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
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.
A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion.
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.
As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short.
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.
Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.
Children have to be motivated to want to learn to read. Reading must not be taught simply as a school exercise.
I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it.
I got married young, far too young, but it is fine. We are still married 48 years later. I got married at 19.
I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful.
We're much alike, bee, you and me," I said. "You may carry your pack underneath you and your rifle may stick out of your bottom. But you and me, bee, are much alike.
I was never a great reader, but there were two stories I loved best: Kipling's The Elephant's Child and The Jungle Book. Deep down, I've always wanted to write a book about a wild child and an elephant.
I could believe only in the hell I was living in, a hell on earth, and it was man-made, not God-made.