Who is James?

James is the main character of the story. Initially, he lives with his mother and father in a house by the sea, until they are killed by a rhinoceros that had escaped from the London Zoo. After the death of his parents, James moves in with his two aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who are very cruel to him. They never allow him to leave the confines of their house and garden, and they subject him to regular physical and verbal abuse. James is incredibly lonely and wishes to spend time with children his own age.

Yet in a promising turn of events, James meets an Old Man who gives him magic green pellets and tells James that if he follows a special set of instructions, something wonderful will happen to him. Unfortunately, James trips when walking them back into the house, and the magical green objects are rapidly absorbed by the ground. Something wonderful starts happening to the old peach tree in the garden, however, and a giant peach grows and grows and grows.

One night, James sneaks out of the house to see the peach and notices a small entrance into the gigantic fruit. He climbs through this tunnel and meets an odd assortment of huge, talking, quarreling creatures: a Centipede, Earthworm, Spider, Grasshopper, Glow-worm, Ladybug, and Silkworm. With James in their company, these creatures free the peach from the tree and set it rolling through the English countryside, ending its journey in the Atlantic Ocean. In the adventures that follow, James repeatedly devises plans that save him and his companions from peril.

The peach and its crew eventually land safely in New York, peach intact, and James is received as a true hero. He lives the rest of his life in New York, interacting with children everyday and amassing a huge collection of friends - he never has to be lonely again! After frequently telling his story to everyone who visits him in his famous home (the pit of his peach, which has been set up in Central Park), James decides to write a book. The book that James wrote is the book that everyone has just read, James and the Giant Peach.