Private Peaceful
Five past ten (p7)
The book begins in a very strange way. It is designed to grab
the attention of the reader but also raise lots of questions.
1. What do you notice about the title?
2. What tense is the first section written in?
3. Write down three questions the first section raises
4. Draw Tommo’s family tree
5. Find five pieces of evidence from the first chapter to show
how young Tommo is.
6. Michael Morpurgo writes this school section from the
perspective of being a little boy. Find two words or phrases
that make it believable that a young boy is speaking.
7. Why does this chapter simply finish with the words, ‘I have
killed my own father’?
Twenty To Eleven (p18)
1. How does the narrator help the reader to feel warmth
and sympathy for Big Joe in this chapter?
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Private Peaceful
2. After the butterflies the chapter begins ‘Big Joe ate…’
what do you notice about the tense of this chapter? Is it
different from the previous chapter?
3. On p26 the narrator is remembering his childhood. Look
closely at the description of Mother. Annotate
 Smell
 Sound
 Sight
4. Underline the sentence or phrase that you think best
makes her character sound loving.
5. The writer lists all of the wonderful things his mother
could do. Number all of the things he lists.
Why is listing a good technique in this description?
6. Try to copy the sentence structure to write a description
of someone you love:
Grandad. I think of him often. And when I think of him I think
of holidays and beaches and rockpools and our walks over the
common together on summer evenings. I think of toffees and
pints of beer and homemade soup and blackberrying and apple
pie. There wasn’t a tear that he couldn’t wipe away…
Mother. I think of her often. And when I think of her I think
of high hedges and deep lanes and our walks down to the river
together in the evenings. I think of meadow sweet and
honeysuckles and vetch and foxgloves and red campion and dog
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Private Peaceful
roses. There wasn’t a flower or butterfly that she couldn’t
name. I loved the sound of their names when she spoke them
red admiral, peacock, cabbage white, adonis blue. It’s her voice
I’m hearing in my head now. I suppose it was because of Big
Joe that she was always talking, always explaining the world
about us. She was his guide, his interpreter, his teacher.
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Did it hurt, Charlie
Was it on the back of the knees, Charlie, or your bum
Charlie never said a word to them. He just walked right
through everyone, and came straight over to me and Molly.
He won’t do it again, Tommo he said. I hit him where it hurts, in
the goolies. He lifted my chin and peered at my nose. Are you
all right, Tommo
Hurts a bit I told him.
So does my bum, said Charlie.
Molly laughed then, and so did I. So did Charlie, and so did the
whole school.
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Private Peaceful
Nearly quarter past eleven (p35)
1. Molly is coming increasingly important in the lives of the
Peacefuls. Write a list of everything she does in this chapter.
2. Why do you think the chapter ends the way it does?
Ten to Midnight (p47)
1. In the opening of this chapter the narrator is very confused.
Why do you think he is focussing his thoughts on God and
Heaven?
2. On page 52-55 how does the writer show that the age gap is
widening between himself, Charlie and Molly?
How does this make you feel?
P57 revise reported speech
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Private Peaceful
“That church up there on the hill, is that Lapford church?”
“No,” Charlie shouted back. “That’s Iddesleigh. St.
James.”
The pilot looked down at his map. “Iddesleigh? You sure?”
“Yes,” we shouted.
“Whoops! Then I really was lost. Jolly good thing I
stopped, wasn’t it? Thanks for your help. Better be off.” He
lowered his goggles and smiled at us. “Here. You like humbugs?”
And he reached out and handed Charlie a bag of sweets. “
Cheerio then, he said. “Stand well back. Here we go.”
And with that, off he went bouncing along towards the
hedge, his engine spluttering. I though he couldn’t possibly lift
off in time.
“Was that real?” Molly breathed. “Did it really happen?”
“We’ve got our humbugs,” said Charlie, “so it must have
been real.”
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Private Peaceful
Twenty Four Minutes Past Twelve (p61)
Write all of your answers in full sentences
1. Where is the narrator? Does this answer any questions?
What is he waiting for?
2. On p 63 how does Mrs Peaceful manage to get the better of
the Colonel?
3. What job does Charlie get on p65?
4. How does the Colonel get his revenge on Charlie?
5. How does Tommo find out about the war?
6. How does the author show time has passed on p70?
7. Why does Tommo feel anger and resentment towards Charlie
on p 73?
8. Why does the chapter end the way it does?
9. What impression of the colonel are we given in this chapter.
Write at least a paragraph.
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Private Peaceful
Nearly Five to One (p84)
Creating atmosphere
I dreaded those steps then and I hated them again now. The
slit windows let in only occasional light. The walls were slimy
about me, and the stairs uneven and slippery. The cold and the
damp and the dark closed in on me and chilled me as I felt my
way onwards and upwards. As I passed the silent hanging bells
I hoped with all my heart that one of them would be ringing
soon. Ninety-five steps I knew there were. With every step I
was longing to reach to top, to breathe the bright air again,
longing to find Big Joe.
