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Michael MorpurgoMichael Morpurgo
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Bibliography |
Prizes and awards |
Critical perspective
BiographyMichael Morpurgo is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the war, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were awarded an MBE for services to youth. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.
He was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to literature. Two of his latest books are the novel, Kaspar (2008) and a play, The Voices of Children (2008) which explores the concept of childhood and how it has changed over the last thousand years.
Genres (in alphabetical order)Children, Libretto, Poetry, Screenplay
BibliographyIt Never Rained: Five Stories Macmillan, 1974 Living Poets (compiler with Clifford Simmons) John Murray, 1974 Long Way Home Macmillan, 1975 Thatcher Jones Macmillan, 1975 The Story-Teller (compiler with Graham Barrett) Ward Lock, 1976 Friend or Foe Macmillan, 1977 Do All You Dare Ward Lock, 1978 What Shall We Do with It? Ward Lock, 1978 All Around the Year (with Ted Hughes) John Murray, 1979 Love at First Sight Ward Lock, 1979 That's How Ward Lock, 1979 The Day I Took the Bull By the Horn Ward Lock, 1979 The Ghost-Fish Ward Lock, 1979 The Marble Crusher and Other Stories Macmillan, 1980 The Nine Lives of Montezuma Kaye and Ward, 1980 Miss Wirtle's Revenge Kaye and Ward, 1981 The White Horse of Zennor: And Other Stories from below the Eagle's Nest Kaye and Ward, 1982 War Horse Kaye and Ward, 1982 Twist of Gold Kaye and Ward, 1983 Little Foxes Kaye and Ward, 1984 Why the Whales Came Heinemann, 1985 Words of Songs (libretto, music by Phyllis Tate) Oxford University Press, 1985 Tom's Sausage Lion A&C Black, 1986 Conker Heinemann, 1987 Jo-Jo, the Melon Monkey Deutsch, 1987 King of the Cloud Forests Heinemann, 1988 Mossop's Last Chance (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1988 My Friend Walter Heinemann, 1988 Albertine, Goose Queen (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1989 Mr. Nobody's Eyes Heinemann, 1989 Jigger's Day Off (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1990 Waiting for Anya Heinemann, 1990 And Pigs Might Fly! (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1991 Colly's Barn Heinemann, 1991 The Sandman and the Turtles Heinemann, 1991 Martians at Mudpuddle Farm (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1992 The King in the Forest Simon & Schuster, 1993 The War of Jenkins' Ear Heinemann, 1993 Arthur, High King of Britain Pavilion, 1994 Ghostly Haunts (editor) Pavilion, 1994 Snakes and Ladders Heinemann, 1994 The Dancing Bear Young Lion, 1994 Blodin the Beast Frances Lincoln, 1995 Muck and Magic: Tales from the Countryside (editor, foreword by HRH The Princess Royal) Heinemann, 1995 Mum's the Word (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1995 Stories from Mudpuddle Farm (with Shoo Rayner) A&C Black, 1995 The Wreck of the Zanzibar Heinemann, 1995 Beyond the Rainbow Warrior: A Collection of Stories to Celebrate 25 Years of Greenpeace (co-editor with Michael Foreman) Belitha Press, 1996 Robin of Sherwood Pavilion, 1996 Sam's Duck Collins, 1996 The Butterfly Lion Collins, 1996 The Ghost of Grania O'Malley Heinemann, 1996 Farm Boy Belitha Press, 1997 Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana! Scholastic Hippo, 1998 Escape from Shangri-La Mammoth, 1998 Joan of Arc Belitha Press, 1998 Red Eyes at Night Hodder Children's Books, 1998 Wartman Barrington Stoke, 1998 Animal Stories (editor) Kingfisher, 1999 Kensuke's Kingdom Heinemann Young Books, 1999 The Rainbow Bear Doubleday, 1999 Wombat Goes Walkabout Picture Lions, 1999 Billy the Kid Belitha Press, 2000 Black Queen Corgi Childrens, 2000 Dear Olly Collins, 2000 From Hereabout Hill Mammoth, 2000 The Kingfisher Book of Classic Boy Stories: A Treasury of Favourites from Children's Literature (editor) Kingfisher, 2000 The Silver Swan Doubleday, 2000 Who's a Big Bully Then? Barrington Stoke, 2000 More Muck and Magic Egmont, 2001 Out of the Ashes Macmillan, 2001 Toro! Toro! Collins, 2001 Because a Fire Was in My Head: 101 Poems to Remember (editor) Faber and Faber, 2002 Cool! Collins, 2002 Mr. Skip Collins, 2002 The Kingfisher Treasury of Classic Stories (co-editor with Rosemary Sandberg) Kingfisher, 2002 The Last Wolf Doubleday, 2002 The Sleeping Sword Egmont Books, 2002 Gentle Giant Picture Lions, 2003 Private Peaceful Collins, 2003 Cock Crow (editor with Jane Feaver; illustrated by Quentin Blake) Egmont, 2004 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (illustrated by Michael Foreman) Walker, 2004 The Orchard Book of Aesop's Fables (editor; illustrated by Emma Chichester-Clark) Orchard, 2004 I Believe in Unicorns (illustrated by Gary Blythe) Walker, 2005 The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips Collins, 2005 War: Stories of Conflict (editor) Macmillan Children's Books, 2005 Albatross Corgi, 2006 Alone on a Wide Wide Sea HarperCollins Children's Books, 2006 Beowulf (illustrated by Michael Foreman) Walker, 2006 It's a Dog's Life (illustrated by Judith Allibone) Egmont, 