Mr Pye

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Book cover of Mr Pye featuring Derek Jacobi in the title role of the TV adaptation. He is standing on La Coupeé isthmus.

Mr Pye is a short 1953 novel by English novelist Mervyn Peake.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set on the Channel Island of Sark, it is a Christian allegory. When Mr Pye does something good, he grows angel's wings, and when he does something bad, he gains diabolical characteristics. It is a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions, hypocrisy and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.

In 1986 Mr Pye was adapted as a four-part Channel 4 miniseries starring Derek Jacobi filmed on Sark itself. The DVD of the series is now available from The Office Website of Mervyn Peake [[1]] It was also adapted into a radio play, by the author, in the 1950s.