MICHAEL MORPURGO
In light of Cardiff
Children’s Literature
Festival, renowned War
Horse author Michael
Morpurgo talks about
why it’s important for
children to meet their
literary heroes.
pic: JAYDON MARTIN
M
ichael Morpurgo has seen one of his
many books become an international
phenomenon. Not only has his
children’s book War Horse, which tells
the heartbreaking story of a boy’s friendship with his
horse Joey during the First World War, been turned
into a world-famous stage show but it was also given
the Hollywood treatment in 2011 when director
Stephen Spielberg made it into a feature film.
Despite these levels of fame Michael still has his
feet firmly on the ground and now, 30 years after
first publishing War Horse, he is heading to Cardiff
Children’s Literature Festival to inspire more minds.
“I never had that when I was young – I never met my
writing heroes. They were just names on the back of
books, and books were quite dead things because of
that,” states Morpurgo.
“If you meet someone whose work you enjoy when
you’re very young, it can give you the idea that
you can do it yourself. I can be a writer, I can be
an illustrator, I can be a storyteller, I can be J.K.
Rowling, I can be Quentin Blake.”
There will be many opportunities at this year’s
Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival for kids to
meet their literary heroes, with events taking place
in a variety of venues across the city. The king of the
‘bad boys’ will be crowned at the National Museum
as Horrid Henry creator Francesca Simon will
be taking Stephen Butler, author of The Diary Of
Dennis The Menace. Children’s comic writer Daniel
Glyn will be hosting a joke session for kids (and
those who are kids at heart) in St David’s Hall and
award-winning Turnip Starfish will be running an
animation workshop in Cardiff Story.
Michael himself will be speaking at War Horse: Only
upfront
working on another novel set during World War One:
“I just finished a book, a couple of weeks ago now.
It’s the story of a ship called the Lusitania. It was
this great big ship that was torpedoed at sea in 1915.
It was the second biggest ship, besides the Titanic,
to go down with such a huge loss of life. I’m writing
about a girl who survived from that ship.
“We are talking a huge ship here, 2000 passengers
and it sank in 18 minutes. Now the Titanic went
down in three and a half hours. The Lusitania almost
blew up.
“My writing heroes were just names on
the back of books, and books were dead
things because of that”
Remembered and will be reading from his acclaimed
novel on stage with musicians John Tams and Barry
Coope – who will be performing songs from the stage
production of War Horse.
Storytelling is nothing new to Michael, who fell into
writing after he discovered that his favourite part
of being a primary school teacher was sitting down
with his students for story time: “Whenever I started
talking about mathematics or geography they seemed
only mildly interested, but tell them a story and they
all listened; with wide eyes and wide mouths.
“I know children very well because I was one,
strangely, and I’ve been teaching on and off all my
life. I love their fulsome reaction to books. I think the
element of the War Horse story that quite a lot of young
people tend to respond to is the bond between boy and
horse, and what we all long for is for them to find each
other, survive and come home.”
With many more books under his belt, Morpurgo is
much more than a one-trick pony, and he is currently
“The ship went down just off the southern coast
of Ireland, and I came across this extraordinary
report because it was seen, both the explosion and
the sinking of ship, from the shore. The men of
southern Ireland got out their little boats and rowed
out attempting to save people and they did save many
people, but they also bought back a lot of bodies.
“Four hours after the sinking, one of the rescue boats
looking for survivors and bodies came across a piano.
This was the piano from the dining hall in this ship,
and resting on it was a little girl. The novel is called
Listen To The Moon and it’s the story of that little girl
travelling back from New York.”
War Horse: Only Remembered, Wales
Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Sun 13
Apr. Tickets: £25/£16 War Horse ticket
holders/£10 Children’s Literature Festival
ticket holders (admits 1 adult + 1 child,
additional £6 for extra child).
Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival,
various venues across Cardiff,
Tues 8-Sun 13 Apr. Tickets: £3-£6
for most events, some events free.
Info: www.cardiffchildrenslitfest.com
pic: RICHARD CANNON
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