Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo at a book fair in Paris, France, in March 2009.
Occupation	Novelist
Notable works	War Horse, Why the Whales Came

Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo OBE FKC AKC (born 5 October 1943) is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature.

Biography

Early life

Michael Morpurgo was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943. During the last years of World War II he was evacuated to Cumberland; he later moved back to London, and then on to Essex. He attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury (his unhappy experiences at boarding school would inform his novel Alone On A Wide, Wide Sea, one of his more famous works). When he attended The King's School, Canterbury he was once described as being "rather stupid but great at rugby". He later trained for the British Army at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst but returned home after a painful injury.

From teaching to writing

Following an early job as a school caretaker, Michael studied English and French at King's College London, and went on to teach primary school pupils in Kent. While he was teaching, in his late twenties, he discovered his talent for storytelling, stating "I could see there was magic in it for them, and realized there was magic in it for me."

His writing career was inspired by Ted Hughes's Poetry in the Making, Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose and Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Poets Sean Rafferty and Ted Hughes were influential in his career, with Hughes becoming a friend, mentor and neighbour.

Morpurgo's work is noted for its "magical storytelling", for recurring themes such as the triumph of an outsider or survival, for characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or World War I. His ambitions for writing shows in all of his stories.

In 2009, he donated the short story Look At Me, I Need a Smile to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Morpurgo's story was published in the 'Water' collection.

Farms for City Children

In 1976 Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare Morpurgo (née Lane), established the charity Farms for City Children, with the primary aim of providing children from inner city areas with experience of the countryside. The programme involves the children spending a week at a countryside farm, during which they take part in purposeful farmyard work.

50,000 children have taken part in the scheme since it was set up, and the charity now has three farms in Devon, Gloucestershire and Wales. In 1999 the couple were created Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of these services to youth. Michael Morpurgo was raised to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006 for services to literature.

Children's Laureate

Morpurgo was involved in the development of the Children's Laureate award as, "The idea for the Children's Laureate originated from a conversation between (the then) Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and children's writer Michael Morpurgo." He was the third person to become Children's Laureate and held the title from 2003 to 2005.

Illustrators

Michael Morpurgo has worked with a number of illustrators, including Quentin Blake, Christian Birmingham, Emma Chichester Clark, Michael Foreman, Shoo Rayner and Tony Ross.

Adaptations

Gentle Giant was presented as an opera by composer Stephen McNeff and librettist Mike Kenny at the Royal Opera House in 2006. Film versions have been made of Friend or Foe (1981) and When the Whales Came (1989), the latter also being adapted to a stage play. My Friend Walter (1988) and Out of the Ashes (2001) have both been adapted for television and War Horse has been adapted as a stage play and radio broadcast. Lee Hall has started to write a script for a planned film of War Horse.

Literary awards and prizes

Shortlisted

• 1991 Carnegie Medal: Waiting for Anya
• 1995 Carnegie Medal: Arthur, High King of Britain
• 1996 Carnegie Medal: The Wreck of the Zanzibar
• 2002 W. H. Smith Award for Children's Literature: Out of the Ashes
• 2003 Blue Peter Book Award: The Book I Couldn't Put Down: Cool!
• 2003 Carnegie Medal: Private Peaceful
• 2004 Whitbread Children's Book Award: Private Peaceful'

Awarded

• 1993 Prix Sorcières (France): King of the Cloud Forests
• 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award: The Wreck of the Zanzibar
• 1996 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Gold Award): The Butterfly Lion
• 1999 Prix Sorcières (France): Wombat Goes Walkabout
• 2000 Red House Children's Book Award: Kensuke's Kingdom
• 2001 Prix Sorcières (France): Kensuke's Kingdom
• 2002 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award): The Last Wolf
• 2004 Red House Children's Book Award: Private Peaceful
• 2005 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award: Private Peaceful
• 2005 Hampshire Book Award: Private Peaceful
• 2007 California Young Reader Medal: Private Peaceful

