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Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by the English author , published by Kestrel in 1981.
published a U.S. edition within the calendar year. Set in mostly rural England during , it features a boy abused at home in London who is evacuated to the country at the outbreak of the war. In the care of Mister Tom, an elderly recluse, he experiences a new life of loving and care.
Magorian and Mister Tom won the annual , a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of British children's writers. She was also a commended runner up for the
from the , recognising the year's best English-language children's book published in the UK.
The novel has been twice
, once as a play and ,
(1998). In 2003, the novel was listed at number 49 on the 's survey . The most recent theatrical adaptation,
In September 1939, as Britain stands on the edge of , many young children from the cities are
to escape an imminent bombardment by the German . William "Willie" Beech, a boy from
who is physically and emotionally abused by his mother, arrives at the home of Mr. Thomas "Tom" Oakley, a widower in his sixties who lives in the village of Little Weirwold. The boy is thinly clad, underfed and covered with painful bruises, and believing he is full of sin, a result of his upbringing by his domineering, God-fearing mother.
"Mister Tom", as Willie christens his new guardian, is reclusive and bad-tempered, and as such is avoided by the community. Willie lives with him as his Mother wants him to live with someone who is either religious or lives next to a Church. Though initially distant, he is touched after discovering William's home-life and treats him with kindness and understanding, helping to educate him. Under his care, William begins to progress, forming a small circle of friends at school among his classmates including fellow-evacuee Zach. He also becomes proficient in drawing and dramatics. As William is changed by Tom, so is Tom transformed by William's presence in his home. It is revealed that Tom lost his wife and baby son to
some 40 years previously, and he has become reclusive because of this.
The growing bond between William and Tom is threatened when William's mother requests that the boy return to her in the city, telling him she is sick. At first, William thinks this will be a good thing, as he can be helpful to his mother. However his mother is not pleased to learn the details of his time with Tom, feeling that he has not been disciplined properly. While William has been away, she has become pregnant and had a girl, but is neglecting the baby. After a bad reunion, where his mother becomes furious upon learning the details of her son's life with Tom, abhorring his association with the
Zach among other things, she hits William around the head which renders him unconscious. She then puts him in the under-stairs cupboard, chains him to the piping and leaves the baby in his arms. William regains consciousness briefly to find himself in the cupboard with Trudy – he has been stripped of his clothes, minus his underwear, and his ankle is broken. He quietly sobs for Tom, before he falls unconscious.
Back in Little Weirwold, Tom has a premonition that something is not right with William. Although he has never travelled beyond his immediate locality, he ventures into London and eventually locates William's neighbourhood of
and his home. He persuades a local policeman to break down the door of the apparently empty home, and finds William in the closet holding his dead half-sister. William is malnourished and badly bruised as he had been locked under the stairs for a number of days. William is hospitalised, but whilst there suffers horrific nightmares and is drugged simply to prevent his screams from disturbing other children. Tom is warned that it is likely that William will be taken to a children's home, and, unable to observe William's distress any longer, kidnaps him from the hospital and takes him back to Little Weirwold.
Back with Mister Tom, William is much damaged by his ordeal, blaming himself for the death of his sister as he had not been able to provide enough milk to feed her whilst locked away, and becomes very depressed. Later, when his favourite teacher Annie Hartridge has a baby, William is shocked to learn from Zach that a woman cannot conceive a child on her own, and realises that his mother was having a relationship with a man, even though she had previously told him that it was wrong for unmarried couples to live together or have children together. Tom is traced by the authorities, who have come to tell William that his mother has committed suicide and offer him a place in a children's home, as they've been unable to trace any other relatives who may have been able to take care of him. Luckily the authorities realise that William has already found a good home and allow Tom to adopt him.
Tom, William and Zach enjoy a holiday at the seaside village of Salmouth, where they stay in the house of a widow whose sons have been sent out to war. Zach then receives news that his father has been injured by a German bomb in London and he hurries home on the next train saying farewell to all his friends. Unfortunately this is the last time they see him. William later learns that Zach has been killed and is grief-stricken for some time, but his grief is later healed by a hermit artist who tells William about the loss of his best friend. This is when William starts to come to terms with Zach's death. Adding to this, Doctor Little, the village doctor, who was Zach's guardian while he was evacuated, gives William Zach's bike. Through learning to ride it, William realises that Zach lives on inside him and he will never forget his wonderful companion that Zach was.
Highly Commended, The Carnegie Medal 1982 The Guardian Fiction Award 1982 International Reading Association Award 1982 Runner-up for The Young Observer Prize 1982 Western Australian Young Readers Book Award 1982 National TV Awards 1999: Best Drama BAFTA 1999: Lew Grade Award for Most Popular Television Programme of 1998 Television & Radio Industries Club Award 1999: Best ITV/Channel 5 Programme of 1998
Since 1995 there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU some runners up through 2002 were Commended (from 1955) or Highly Commended (from 1966). There were about 160 commendations of both kinds in 48 years, including three for 1981 (one highly commended).
(first U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved . With a later publisher description.
. guardian.co.uk 12 March 2001. Retrieved .
. 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library.
(CCSU). Retrieved .
. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 11 November 2012
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