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A deeply personal and tender story of war, peace and those who are left behind. One hundred years after the war to end all wars, Jacko's descendants discover his notebook and the untold stories tucked in its pages."This war is a nightmare that one day I shall wake from and then forget. And if I don't wake, then you shall never know. I don't want you ever to know."No one seems to know where the scruffy tin hat came from - just that it is very old, from some war or other long ago. To young Michael and his family it has its uses today: as a child's toy, a feeding bowl for the hens, a hanging basket... Then Michael discovers that it belonged to his great-great-grandfather, "Our Jacko", who lost his life at Ypres in 1915. As the boy digs deeper, he finds the young soldier's diary and learns more about his forgotten ancestor - husband, father, poet, actor - who died so tragically young. And it becomes clear exactly how Our Jacko should be commemorated.
About the author
Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE is one of the greatest storytellers for children writing today and has written more than one hundred books, the most famous of which, War Horse, has been adapted for stage and screen to international acclaim. He has won numerous major literary awards, including the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, and was Children’s Laureate 2003–2005. In 2006 he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to literature, and in 2018 he was made a Knight Bachelor. Michael now lives on a farm in Devon with his wife, Clare, and describes himself as “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over”. Visit Michael's website at www.michaelmorpurgo.com.
