Michael Morpurgo is, in his own words, “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over.” Born in 1943, he attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury - at least one of these was horrible enough to inspire him to describe it obliquely in The Butterfly Lion. He went on to London University to study English and French, followed by a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army. He then took up teaching and a job in a primary school in Kent. It was there that he discovered what he wanted to do - write children's books. Michael Morpurgo has a gift for magical storytelling, and his books also often tackle social issues. Out of the Ashes, for example, is about the foot and mouth crisis in the United Kingdom in 2001. He is probably one of the best-known writers for children around today and has published over 100 books, many of which have received awards and/or been translated into other languages.
While teaching he realized that many of his students had very little experience of animals other than what they see on television, this gave Michael and his wife the idea of setting up Farms for City Children. They moved to Devon over thirty years ago to develop this idea and now run three farms where over 2000 children a year stay for a week as 'farmers'.
In our library we have a Picture Book Wombat Goes Walkabout by Michael Morpurgo and a number of Fiction & Senior Fiction books, including Cock-a-doodle-doo, The Nine Lives of Montezuma, The Butterfly Lion, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Shadow, Out of the Ashes and Private Peaceful.
Upper Hutt Library currently holds copies of more than 50 children's books by Michael Morpurgo and two audio books.
The above information about Michael Morpurgo was adapted from here, here, and here.
You can follow this link find out more about Michael Morpurgo and his books
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