Michael Foreman joined Michael Morpurgo to give a talk and launch their latest book together – Poppy Field – in the wonderful Chapel at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
The Royal Hospital is the home of the Chelsea Pensioners – about 300 former veterans and pensioners live there. Years ago, the two Michaels wrote and illustrated Billy The Kid which was inspired by the story of a Chelsea pensioner who played for Chelsea FC . Their new book Poppy Field is published in association with the Royal British Legion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, inspired by the history of the poppy. When John McCrae wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Field” among the trenches of war-torn Belgium, neither he nor a local village girl, who saves a discarded draft of it, could know what enormous significance the poem would have on future generations.
