Private Peaceful is a novel for older children by Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo, OBE FKC AKC is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature. He was the third Children's Laureate.-Early life:...

, first published in 2003. It is about a soldier called Thomas "Tommo" Peaceful, who is looking back on his life from the trenches of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Structurally, each chapter of the book brings the reader closer to the present until the story turns to present tense

Present tense

The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...

. The story especially underlines the senselessness of war

War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

 and ineptitude of the commanding officer.

It has been described as "an unflinching examination of the horrors of war and the injustice surrounding the execution of soldiers by firing squad, on the – often false – grounds of desertion or cowardice."

The book was adapted into a play of the same name by Simon Reade, first performed at the Bristol Old Vic

Bristol Old Vic

The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...

 in April 2004, and starred Alexander Campbell. Later the production enjoyed sell-out transfers to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

 and London’s West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

, and then toured the United Kingdom.

Background

In 2005 and 2006 Michael Morpurgo presented a series of concerts called "Private Peaceful". He presented these concerts at the wembley arena. This was a set of readings by Morpurgo and some songs and tunes by Coope, Boyes and Simpson

Coope Boyes and Simpson

Coope, Boyes and Simpson are an English vocal folk trio, formed around 1990. Their sound is rich and often has unusual vocal harmonies.The group comprises singers Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson, and almost all of their music is sung entirely a capella, although they have occasionally...

. In 1995 the trio had been commissioned to create a concert in Passchendaele

Passendale

Passendale or Passchendaele is a rural Belgian village in the Zonnebeke municipality of West Flanders province...

 church with Flemish

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 musicians. This was released as "We're Here Because We're Here: Concert Party Passchendaele", a live album. Morpurgo had met them in September 2000 at a conference on "Children's Literature in Peace and War". He was so impressed by the songs that the trio sang that he invited them to add music to "Some Desperate Glory". This was a set of readings of war poetry devised by Morpurgo and read by Jim Broadbent

Jim Broadbent

James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...

and others. Soon after they put together the material for "Private Peaceful".

The plot

The story is of a young teenager named Thomas Lugnut Peaceful, who tells the story in account format from the past to the present day events of his experiences of living in the village of Iddesleigh during World War I. His oldest brother, Big Joe, is sadly disabled and is always looked out for by his younger brothers. The earlier part of the story tells of his doings before the war, the tale of his love for Molly - a beautiful girl he met on his first day at school and grew to love besottedly - and Charlie Peaceful, Tommo's brother. The trio had grown up together and their mischievous adventures included braving the beastly Grandma Wolf (also referred to as the Wolfwoman) to their mother's despair. Charlie, being older than Tommo, had always protected and looked out for his younger brother. Also, he and Molly become closer as they are both older than Tommo, while Tommo begins to become left out. Later on, it is revealed that Molly and Charlie were secretly seeing each other, and that Molly had become pregnant with Charlie's child. Tommo is heartbroken after the couple hurriedly married a short time later in the village church, and it was a short time later that Tommo and Charlie were forced off to France to fight in World War I. All through this time, Tommo recorded his feelings in the novel. The rest of the story describes the brothers' experiences of the war: their Sergeant "Horrible" Hanley, the near misses during battle on the front line, and Charlie's continued protection of Tommo. During a charge of the German lines, Charlie disobeys a direct order from Hanley and stays with Tommo while he is injured on No-man's-land. As a result Charlie is given a court martial and is accused of "Cowardice" . The book's chapters count down to dawn when Charlie will be executed. At dawn, Charlie is marched before the firing squad, where he dies happily singing their favourite childhood song, "Oranges and Lemons". Tommo ends the story in the present tense with Charlie's execution and the promise of looking after Charlie and Molly's new baby, Little Tommo.

Film

It was announced that Private Peaceful was to be turned into a film. Filming Started in August and is expected to be completed in the new year. It stars George Mackay as Teenage Tommo and Samuel Bottomley as young Tommo

External links

• A review of Private Peaceful on the Guardian website
• http://www.1914-1918.net/crime.htm