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READ ALL ABOUT IT!

A PU

FFIN BOOK

Extra!Extra!

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1947 Born 6 November in Southsea, Portsmouth

1966 Attends the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama until 1969

1969 Studies at Marcel Marceau’s International School of Mime in Paris for a year

1973 From 1970 acts in repertory theatre companies, writes poetry, lyrics, scripts, a novella and Goodnight Mister Tom

1978 Attends novel writing class at the City Literature Institute, writes A Little Love Song, puts it in the loft and writes Back Home

1981 Goodnight Mister Tom is published

ABOU

T THE AUTHOR

MICH E L L E M AGOR I A

N


INTEREsTING FACTs

When Michelle was seven her family moved to Australia

for over two years before returning to live in Portsmouth,

England. Michelle always wanted to be an actress and

so spent much of her childhood at the Kings Theatre in

Portsmouth. One of her favourite books as a child was

Swallows and Amazons.

1982 Goodnight Mister Tom wins the Children’s Fiction Award and the American International Reading Association Award

1985 Back Home is published in the UK

1991 A Little Love Song is published

1991 Cuckoo in the Nest is published

1998 A Spoonful of Jam is published and Goodnight Mister Tom is made into a film for television

1999 Goodnight Mister Tom wins seven television awards including a BAFTA for ‘Most Popular Drama’

2008 Just Henry is published and wins the Costa Children’s Book Prize

2014 Impossible is published. Currently lives in Petersfield, Hampshire


Michelle’s books, including her first book, Goodnight Mister Tom, are often set around

the time of the Second World War. While doing research for the novel that became Goodnight Mister Tom she came across a photograph of some children coming back from America in

1945. This image kept popping into her head. It was as if the children were saying, ‘You’re going to have to write about one of us, otherwise we’re not going to leave you alone.’ So Michelle started

interviewing people, and reading about how people coped after the war, particularly families

living together again after years apart. Back Home, which took Michelle two years to write, begins just after the end of the war, when Rusty returns home from her evacuation in America.

WHERE DID THE sTORY COME FROM?


GUEssWHO? Tall, robust

and tanned, with thicklong hair and intense

green eyes.

A

A freckled four-year-old boy,

wearing nothing but grey flannel shorts held up by braces, came tumbling

out of the doorway.

D

She found herself being hugged tightly by a

woman in her thirties, dressed in green . . .

smaller and thinner than she had remembered,

and her hair was now cut short.

B

ANsWERs: A) Virginia ‘Rusty’ Dickinson B) Peggy Dickinson C) Father D) Charlie

A tall thin man in his forties, wearing the uniform of an army major. He was deeply bronzed, and his cropped hair and moustache were bleached almost white.

C


fag

a junior pupil at a public school who does minor chores for a senior pupil

WORDs GLORIOUs WORDs!

Lots of words have several different meanings – here are a few you’ll find in this Puffin book. Use a dictionary or look them up online to find other definitions.

a substitute for sugar often used during wartime rationing

saccharin

pioneer a person who comes to a new country, or someone who tries out a new piece of knowledge first

pain or discomfort in the stomach

when food is not digested properly

indigestion

a senior pupil at school with the power to enforce discipline

prefect

a person who does not agree

to serve in the armed forces

because of their beliefs

conscientious objector

Yank slang term for an American


About 10,000 people, mostly children, were

evacuated to other countries such as Canada, Australia

and the United States during World War Two.

DIDYOU

KNOW?

An adaptation of Back Home has been made for television twice. The first version, starring Hayley Mills, won the Gold

Award at the New York Film and Television Festival in 1990. The screenplay was written by David Wood, who has also adapted

Goodnight Mister Tom as a stage play.

In the 1989 film adaptation of Back Home, Hayley Carr, who played Rusty, was named after the famous

actress Hayley Mills, who portrayed her mother in the film!


Thinkingcaps on –

let’s see how much you can remember! Answers

are at the bottom of the opposite page.

(No peeking!)

QUIZ

How old was Rusty when she was evacuated?

a) 4

b) 7

c) 10

d) 12

Where was Rusty evacuated to in America?

a) Connecticut

b) New York

c) California

d) Colorado

1

2

‘Don’t you know what your butt is?’

RUsTYsAYs:


What organization does Rusty’s mother, Peggy, work for during the war?

a) RAF

b) WVS

c) WRENS

d) RSPCA

What is the name of the English boarding school that Rusty attends?

a) Malory Towers

b) Benwood House

c) St Clare’s

d) Hatherop Castle

Where does Beattie live?

a) Devon

b) Cornwall

c) Dorset

d) Somerset

3

4

5

ANsWERs: 1) b 2) a 3) b 4) b 5) a

‘And are you in the habit of borrowing people’s belongings without asking?’

PEGGY sAYs:


S’mores

MAKEANDDO

One of Rusty’s favourite memories is making

and eating s’mores around the campfire down at the lake.

S’mores are an American tradition, and no one is quite

sure who invented them. The first known recipe appeared

in 1927 in a Girl Scout handbook called Tramping and

Trailing with the Girl Scouts.

The best way to make these is over an open campfire, but you can also make them indoors under the grill. In America they are traditionally made with Graham crackers, but digestive biscuits are a good alternative, or you could experiment with your own creations. Once you’ve made one, you’ll definitely want to make s’more!


1

2

Lay two squares of chocolate on top of one biscuit.

Skewer a marshmallow and hold it over the campfire, or under the grill, and toast it until it’s slightly charred all over.

Place the melted marshmallow on top of the chocolate. Put a second digestive biscuit on top of the marshmallow.

Squeeze it together and allow a few minutes for the chocolate and marshmallow to melt together and make a delicious gooey sandwich.

Take a bite and enjoy!

3

4

5

YOU WILL NEED:

a packet of digestive biscuits

a bar of chocolate, broken into squares

a bag of marshmallows


World War Two begins in Europe in September when Germany invades Poland.

Over four days, 1.9 million people are evacuated from areas thought to be at risk of bombing.The young evacuees board trains with just a suitcase, a packed lunch and a gas mask.

ALL ABOUT

WORLD WAR TWO

1939

Germany occupies Poland, Holland, Belgium,

France, Denmark and Norway.

Food rationing begins in the UK.

Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of

Great Britain.

British troops retreat from the invaders in haste, and some

226,000 British and 110,000 French troops

are rescued from the French channel port of Dunkirk

between 27 May and 4 June.

The Blitz, the relentless bombing of Britain’s cities,

lasts from September 1940 to May 1941 and claims

over 40,000 civilian lives.

Around 10,000 child evacuees are sent to other

countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.

1940


Allied forces invade France and push back the Germans on 6 June – ‘D-day’.

On 7 May Germany surrenders and World War Two in Europe ends.

The United States drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August, devastating the city.

By 1945 there are 460,000 women in the military services and over 6.5 million in civilian war work.

Mass murder of Jewish people in the Nazi

concentration camps, such as Auschwitz in Poland, begins.1942

After Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in the USA, the Soviet Union and America join the war.

1941

The Dambusters Raid on 16 May by the British RAF destroys a number of dams in Germany.

1943

1944

1945


1985 Fact Pack

INTHIs YEAR

The song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’,

written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, was

first performed at the Live Aid concert – the world’s

biggest rock festival that raised millions of pounds

for the starving people in Ethiopia.

The first episode of EastEnders is broadcast on BBC1.

The first mobile-phone call is made in the UK.

What else was happening in the world when this Puffin book was published?


PUFFINWRITING

TIP

Watch and read the news

and stay tuned to the latest happenings in the world – you never know

what might inspire your next idea.


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