2006 On Angel Wings (illustrated by Quentin Blake) Egmont, 2006 Singing for Mrs. Pettigrew: A Story-maker's Journey Walker, 2006 The Best Christmas Present in the World (illustrated by Michael Foreman) Egmont, 2006 Three for Tea: Tasty Tales for You and Me (with Jacqueline Wilson and Anne Fine) Egmont, 2006 Born to Run HarperCollins Children's Books, 2007 The Mozart Question Walker, 2007 Alien Invasion (with Shoo Rayner) A & C Black, 2008 Animal Tales: Three Stories in One Egmont, 2008 Canon Fire (New Windmills) (editor) Heinemann Educational, 2008 Hansel and Gretel (illustrated by Emma Chichester-Clark) Walker, 2008 Kaspar (illustrated by Michael Foreman) HarperCollins Children's Books, 2008 Riptide: Volume 2 (contributor) Dirt Pie Press, 2008 The Birthday Book (editor with Quentin Blake) Cape, 2008 The Voices of Children (play) Collins Educational, 2008 This Morning I Met a Whale (illustrated by Christian Birmingham) Walker, 2008 Wild at Heart: Animal Stories Kingfisher, 2008 Running Wild HarperCollins Children's Books, 2009
Prizes and awards1991 Carnegie Medal (shortlist) Waiting for Anya 1993 Prix Sorciere (France) King of the Cloud Forests 1995 Carnegie Medal (shortlist) Arthur, High King of Britain 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award The Wreck of the Zanzibar 1996 Carnegie Medal (shortlist) The Wreck of the Zanzibar 1996 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Gold Award) (6-8 years category) The Butterfly Lion 1999 Prix Sorciere (France) Wombat Goes Walkabout 2000 Red House Children's Book Award (Overall Winner) Kensuke's Kingdom 2001 Prix Sorciere (France) Kensuke's Kingdom 2002 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award) (6-8 years category) The Last Wolf 2002 WH Smith Award for Children's Literature (shortlist) Out of the Ashes 2003 Blue Peter Book Award: The Book I Couldn't Put Down (shortlist) Cool! 2003 Carnegie Medal (shortlist) Private Peaceful 2003 Children's Laureate 2004 Red House Children's Book Award (Overall Winner) Private Peaceful 2004 Whitbread Children's Book Award (shortlist) Private Peaceful 2005 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award Private Peaceful 2006 OBE 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (shortlist) 2008 British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year (shortlist) Born to Run
Critical PerspectiveMichael Morpurgo, author of over 100 books, could in many ways be described as an ‘old-fashioned’ writer. Unlike many of today’s authors for young people, Morpurgo rarely features contemporary family issues such as divorce, inadequate parents or urban social problems. Instead, many of his books have historical and rural settings, and he uses his gift for telling enchanting stories to explore timeless values. As Professor Jean Webb points out: ‘.. stoicism, courage, trust … an humanitarian approach and listening to each other …. [These values] contain an ethical wisdom which transcends the immediacy of the everyday …’ (Inis, Winter 2005). Through the creation of well-rounded and believable child characters, with whom today’s child readers can easily identify, Morpurgo shows that the above values are still relevant to, and much-needed in, contemporary society.
This approach to writing is paralleled in Morpurgo’s charity, ‘Farms for City Children’, which he and his wife Clare set up in the 1970s. Every year hundreds of children from inner-city schools spend time staying on the three farms and helping with the day-to-day work. Thus, in both his literary and non-literary activities, Morpurgo is concerned to help children to see beyond the confines of their everyday experience and to learn not only about the way in which the world functions, but also about their own role within it.
Common themes in Morpurgo’s work include nature and environmental issues, community and interdependence, and relationships between the old and the young. He often depicts people coming together and helping each other in times of crisis, such as war and natural disasters. In The Wreck of the Zanzibar (1995), for example, a small community in the Scilly Isles struggles to survive. The children are an integral part of that survival: like the children who visit Morpurgo’s farms, Laura and her brother have daily chores to do, and they are needed by their family and their community as much as vice versa.
Morpurgo. like his friend and mentor, the late Ted Hughes, has a passionate concern for nature and the environment. Like Hughes before him, Morpurgo feels that inspiring children with an awareness of their connection to the natural world will in turn encourage them to take responsibility for the environment. As discussed above, this is a fundamental part of Morpurgo’s farming charity and, as he points out, these issues also occur frequently in his novels:
'This theme has come into many, many of my books. Usually an old man (I don’t know why) living simply, close to nature, in harmony with nature, giving back to nature more than he takes from it and being protective of the world around him as it protects him. That seems to me to be elemental.' (The Environmentalist, February 2006).
