Willy’s imagination would one day become as famous as his chocolate, but before it belonged to the world, it was small and new and belonged only to him. His mother was the one who nurtured it, letting it grow wild, so it could spin off into places no imagination had been before.
And then there was the chocolate. The one bar. It wasn’t much, but it was enough, because it was the best bar in the world.
His mother would make it for his birthday, and as the special day approached, he would feel the excitement bubbling up in him until he thought he might burst.
The chocolate-making ritual was always the same: his mother would tip a bag of cocoa beans onto the table and carefully count them out. He’d watch her pluck them from the table, one by one, and his mouth would begin to water. It took her all year to save up enough money to buy the right amount for one bar, and he could tell she was as excited about making it for him as he was about eating it.
When the counting stage was finished, she’d throw the beans in a pot and begin crushing and whipping and stirring, and the whole room would be engulfed in a chocolaty steam. It was so thick and delicious, it felt like being swept up in the most scrumptious cloud. Oh, how he loved to watch her stir the thick, bubbling mixture!
As his mother made magic, Willy took long deep sniffs of the rich, heavy smell and knew there would be no adventure in the world that he loved more than watching his mama make chocolate.
Soon, the delicious bar of chocolate would be waiting for him on the table, and he’d spend the rest of the day walking around with a melted-chocolate mustache and a big grin.
It was like that every year, and it was perfect.
“You know, Mama,” he said one year as they huddled around the table making chocolate, “I bet you make the best chocolate in the whole world. I’d taste all the chocolate that ever existed just to prove it!”
“Do you know where they say the very best chocolate in the world comes from?” she replied, looking around as if she was readying to tell a great secret. “The Galeries Gourmet. That’s where the finest chocolate makers have their shops.”
“Theirs can’t be better than yours, Mama,” Willy said. “It’s impossible!”
She smiled. “Well, as it so happens, I do have a little secret that even those fancy pants don’t know.”
“What is it?” Willy asked, edging closer. He wanted to know the secret more than he’d ever wanted to know anything in his whole life.
“I’ll tell you one day,” she said. “Now, while the chocolate sets, would you like to open your present?”
“We should go, Mama!” he cried suddenly, making her jump.
“Where’s that, then?”
“To the Galeries Gourmet!” he said, practically bouncing on the spot. “We could start a shop!”
She raised a curious eyebrow. “What? Us?”
“Yes! With our name above the door and everything. wonka! Everyone in the world would want our chocolate. Think how happy we could make people!”
His mother brushed some chocolate dust from her apron and smiled. “Oh, I can see it now. A fine shop, tables piled high with chocolate!”
Willy’s eyes grew wide as the place materialized in his mind. “And the tables would be made of chocolate! The whole shop would be made of chocolate!”
His mother beamed. “What a wonderful dream, Willy.”
He slumped. “Is that all it is? Just a dream?”
“Hey, now,” she said. “Every good thing in this world started with a dream. So you hold on to yours. And when you do share your chocolate with the world, I’ll be right there beside you.”
“You promise?” he whispered.
“I pinkie promise,” she said with a smile. “And that’s the most solemn vow there is.” Then she took a piece of paper, which she’d set aside to wrap the chocolate, and wrote wonka across it, adding a swish and a swirl to the W and carefully coloring it in.
Once she’d finished, she handed Willy something wrapped in old newspaper. “Your present,” she said. “The magician in town was selling it. Did me a good deal.”
Willy beamed and began ripping the package open, his fingers working fast to tear the inky paper.
Inside, he found a new coat. He pulled it on; his hands barely went past the elbows.
“You’ll grow into it,” his mother said. “One day you will—and, oh, the adventures you’ll have in it!”
The coat came with a tall hat. Slowly he placed it on his head and rose to his feet.
His mother handed him his chocolate, small and still warm, and he cradled it in his hands like the most precious prize.
“Mustn’t forget the most delicious bit,” she said with a wink.
He beamed at her, and then he slipped the bar into his pocket.
There he was.
Willy Wonka, in his plum-colored tailcoat and fine top hat.
Chapter One
City of Dreams
Seven Years Later
Willy stood on the deck of an old fishing ship, cloaked in mist and smiling brightly. All around him, the weather-worn crew was busying themselves on deck, and young Mr. Wonka couldn’t have looked more out of place in his bright green waistcoat and multicolored scarf.
“Seven years I’ve been at sea,” he said to a nearby fisherman, who was scrubbing a crate (and barely listening). “But now it’s time for a new adventure! My next stop is almost upon us.”
“Oh, really?” the fisherman said. Everyone on board had grown quite used to Willy’s strange tales and flights of fancy by now.
“Every minute the waves lap me closer to my dreams,” Willy said grandly.
“Where’s that, then?” the fisherman asked.
Willy grinned and pointed to the horizon. There, glinting brightly in the winter sun, was the city he had pinned all his hopes on. It looked even more marvelous than he had imagined, sprawling and grand and—he took a big sniff—the smell was the best part of all! The whole place, even from afar, smelled of chocolate! Oh, it was heavenly . . . even when mingled with the scent of barrels full of fish.
He pulled a small, old chocolate bar from his pocket. The makeshift wrapper was faded now, but his mother’s writing still remained. He traced his fingers over the swirly letters.
A harbor bell sounded in the distance.
“LAND AHOY!” Willy cried.
“They won’t know what’s hit ’em, Mr. Wonka,” the fisherman said with a chuckle, and he headed off to ready the boat to dock. Willy took one last great big sniff of chocolaty air before trotting inside to the engine room. There he scooped up his trusty plum-colored tailcoat and top hat, a battered case, and a fine item he had acquired on his travels—a long cane with a sparkling gold top. He was giddy with anticipation as he absentmindedly put his hat on, took it off, tucked it under his arm, then lifted his cane and put it over his shoulder before putting it down again. It was as if the excitement had so overwhelmed him that he’d forgotten where a hat went and how to carry a cane.
A polite cough made him jump and he spun on his heel to see the kindly eyes of the ship’s captain staring back at him. He was a tall man with a beard as long as his years at sea (which is as long as it takes hair to grow to your knees). “Here,” the captain said, holding out a weathered fist and opening it to reveal a bag of coins.
Willy peeked inside. “Twelve silver sovereigns?” he cried in amazement. It was more money than he had ever held in his hand before and he thought he might collapse under the sheer weight of such a generous lump sum.
“Your wages, plus a little extra for all those delicious chocolates you made for us,” the captain said. “We all put in as much as we could, and it’s not much—not for the big city—but I hope it’ll start you off right. Good luck to you, lad.”
The boat jolted and groaned as they made contact with the dock and Willy pulled his top hat down firmly on his head.
“Thank you, Captain,” he said, the nerves now rising in him like a fast tide.
A crate was being craned out of the hold and Willy jumped onto it and up he went, leaving the amused captain in his wake.
“You could’ve used the gangplank!” a fisherman holding a gangplank shouted as Willy shot up past him. “If you’d given me a second . . .”
