CINEMA-GOERS can see a one-off sneak preview of a film adaptation by a Cornwall-based author – for free.

Starring Steve Coogan, comedy-drama The Penguin Lessons will play at cinemas across Cornwall on Monday, a month ahead of its official release on April 18.

The special show is part of Escapes, supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) and the National Lottery, which aims to make cinema accessible for everyone.

The Penguin Lessons is inspired by the true story of Tom Michell, a young Englishman who took up a teaching post at an Argentinian boarding school in 1976, at the height of the brutal Peronist regime.

During a sightseeing trip to Uruguay, Tom came across thousands of penguins killed by an oil slick. He rescued one from death’s door, cleaned him up and tried to release him, only to find the penguin was determined to follow his saviour. Tom took the bird through customs and back to school, where he became an instant avian star.

Four years later, Tom came to Cornwall in pursuit of a teaching job, and settled on the Roseland peninsula. He wrote The Penguin Lessons in 2015 as a memoir for his family, and self-published it on Kindle when friends asked to read it. Interest swiftly followed from the Animal Planet television channel and, appropriately, Penguin Books; it has since been published in 24 different languages.

“My life has been full of surprises,” said Tom. “The book grew out of bedtime stories for my children, and my wife always said I should write it down for them. Then there I was, standing on a beach in Barcelona with Steve Coogan giving me a hug and saying how much he was enjoying being me.”

See The Penguin Lessons (12A) at cinemas in Truro, Bodmin, Falmouth, Redruth, Newlyn and Penzance. Find out more at escapes.cinematik.app/films/the-penguin-lessons