Michael answers your top ten questions . . .
Where do you get your ideas for books from?
From all around me. Places, people, stories I hear, little happenings, big happenings, history. I keep my eyes and ears open, my heart fresh.
How many books have you written?
Over one hundred. Private Peaceful was the hundredth. Sound a lot but that's fat ones, thin ones. All sorts.
Where do you write?
On my bed where I'm most comfortable. I pile the pillows up behind me, settle back and write by hand with my exercise book on my knees.
Are the stories true?
With each one there is an element of truth. I weave different truths into the same story to make another kind of truth. So with Kensuke's Kingdom, there was a Japanese soldier who decided to stay behind on an island after WW2, and people do hunt orangutans, kill the parents and kidnap their young, and people do sail around the world on yachts, and sometimes they fall overboard . . .
What was your first book?
Shan't tell you, because it wasn't much good.
What is the favourite book that you have written?
The Butterfly Lion or Kensuke's Kingdom or War Horse or Private Peaceful.
Who's your favourite author?
Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island), Rudyard Kipling (The Just So Stories) and Ted Hughes (The Iron Man).
How long does it take to write a book?
It depends on how well I'm writing, how well it's flowing. But I usually spend several months dreaming it up in my head - I call it my 'dreamtime', the most important part of my story inventing when I try to weave the story together, do my research and find the right voice for the story. Once I begin writing, I write very fast and will finish a book in two or three months. Then revising it might take another month. So, on average, a novel takes upwards of 6 months to write.
How do you choose your illustrators?
By getting to know them. I've worked for many years now with Michael Foreman. Indeed, he's suggested many stories to me: Farm Boy, Billy the Kid, Arthur, High King of Britain. We really do spark off each other. I've worked very well too with Quentin Blake, Christian Birmingham, Tony Ross, Shoo Rayner and many others. The publishers sometimes help in choosing who should illustrate what. They know many more illustrators than I do, and can visualise a book better than me. But I know what I like.
How old are you? Have you got any children? Do you have any pets?
I'm very young. I'm 64 years young. I have a wife called Clare and three children and six grandchildren. Sadly our old dog Bercelet died last year so all we have are four bantams, three hens and a cockerel called George who loves to scratch up the flowers in the garden.
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
A selection of Michael's past articles and interviews . . .
The Sunday Times Profile
The prolific children’s author puts brutal realism before whimsy, as a sold-out adaptation at the National Theatre shows.
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The Evening Standard: Article
"War Horse is a story I had to write"
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The Sunday Times: Time and Place
The children’s author recalls the cottage he rented with his wife at 19. Obsessed with Shakespeare, they called the dog Puck and the cat Bottom.
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"Bringing out the magic."
The Sunday Times in Sri Lanka interviews Michael at the Galle Literary Festival.
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The Sunday Times: article
"The sunlight of literature can touch hearts and souls, enrich and change lives."
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The Times: "A troublesome old gremlin."
Michael on Hansel and Gretel.
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The House Magazine: "Not taking it as read."
Michael's interview by Baroness Massey.
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"The motivation must come first, horse before cart."
Michael's article in RSL 2008.
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The Sunday Times: "To read or not to read."
Michael on comics and boys' reading.
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The Times: "Love etc"
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Country Life Interview
Michael Morpurgo tells Ian Irvine about being one of the leading children's authors in Britain.
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The Jewish Chronicle
The very English former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo reveals his ‘strange connection’ to Jewishness.
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BBC Bristol: Morpurgo's lucky black cat
BC Radio Bristol's Richard Lewis spoke to the author ahead of his visit to Bath and asked him about his new novel, Kaspar, Prince of Cats, and how he carries out the task of writing.
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Devon Life: Retaining the Inner Child
Author Michael Morpurgo can really get inside children’s heads. Judi Spiers finds out how his own childhood experiences have informed his writing.
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The Sunday Times: A Life in the Day: Michael Morpurgo
The 63-year-old former children’s laureate is writer in residence at London’s Savoy hotel.
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The Times: So whose line is it anyway?
Most writers fear their work going on stage. But it’s worth the risk, says Michael Morpurgo.
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Series in the Guardian: Michael on being a grandfather. . .
Fudge, painted pebbles and barbecues on the beach. But now we're alone.
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The great oak in our family has fallen.
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From Trumpton to the Taj Mahal - a week with the grandchildren.
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Granny's epic blanket of love.
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Grandparents have a lot to answer for.
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I'm not an oracle, just a climbing frame.
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Making up for the grandparents I lost.
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My role in life: to teach them about death.
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Aunt Bessie's stocking forest.
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On missing his grandchildren.
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To my grandchildren, I'm a Flintstone.
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The Times: Courses for horses
The War Horse writer Michael Morpurgo tells our writer how animals have the power to transform young lives.
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The Guardian: Why I write
'Drink this world into your head - it's with that you will write'... Michael Morpurgo.
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HI-ARTS: Taking Children’s Literature Seriously
Michael explains how the post of Children's Laureate came about, and what it is intended to achieve.
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The Guardian: Spread the word
Michael Morpurgo believes everyone can and should write. Julia Eccleshare reports as he takes his message to schools in rural Scotland.
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The Guardian: Author of the Month
Dina Rabinovitch meets the new Children's Laureate.
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The Guardian: Inside the outsider
Julia Eccleshare acclaims the new Children's Laureate.
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The Guardian: Sword's lore
The Scilly Isles have inspired Michael Morpurgo's entrancing tales - Kate Kellaway went there to meet him.
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The Guardian: Why you must believe in fairies (and giants)
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The Guardian: The power of books
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