The most apt example of this theme is probably Kensuke’s Kingdom (1999), which has recently been re-printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified paper. A young boy, Michael, falls from his parents’ yacht into the Pacific. The following morning he finds himself on an island, being cared for by Kensuke, a Japanese man who lives there alone. As their relationship develops, Michael experiences a lifestyle at one with nature: painting seashells with octopus ink; taking stranded baby turtles back to the sea; saving an orang-utan from hunters. Eventually, Michael must return home, but Kensuke is happy to stay where he belongs. Reviewer Rachel Redford particularly admires ‘the metamorphosis of Kensuke from an angry wild man of the forest to a sensitive father-figure’ (The Observer, 22 July 2001).
Thus Kensuke’s Kingdom combines its tale of the natural world with the story of a touching relationship between a wise old man and a young child. Many of Morpurgo’s novels feature special, heart-felt relationships between the old and the young: the birdman in Why The Whales Came (1985), Billy the old pensioner in Billy the Kid (2000), the grandmother in The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (2005) and Granny May in The Wreck of the Zanzibar. These older characters often have a particular sensitivity for, and empathy with, the children, for their relationships are not subjected to the inevitable conflict that exists between parent and child.
Relationships between the old and the new feature in Morpurgo’s work in various ways. Many of his novels re-work ancient myths and folktales: for example, Arthur, High King of Britain (1994); Robin of Sherwood (1996); and The Orchard Book of Aesop’s Fables (2004). Morpurgo explains his reasons for doing this:
'Stories, however wonderful, however universal their appeal, will simply die unless they are told. Each storyteller must re-interpret them for a new audience to enjoy. Grandparents do the same thing with family stories …. Without [these stories], as without the ancient tales of old, we are left stranded both intellectually and emotionally.' (The Guardian, 14 January 2006).
Thus, for Morpurgo, the grandparent and the storyteller provide the next generation with an emotional and cultural link through which values, beliefs and experiences are passed on and given new life by the next generation. The individual person and the individual story are shown to be valuable, not merely for their own sake, but as part of a broader spectrum of interconnectedness.
Morpurgo often explores these issues in wartime settings: The Butterfly Lion (1996), War Horse (1982) and Private Peaceful (2003) are set in World War I, while Kensuke’s Kingdom and Billy the Kid are set in World War II. In the midst of dark times which threaten to destroy faith in humanity, Morpurgo poignantly depicts the endurance of love and compassion: in Private Peaceful, for example, the horrors of war and the brutality of Charlie’s execution are set against the endearing love between the two brothers. As Jean Webb points out: ‘Repeatedly, yet with variation, Morpurgo employs the strategies of the meeting of old and young, the sage and the innocent; communication and coming to understanding between different cultures and nationalities …. His work demonstrates the crossing of boundaries through story’ (Inis magazine, cited above).
Morpurgo, then, believes passionately in the power of stories to heal, to comfort and to inspire. This is made particularly clear in I Believe in Unicorns, a book about the importance of stories which Morpurgo wrote for The Times for World Book Day 2004 (published 2005). Meanwhile, Singing For Mrs Pettigrew: A Story-maker’s Journey (2006), a collection of short stories and essays in which he tells the story of how he became a writer. 2006 also saw the publication of two more novels, Alone On A Wide Sea, which takes its title from Coleridge’s 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', and Beowulf, Morpurgo’s highly-acclaimed version of this ancient classic, beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman. Thus, Morpurgo engages actively with both long-standing literary traditions and the next generation of readers, and he places a strong emphasis on school visits and interaction with his young readers.
Morpurgo continues to write prolifically. Recent publications for younger children include various animal stories: Animal Tales: Three Stories in One (2008), Wild at Heart: Animal Stories (2008) and This Morning I Met a Whale (2008). Animals also feature strongly in some of his novels for older children, particularly Kaspar (2008), the tale of a cat who travels the world and survives the sinking of the Titanic, and Born to Run (2007), a story of a greyhound that is reminiscent of Black Beauty in the way that the dog passes from one owner to another and survives a series of adventures, including traumatic experiences. Yet, for all the suffering he experiences, the dog continually encounters human beings who are kind, and Born to Run is a poignant depiction of relationships between people and animals, while also making a point about the morality of greyhound racing. Morpurgo, as always, is subtle and skillful, and incorporates social and moral issues into his writing without being self-righteous or detracting from the quality of the narrative.
Entering into even more difficult territory, The Mozart Question (2007) depicts the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in a manner that is suitable for young readers. Paolo Levi is now an old man, telling a young reporter his story of life in a concentration camp. Though Morpurgo does not shy away from the pain and suffering experienced by Holocaust victims, the narrative structure of a story told in retrospect provides a little distance, along with the uplifting sense of one who survived, which ultimately affirms the strength of the human spirit.
Elizabeth O’Reilly, 2009
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