His dad had fought in the Second World War, so as a young adult, he decided to join the army.

His fascination with war developed from an early age. Michael grew up in St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to Northumberland with lots of other children, because of the bombing raids on the cities. Approximately the same number of horses died in WWI as people, and it was research into this kind of history that inspired me to delve deeper and write the story of War Horse.” It might sound a bit sentimental but this wasn’t a silly, sentimental man, but a solid former soldier, who said he could talk to his horse when no-one else would listen, and depend on the horse during times of conflict. “I was inspired to write War Horse by a man who told me that his best friend during WWI was his horse. I write about the things that interest me, and sometimes these things are sad. My writing reflects the realities of life - the good things and the bad. People die, animals die, and bad things happen. When a child asked him, “What makes you write about sad things?” he replied, “Life is a mixture of sad times and happy times. He shared what inspired his stories when he spoke at the Thame Arts and Literary Festival in Buckinghamshire, England. Well-known children’s writer and the author of War Horse, Michael Morpurgo, is a former primary school teacher who’s developed a fascination with the First World War. Michael Morpurgo has written more than one hundred books for children and won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children's Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.Michael Morpurgo at Thame Art at Literary Festival © Susie Kearley War Horse is a story of universal suffering for a universal audience by a writer who 'has the happy knack of speaking to both child and adult readers' (The Guardian). Look out for Morpurgo's other war fiction including Friend or Foe, Waiting for Anya, King of the Cloud Forests and An Eagle in the Snow. The National Theatre production opened in 2007 and has enjoyed successful runs in the West End and on Broadway.Ī great way of introducing young readers to the realities of WWI. War Horse was adapted by Steven Spielberg as a major motion picture with Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The power of war and the beauty of peace. One horse has the seen the best and the worst of humanity. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking riders from his back, Joey tells a powerful story of the truest friendships surviving in terrible times. In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches. Before the Steven Spielberg film, before the National Theatre production, there was the classic children's novel.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo