goodnight mister tom by michelle magorian

Many thanks to Penguin Random House who are publishing a special anniversary addition this year. I loved re-reading this, and would recommend this to all readers. This classic emotionally touching story of war, resilience of the human spirit, hope, family, friendship, love, anti-semitism, death and child abuse is beautifully written and atmospheric, dealing with the most difficult of issues. When Tom doesn't hear from Willie, he decides to go to London. Tom and Willie are so good for each other, but Willie's happiness is endangered with his terrifying return to his nightmare of a cruel, 'religious' mother. When Willie first arrives he is a frightened and traumatised child, and no wonder, he has been abused, neglected and bullied, but as he begins to settle into the community and eat proper meals, he starts to blossom, even overcoming his fear of Sammy, the dog. At the beginning of WW2, young Willie Beech is evacuated from London to a small rural village to stay with the withdrawn, grumpy loner that is Tom Oakley.

Some of you may be familiar with the story through the fabulous movie starring John Thaw. The 1998 BAFTA award-winning TV film of the book starring John Thaw attracted 14 million viewers.Michelle Magorian's award winning historical novel is a wonderful re-read for me, I read it so long ago and it was a joy to re-acquaint myself with it. The book has sold in excess of 1.2 million copies in the UK alone and has been published in Denmark, USA, Japan, Holland, Sweden, Finland, France and Germany. It has won numerous awards including The Guardian Children's Fiction Award. Goodnight Mister Tom was first published in the UK in 1981. She wrote the book in between acting jobs and on Sunday when she was working in the theatre.

Michelle's first novel Goodnight Mister Tom grew out of two short stories. Michelle also toured with her one-woman mime show in Italy and England. Since then Michelle has worked in theatre, television and films and has an established reputation as a comedienne, performing in plays and musicals.

It was during those years that she started writing regularly.įrom 1969-1970 she was a mime student at Marcel Marceau's L'Ecole International de Mime in Paris.

Michelle trained for the theatre at The Rose Bruford College of speech and drama in Kent from 1968 to 1969. She was educated at Kilbreda college, Mentone (Victoria, Australia) and the Covent of the Cross, Waterlooville, Hampshire.

Goodnight mister tom by michelle magorian