A FILM adaptation of Devon author Michael Morpurgo's novel Private Peaceful is due for cinema release next month.

The novel, first published in 2003, tells the rites-of-passage story of brothers Thommo and Charlie Peaceful, from their childhood living in the village of Iddesleigh to fighting in the trenches during World War One. The story particularly underlines the senselessness of war.

Speaking about the book, Morpurgo said: 'I think it's my best book in that it touches people in ways other books of mine haven't done.

'The book has become widely read again for a sad reason — young men going off to war once again and dying.

'We've had cultural amnesia.

'Afghanistan and Iraq have led to wars. It's the same thing: old men sending young men off to war.

'The sadness is all the greater because we knew it from the First World War — the senselessness and waste of it all.

'For me, Private Peaceful is a deeply intense portrait of a rural community, and how war tears a society apart.'

The film follows the characters from their youth - where they compete for the love of local girl Molly - to their involvement in the battlefields of Flanders. While their love for Molly drives a wedge between them, it is on the battlefield that they instinctively look out for each other. It endeavours to show the heartbreaking and futile nature of war much like the book. Though much of the film is set in Devon, it was filmed in Suffolk.

Promising young British actors Jack O'Connell, Alexandra Roach and George Mackay star in the film alongside veteran stars Richard Griffiths, Maxine Peake and Frances de la Tour.