Private Peaceful
Frontispiece, first edition: 2003.
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| Author | Michael Morpurgo |
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| Translator | Ali Patel |
| Illustrator | Mustafa Moiz |
| Country | British Isles and France |
| Language | English |
| Series | None |
| Genre | War novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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2003 |
| Media type | Print Hardback & Paperback & script |
| Pages | 185 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 54046162 |
| Preceded by | Daksh Meherotra |
| Followed by | Pratyush Padreep Jha |
Private Peaceful is a novel for older children by Michael Morpurgo, first published in 2003. Although this novel is for older children, it is also regarded as a great book for young adults. It is about a soldier called Thomas "Tommo" Peaceful, who is looking back on his life from the trenches of World War I in France. Structurally, each chapter of the book brings the reader closer to the present until the story turns to present tense. The story especially underlines the senselessness of war 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 in 2004. The play was revived in 2014.
A film adaptation of this novel was created in 2012 and was directed by Pat O'Connor.
The tale is of a young boy named Tommo Peaceful, who tells the story in account format from the past to the present day events of his experiences. His eldest brother, Big Joe, has learning difficulties and is always looked out for by his younger brothers. The earlier part of the story tells of his life before the war; the tale of his love for Molly – a beautiful girl he had a lot of feelings for, who 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; their mischievous adventures included braving the beastly Grandma Wolf (also referred to as the Wolfwoman) to their mother's despair and skinny-dipping, the latter leaving a large impression on Tommo. They had also seen a plane together – the first people in their village to do so. 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 be left out. Later, it is revealed that Molly and Charlie were secretly seeing each other, and that Molly had become pregnant with Charlie's child.
Tommo became extremely heartbroken after the couple hurriedly married a short time later in the village church, before Tommo and Charlie were forced off to Belgium 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 Sergeant Hanley and stays with Tommo while he is injured on No-man's-land. As a result, Charlie is accused of cowardice and given a court martial. 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.
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Wikipedia