Bibliography

• It Never Rained: Five Stories (1974)
• Living Poets (compiler with Clifford Simmons) (1974)
• Long Way Home (1975)
• Thatcher Jones (1975)
• The Story-Teller (compiler with Graham Barrett) (1976)
• Friend or Foe (1977)
• Do All You Dare (1978)
• What Shall We Do with It? (1978)
• All Around the Year (with Ted Hughes) (1979)
• Love at First Sight (1979)
• That's How (1979)
• The Day I Took the Bull By the Horn (1979)
• The Ghost-Fish (1979)
• The Marble Crusher and Other Stories (1980)
• The Nine Lives of Montezuma (1980)
• Miss Wirtle's Revenge (1981)
• The White Horse of Zennor: And Other Stories from below the Eagle's Nest (1982)
• War Horse (1982)
• Twist of Gold (1983)
• Little Foxes (1984)
• Why the Whales Came (1985)
• Words of Songs (libretto, music by Phyllis Tate) (1985)
• Tom's Sausage Lion (1986)
• Conker (1987)
• Jo-Jo, the Melon Monkey (1987)
• King of the Cloud Forests (1988)
• Mossop's Last Chance (with Shoo Rayner) (1988)
• My Friend Walter (1988)
• Albertine, Goose Queen (with Shoo Rayner) (1989)
• Mr. Nobody's Eyes (1989)
• Jigger's Day Off (with Shoo Rayner) (1990)
• Waiting for Anya (1990)
• And Pigs Might Fly! (with Shoo Rayner) (1991)
• Colly's Barn (1991)
• The Sandman and the Turtles (1991)
• Martians at Mudpuddle Farm (with Shoo Rayner) (1992)
• The King in the Forest (1993)
• The War of Jenkins' Ear (1993)
• Arthur, High King of Britain (1994)
• Snakes and Ladders (1994)
• The Dancing Bear (1994)
• Blodin the Beast (1995)
• Mum's the Word (with Shoo Rayner) (1995)
• Stories from Mudpuddle Farm (with Shoo Rayner) (1995)
• The Wreck of the Zanzibar (1995)
• Robin of Sherwood (1996)
• Sam's Duck (1996)
• The Butterfly Lion (1996)
• The Ghost of Grania O'Malley (1996)
• Farm Boy (1997)
• Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana! (1998)
• Escape from Shangri-La (1998)
• Joan of Arc (1998)
• Red Eyes at Night (1998)
• Wartman (1998)
• Kensuke's Kingdom (1999)
• The Rainbow Bear (1999)
• Wombat Goes Walkabout (1999)
• Billy the Kid (2000)
• Black Queen (2000)
• Dear Olly (2000)
• From Hereabout Hill (2000)
• The Silver Swan (2000)
• Who's a Big Bully Then? (2000)
• More Muck and Magic (2001)
• Out of the Ashes (2001)
• Toro! Toro! (2001)
• Cool! (2002)
• Mr. Skip (2002)
• The Last Wolf (2002)
• The Sleeping Sword (2002)
• Gentle Giant (2003)
• Private Peaceful (2003)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2004)
• I Believe in Unicorns (2005)
• The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (2005)
• Albatross (2006)
• It's a Dog's Life (2006)
• Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea (2006)
• Beowulf (2006), illustrated by Michael Foreman
• Born to Run (2007)
• The Mozart Question (2007)
• Hansel and Gretel (2008)
• This Morning I Met a Whale (2008)
• Kaspar: Prince of Cats (2008)
• The Voices of Children (2008) (play)
• The Birthday Book (editor, with Quentin Blake) (2008)
• Running Wild (2009)
• The Kites Are Flying! (publication due November 2009)

Radio broadcasts

• The Invention of Childhood (2006) (with Hugh Cunningham), BBC Radio 4

Biographies

• Carey, Joanna (1999). Interview with Michael Morpurgo. ISBN 9780749738662
• Fox, Geoff (2004). Dear Mr Morpingo: Inside the World of Michael Morpurgo. ISBN 9781840466072
• McCarthy, Shaun (2005). Michael Morpurgo. ISBN 9780431179957

Further reading

• Franks, Alan (2007-09-22). "Courses for horses". The Times. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Paul Arendt (2007-11-20). "Children's author Michael Morpurgo on 'Beowulf'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-11-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official website
• Website at Egmont
• Website at HarperCollins
• Profile at Contemporary Writers
• Interview with Michael Morpurgo on Books for Children: http://thebrowser.com/books/interviews/michael-morpurgo