Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL, FKC, DL is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse. His 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. Morpurgo became the third British Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth5 October 1943
CitySt Albans, England
Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I live in his glow.
But I didn’t dare. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough.
I write fiction. I make things up, it's what I do.
I got married young, far too young, but it is fine. We are still married 48 years later. I got married at 19.
I was brought up, as a lot of kids are, on 'Aesop's Fables,' 'Brothers Grimm,' 'La Fontaine,' all those sorts of things. Hans Christian Andersen is a hero of mine.
You know, I really wish now I'd had the nerve to become an actor. Because I'd have been Robert Redford, no question.
Remember to write for yourself, not for a market and give yourself time to develop your own style, your own voice. It takes a lifetime. Enjoy it!
Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable.
Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times.
When I write I try as far as possible to forget I'm writing it at all. I tell it down onto the page, as if I'm telling it to one person only, my best friend.
Perhaps it is partly that we need to love books ourselves as parents, grandparents and teachers in order to pass on that passion for stories to our children. It's not about testing and reading schemes, but about loving stories and passing on that passion to our children.
By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I'm talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren.
I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it.
If it is possible to be happy in the middle of a nightmare, then Topthorn and I were happy that summer.