Author Interview: Michael Morpurgo

An interview with Gemma Louise Bull

Sir Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain's most treasured writers for children. He has written over 150 books and received multiple accolades for his work. From 2003-2005, Sir Michael became the third Children's Laureate. Alongside his wife, Sir Michael is the co-founder of Farms for City Children, a charity that has provided over 90,000 inner-city children with the opportunity to experience life in the countryside. In 2018, Sir Michael was knighted for services to literature and charity.

In this interview, Sir Michael gives an insight into the life of a writer, his hope for a new generation of Shakespeare fans and his belief in the importance of a holistic education.

Can you explain the process of your writing? Do you start with the character, setting, plot, or something else?

It begins with maybe a memory or a happening that I can’t stop thinking about. Then I spend weeks and months and sometimes years on dream time, reading around the subject, investigating, until the story seems to gather and weave in my head. Then I sit down and write my ‘once upon a time’.

Your books include interesting characters and settings. How do you find inspiration?

Both characters and settings are almost all from real life, my life or the lives of others. Of the two, places are more important to me in terms of inspiration which is why I write about places with which I am very familiar and that I love, so home in Devon, the Scilly Isles, actually any islands, France because I go there often and have family there and because the wide world interests me and I’ve travelled a lot I like to write about countries and peoples far and wide.

What common challenges do you face when you are writing? How do you overcome them?

Most important for me when I’m writing is to keep to a routine that I know is achievable. So I know I’m fresher in the morning and therefore do all my first draft writing before lunch. I’m happy if I achieve a thousand words a day, two thousand is the maximum, and I know I’m pushing it after that. Pushing it is not good. Otherwise the story can become forced and contrived.

Many of our students love writing and are required to complete a piece of writing for their 11+ exams. What advice would you give to any budding writers?

When circumstances allow, in other words when it’s not a timed exam, give yourself space and silence so that there are no distractions and no involvements other than the story itself. Tell it very much as you see it, hear it in your head, and tell it as if you are confiding to a trusted friend, speak it down on to the page.

As a fan of your writing – and a lover of Shakespeare’s work - I am eagerly awaiting my pre-order of your new book: Tales from Shakespeare. Why did you decide to adapt Shakespeare’s plays?

When I was a child my first contact with Shakespeare was through a book called Lamb Tales of Shakespeare, written by Charles and Mary Lamb but a very long time ago, which meant that the language was very difficult to understand at times. In more recent times I’ve discovered that more than half of our children never see a Shakespeare play. And that’s a shame. Sometimes I think Shakespeare must seem too difficult to cope with because of the language and because his work is so often to be studied at school or university. Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted and enjoyed, and he used amazing stories. So I thought tell them again in the language people young and old readily understand today and it might encourage them to go to the theatre and see a story they know played out on the stage in Shakespeare’s words.

How did you decide which of the plays to adapt? Did you pick your favourites or the stories you felt would be most accessible for children?

I picked my favourites, probably the plays I know best, the plays I’ve seen most.

What do you enjoy about reading? What is your favourite novel? Or novels? Why?

I tend to read non-fiction more than fiction. I like short stories better than longer novels, because my attention wanders too much and I am easily distracted from reading. A novella I love is The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono.

As a former teacher – and one of the most popular novelists in UK schools - how important do you think getting a good education is?

There is little more important for a growing child to have a good education. But the question is what is a good education. It is not force feeding for exams, though acquiring knowledge and understanding through study is really important. It is also part of a good education that a child should grow up knowing and understanding he world about her or him and be contented, and positive, all the better to face the challenges and the joys of the life ahead.

How did your parents support you with your education? As a parent, how did you inspire your children to engage with their learning?

My parents encouraged me to do well that’s for sure, you could they over encouraged me so that I became rather over anxious if ever I failed, which I did often.

We tried to give our children a secure and happy home encouraging them to read, to enjoy theatre, to discover the world about them and to feel secure.

I live in the countryside myself so I am so inspired by your charity – Farms for City Children. How does the charity support children?

For fifty years now almost, urban children have been coming down to one of the charity’s three farms to spend a week of their young lives living and working in the countryside. This has been to give them an idea that this is theirs, this is where their food comes from, and this is what we are trying to look after. It’s to give them a sense of belonging and of the possibilities of a wider world than city streets. What we do know is that the experience opens eyes and hearts and minds and changes young lives. About a hundred thousand children have had this experience through the work of Farms For City Children.

Are you able to identify a career highlight and/or a favourite novel you have written?

The highlights looking back must be the people I have met who have become friends throughout my life and have encouraged me to go on when things were not working out, so amongst those must be my mother, who read to me when I was little, at least one teacher in every school who gave me confidence and believed in me, my wife, Clare, and Ted Hughes, and lastly the children and the teachers and parents who read my stories and tell me how much they’ve enjoyed.

For more information about Sir Michael's life and career, you can visit his website at https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/

For more information about Farms for City Children, please visit https://farmsforcitychildren.org/