Messages from Michael

The Great War was the critical moment of our times

Speaking at a conference for schools on how to mark the centenary of the Great War, Michael Morpurgo said stories are able to get through to people in a way that history books are unable to do. Children need to be told personal stories about historical events such as the… Read More

A message of hope on Armistice Day

At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, World War I ended. As we approach 100 years since the First World War began in August 1914, Michael Morpurgo reflects on why it is so important to him to write about war in… Read More

Who’s Telling Tales?

Now – there’s no point in pretending here – I was, and still am deep down, a puppet. Everyone knows Pinocchio is a puppet. I reckon I must be just about the most famous puppet the world has ever known. But the truth is I’m not… Read More

Michael Morpurgo: Contradiction? That’s the story of my life

At 68, and with more than 100 books to his name, Michael Morpurgo is one of our best-known children’s writers. But in her new biography, Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse, Maggie Fergusson describes two quite distinct Morpurgos. There is the one who appears on stage at festivals in… Read More

Where there’s muck there’s a class

Nick Duerden recalls his first – and best – school trip to a farm run by writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare, who have given thousands of inner-city children a taste of nature since the 1970s, Nick Duerden I was 10 and it was my first school… Read More