''Johnny and the Dead'' (1993) is the second

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...

to feature the

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

Johnny Maxwell Johnny Maxwell is a fictional character in a series of three children's books by Terry Pratchett. He is a young boy (twelve in the first book, but a teenager in the later ones) living in the (fictional) typical late-20th-century English town of B ...

. The other novels in the ''Johnny Maxwell Trilogy'' are ''

Only You Can Save Mankind ''Only You Can Save Mankind'' (1992) is the first novel in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy of children's books and fifth young adult novel by Terry Pratchett, author of the ''Discworld'' sequence of books. The following novels in the ''Johnny Maxwel ...

'' (1992) and ''

Johnny and the Bomb ''Johnny and the Bomb'' is a 1996 novel by Terry Pratchett. It is the third novel to feature Johnny Maxwell and his friends, and deals with the rules and consequences of time travel. The first two novels in the ''Johnny Maxwell Trilogy'' are '' ...

'' (1996). In this story, Johnny sees and speaks with the spirits (they object to the term "

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...

") of those interred in his local

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

and tries to help them when their home is threatened. ''Johnny and the Dead'' is a feature of some schools' English curriculum.

Plot summary

The story starts with Johnny Maxwell, a 12-year-old boy, taking a shortcut through the local Blackbury cemetery to reach his home. In the cemetery, Johnny meets the spirit of Alderman Thomas Bowler and realizes that he can interact with the spirits of the dead. Later, Johnny meets all the deceased occupants of the cemetery and discusses with them the council's sale of Blackbury's neglected cemetery to a faceless conglomerate, who plan to build offices on it. Various dead citizens, led by a former town councillor, ask Johnny to help stop it. While Johnny (helped by his semi-believing friends) tries to find evidence of famous internees and speaks out at community meetings, the dead begin to take an interest in modern-day life and realise they are not, as they once believed, trapped in the cemetery. Finally the council is forced to back down, but the dead are no longer interested; they have decided that instead of waiting for the Day of Judgement, they will make the decision themselves. Most of them depart the cemetery to continue their journey into the afterlife but, thanks to the campaigning of the Blackbury Volunteers, the town's living residents have rediscovered the cemetery as a link to their past. As one of the dead puts it before leaving: "The living must remember, and the dead must forget."

Ideas and themes

The book is loosely based on real events in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

in the 1980s, when the council sold three cemeteries as building land for 15p (Pratchett was working as a journalist at this time). Part of the story deals with the last surviving member of the Blackbury pals, a

Pals battalion The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...

with obvious parallel to the Accrington Pals. This man is called

Tommy Atkins Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is slang for a common soldier in the British Army. It was certainly well established during the nineteenth century, but is particularly associated with the First World War. It can be used as a term of reference ...

, the name given to the generic British soldier of the day. A running joke in the book is that most of the Dead are "nearly famous", often being recognisable as very similar to a famous Briton. It is possible that Pratchett intends Blackbury Cemetery to be "nearly

Highgate Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisat ...

", especially as one of the most prominent ghosts (William Stickers) is described as "The man who would have invented

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

hadn't."

Adaptations

* The book was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV in 1995. It starred Andrew Falvey as Johnny, and featured

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer. Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of '' I, Claudius'', King Richard I ...

as William Stickers and George Baker as Alderman Bowler. * It was also adapted as a play by

Stephen Briggs Stephen Briggs (born 1951) is a British writer of subsidiary works and merchandise surrounding Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy ''Discworld''. '' The Streets of Ankh-Morpork'', the first Discworld map, was co-designed by Briggs and Pratchett an ...

Translations

*''Johnny et les morts'' (French) *''Nur Du kannst sie verstehen'' (i.e. "Only You Can Understand Them", German) *''Johnny och döden'' (Swedish) *''Джонни и мертвецы'' (Russian) *''Johnny ve Ölüler'' (Turkish) *''Joni a'r Meirwon'' (Welsh) *''Johnny i zmarli'' (Polish) *''Johnny a mŕtvi'' (Slovak) *''Johnny y los muertos'' (Spanish)

External links

* {{Terry Pratchett 1993 British novels Children's fantasy novels ITV children's television shows Novels by Terry Pratchett Johnny Maxwell British children's novels 1993 children's books 1995 British television series debuts 1995 British television series endings 1990s British children's television series 1990s British television miniseries British fantasy television series Television series by ITV Studios London Weekend Television shows English-language television shows Doubleday (publisher) books