Underline the negative words
Put a box around the verbs
Circle the adjectives
How does Morpurgo create a tense atmosphere?
Rewrite this section but this time create a negative
atmosphere.
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Private Peaceful
Creating atmosphere
I wanted him to come down with me, but Big Joe wanted
to stay.
He wanted to wave at everyone from the parapet.
People were coming from all over: Mr Munnings, Miss
McAllister and all the children were streaming out through the
school yard and up towards the church. We saw the Colonel,
coming down the road in his car, and could just make out the
Wolfwoman’s bonnet beside him. Best of all we saw Mother
and Molly on bicycles racing up the hill, waving at us.
Still
Charlie rang the bell and I could hear him yahooing down below
between each dong, and imagined him hanging on to the rope
and riding with it up in the air. Still Big Joe sang his song. And
the swifts soared and swooped and screamed all around us, in
the sheer joy of being alive, and celebrating, it seemed to me,
that Big Joe was alive too.
Underline the negative words
Put a box around the verbs
Circle the adjectives
How does Morpurgo create a positive atmosphere?
Rewrite this section but this time create a negative
atmosphere.
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Private Peaceful
A minute past three (p119)
Recount this episode in reported speech
Charlie goes to him and turns him over. ‘It’s my legs,’ I hear
Captain Wilkie whisper. ‘I can’t seem to move my legs.’
‘I won’t make it,’ Wilkie says to Charlie. ‘I’m leaving it to
you to get them all back, Peaceful, and the prisoner. Go on now.’
‘No sir,’ Charlie replies. ‘If one goes we all go. Isn’t
that right, lads?’
That’s how it happened. Under cover of an early-morning
mist we made it back to the trenches, Charlie carrying Wilkie
on his back the whole way. As the stretcher bearers lifted him,
Wilkie caught Charlie by the hand and held it. ‘Come and see me
in hospital, Peaceful,’ he said. ‘That’s an order.’
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Private Peaceful
A minute past three (p119)
 Read the extract from Dear Mr Morpingo in which
Michael Morpurgo recounts the memories of a WW1
veteran.
 How many similarities can you find between the stories
Morpurgo has heard and the events in Private Peaceful?
Shade the similarities and annotate around the text with
quotations from the novel.
 Why is it significant that the old soldier says, ‘I knew for
the first time that a German was just the same as me.’?
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Private Peaceful
P126 A sense of place
Our greatest scourge is neither rats nor fleas but the
unending drenching rain, which runs like a stream along the
bottom of our trench, turning it into nothing but a mud-filled
ditch, a stinking gooey mud that seems to want to hold us and
then suck us down and drown us. I have not had dry feet since
I got here. I go to sleep wet. I wake up wet, and the cold soaks
through my sodden clothes and into my aching bones. Only
sleep brings any relief, sleep and food. God, how I long for
both.
Underline noun phrases
Underline negative words
How does the mud make Tommo feel?
Why is this a good description of the trench?
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Private Peaceful
Nearly four O’clock (p150)
Dulce et Decorum Est "
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
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Private Peaceful
Dear Mr Morpingo: Questions
1. Read the first paragraph. Find three things that help the
reader to empathise with (feel sorry for) the soldier.
2. Look at the second paragraph. Pick out the sentence that
most emphasises how short the trial was.
3. Morpurgo is clearly angry with the commander and the
generals. How does he convey (show us) what he feels about
them?
4. ‘They kept watch in silent respect all through the day until
night fell.’
Why is this line included?
5. What does Morpurgo think the British government should
do?
6. The mayor of London wants to put some new statures in
Trafalgar Square. Some people think that there should be a
statue commemorating all those soldiers who were shot at
dawn.
7. In groups design a statue.
What would the inscription read?
8. Write a short proposal to the Mayor detailing why he should
choose your statue.
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Private Peaceful
Shot for cowardice: Questions
1. Why is the title a question? (2)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
2. Read the first paragraph. Copy out all of the emotive
words. (3)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
3. In the second paragraph what does the writer say was
really wrong with the men? (1)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
4. Find two examples of ‘repetition of three’. This is where a
writer comes up with a list of three things to illustrate
their point. ie You let the school down, your parents down,
but most of all you let yourself down. (2)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
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Private Peaceful
5. Find three facts from the whole article.(3)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
6. Find three opinions from the whole article. (3)
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
7. What opinion does the writer have of General Haig? Use
evidence from the third paragraph to support your
answer. (2)
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
8. What is the tone of the final paragraph? (2)
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
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