A former Truro teacher with an incredible story involving a penguin and a brutal military dictatorship has seen his tale turned into a film starring Steve Coogan. Mike Thompson, retired head of chemistry at Truro School, penned The Penguin Lessons in 2015 under a pseudonym, Tom Michell.
The book is a true story of Mr Thompson's life as a young man in the 1970s, when he travelled to South America. It tells the story of how he rescued a stubborn little Magellanic penguin coated in oil from a beach in Uruguay.
He cleaned him up, named him Juan Salvador, and was forced to sneak the little guy across the border and into the British boarding school he was teaching at in Buenos Aires. Warm-hearted and uplifting, The Penguin Lessons shimmers with hope and the power of friendship.
But it's also set against the backdrop of the brutal military dictatorship that took power in Argentina in 1976; a regime that killed and disappeared thousands of people during Argentina’s Dirty War. “There are films where you can’t take them out of context,” says the author, now in his 70s.
“Dr Zhivago without the violence and the bloodshed of the Russian Revolution, or Gone With The Wind without the American Civil War, doesn’t work any more than The Full Monty works if you take out the devastation of the steel works in Sheffield at that time. It needs that background to make it credible.”
Director Peter Cattaneo told PA: “The key difference between Tom’s book and the film is that Steve Coogan’s Tom Michell is twice the age of the young Tom Michell. Tom was fairly innocent.
"A guy in his early 20s who wanted to see Latin America, just got a job over in Buenos Aires in this school, naively going into a civil war situation. Tom Michell, played by Steve Coogan, is older.
"He’s cynical, he’s running away from life. He’s running away from his feelings. He’s completely disengaged in teaching.”
Last November saw Mr Thompson go back to Truro School and speak to the WAA Creative Club, who are learning about writing books and screenplays, He read some heartwarming passages from the book and encouraged these young writers to write with their hearts to truly convince a reader and draw them into their narrative.
The Penguin Lessons is out in cinemas now. Along with Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan, it also features Jonathan Pryce, of Game of Thrones and Slow Horses, and is directed by Peter Cattaneo, who also helmed 1997's The Full Monty.
