Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo
OBE

Morpurgo at a Paris book fair in March 2009
Born Michael Andrew Bridge
5 October 1943
St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Notable awards OBE
Spouse Clare Morpurgo MBE
Children Sebastian
Horatio
Rosalind
Website
www.michaelmorpurgo.com

Michael Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL, FKC, DL (born 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright and librettist who is known best for children's novels.

Morpurgo became the third British Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005.[1]

Born in 1943, he attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury. He went on to King's College London, University of London to study English and French, graduating with a 3rd class degree.[2] Then he joined the teaching profession with a job in a primary school in Kent, where he discovered his vocation in life.

Morpurgo's biological father was actor Tony Van Bridge.[3] His mother, Kippe Cammaerts (otherwise Catherine Noel Kippe, daughter of Emile Cammaerts), who had been an actress, met (and in 1946 married) Jack Morpurgo (subsequently Professor of American Literature at the University of Leeds from 1969 to 1982[4]) while Bridge was away during World War II. Morpurgo did not find out who his biological father was until he was 19,[5] when watching the 1962 film version of Great Expectations with his mother, in which Bridge appeared.

Michael Morpurgo was educated at schools in central London, Devon, Sussex and Kent; his unhappy experiences at boarding school would inform his novel The Butterfly Lion. He attended the independent prep school Mount House in Devon until he was 13. He then went to The King's School, an independent school in Canterbury, before entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Life and career

From teaching to writing

Morpurgo's first job was as a primary school teacher. In his late twenties, while he was teaching, he discovered his talent for storytelling, of which he later said "I could see there was magic in it for them, and realized there was magic in it for me."[6]

His writing career was inspired by Ted Hughes' Poetry in the Making, Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.[7] Poets Seán Rafferty and Ted Hughes were influential in his career, with Hughes becoming a friend, mentor and neighbour.

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.[8]

Morpurgo's work is noted for its "magical storytelling",[7] 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.

Farms for City Children

Michael married Clare, eldest daughter of Sir Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books.[9] In 1976, Michael and Clare established the charity Farms for City Children,[10] with the primary aim of providing children from inner city areas with experience of the countryside.[11] The programme involves the children spending a week at a countryside farm, during which they take part in purposeful farmyard work.[12]

About 85,000 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 appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of their "services to youth". Morpurgo was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006 for his "services to literature".[13]

Children's Laureate

Morpurgo was involved in the development of the Children's Laureate role: "The idea for the Children's Laureate originated from a conversation between (the then) Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and children's writer Michael Morpurgo."[14] He was the third person to fill the two-year position, from 2003 to 2005.[1][15]

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), Private Peaceful (2012) and Why the Whales Came (1989), the latter also being adapted to a stage play. My Friend Walter (1988) 'Purple Penguins' (2000) and Out of the Ashes (2001) have been adapted for television.

War Horse has been adapted as a radio broadcast and as a stage play, premièring at the National Theatre, London, on 17 October 2007, with the horses played by life-sized horse puppets horses designed and built by the Handspring Puppet Company. The show transferred to the West End on 28 March 2009,[16] and on 15 March 2011, the show premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.[17] War Horse was also adapted as a 2011 British film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Composer Stephen Barlow created a musical adaptation of Rainbow Bear, narrated by his wife Joanna Lumley. This was subsequently presented as a ballet by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain in August 2010.

Political views

In a January 2014 article, Morpurgo stated "as we begin to mark the centenary of the first world war, we should honour those who died, most certainly, and gratefully too, but we should never glorify...Come each November over the next four years,let the red poppy and the white poppy be worn together to honour those who died,to keep our faith with them,to make of this world a place where freedom and peace can reign together."[18]

In August 2014, Morpurgo was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[19]

Reception and impact

Reading Matters calls Morpurgo's 1999 Kensuke's Kingdom "A quietly told story, but plenty of drama and emotion."[20]

Literary awards and prizes

Shortlisted
Awarded

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Morpurgo, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 300+ works in 1,000+ publications in 25 languages and 55,000+ library holdings.[22]

Radio and television broadcasts

Biographies

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Michael Morpurgo". Children's Laureate (childrenslaureate.org.uk). Booktrust. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Richard Dimbleby Lecture", BBC One. 15 February 2011, retrieved 17 April 2011.
  3. ↑ "Michael Morpurgo; Jean Webb". Michaelmorpurgo.org. 23 May 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  4. ↑ The Daily Telegraph, Obituary, Published 16 October 2000
  5. ↑ "How a horse changed my life". Www.saga.co.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "Michael Morpurgo, M.B.E.". www.harpercollins.co.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Michael Morpurgo," Guardian (US). 22 July 2008, retrieved 17 April 2011.
  8. ↑ "Ox- Tales,". Oxfam GB. retrieved 17 April 2011.
  9. ↑ "Penguin, Puffin and the Paperback Revolution". BBC Four. 2 September 2010; retrieved 17 April 2011
  10. ↑ Farms for City Children, Registered Charity no. 325120 at the Charity Commission
  11. ↑ AdventureBox Books Interview on Farms for Children on YouTube
  12. ↑ Farms for City Children webpage
  13. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 58014. p. 10. 17 June 2005.
  14. ↑ UK Children's Laureate, about the award
  15. ↑ Lyall, Sarah. "Undaunted Author of ‘War Horse’ Reflects on Unlikely Hit". The New York Times. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  16. ↑ "'War Horse' Opens In The West End 3/28/09" broadwayworld.com, 8 December 2008
  17. ↑ Hetrick, Adam (20 December 2010). "Seth Numrich to Lead 'War Horse' on Broadway; 35-Member Cast Announced". Playbill. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  18. ↑ First world war centenary is a year to honour the dead but not to glorify The Guardian, 1 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  19. ↑ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories | Politics". theguardian.com. 2014-08-07. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
  20. ↑ "Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo: book review". Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  21. ↑ California Young Reader Medal (CYRM), 2008 Young Adult winners
  22. ↑ WorldCat Identities:
  23. ↑ London: Walker Books. ISBN 978-0-7445-8646-6
  24. ↑ London: Orchard Books. ISBN 978-1-84362-271-0
  25. ↑ War: Stories of Conflict (2005). HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-4050-4744-9
  26. ↑ Newberry, Linda. "Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo," The Guardian (UK). 7 November 2009, 17 April 2011.
  27. ↑ "The Kites Are Flying!" Walker Books, retrieved 17 April 2011.
  28. ↑ Michael Morpurgo (May 2010). Not Bad for a Bad Lad. Templar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84877-308-0. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  29. ↑ Michael Morpurgo (1 October 2010). Shadow. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0-00-733960-0. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  30. ↑ HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-733966-2
  31. ↑ Walker Books. ISBN 978-1-4063-1511-0
  32. ↑ London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-746595-8
  33. ↑ London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-746592-7
  34. ↑ London: Walker Books. ISBN 978-1-4063-3202-5
  35. ↑ London: Templar Publishing. ISBN 9781848775442
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-748751-6
  37. ↑ London: Egmont. ISBN 978-1-4052-6896-7
  38. ↑ Edinburgh: Barrington Stoke. ISBN 978-1-78112-348-5
  39. ↑ London: Walker Books. ISBN 978-1-4063-5133-0
  40. ↑ London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-733963-1
  41. ↑ Edinburgh: Barrington Stoke. ISBN 978-1-78112-352-2
  42. ↑ BBC/OU Open2.net – The Invention of Childhood – Meet the presenter. Open2.net (21 August 2006). Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  43. ↑ "Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo OBE calls for recognition of children's rights in BBC One's Richard Dimbleby Lecture". Press Office. BBC. Retrieved 15 February 2011.

External links

Cultural offices
Preceded by
Anne Fine		 Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom
2003–2005 		Succeeded by
Jacqueline Wilson