Michael Morpurgo biography

Born in 1943 Michael Morpurgo describes himself as ‘oldish’. Married to Clare, father to three children and grandfather to six he has written over 100 titles for children over the course of his career.

After studying English and French at London University he took a job teaching primary school children and realised that the books on offer to them were sadly lacking in any real spark so he began to make up his own; something the children enjoyed, so much so that this was what he decided he really wanted to do.

Honoured with an MBE in 1999 then Children’s Laureate from 2003-2005 and recipient of an OBE in 2006, Morpurgo is also a patron of countless charities, and in 1976 began, with his wife, the Farms For City Children charity which aims to relieve the experience of poverty in inner cities and urban areas by giving children the opportunity to live and work on a real farm for a week.

He has received critical acclaim for many of his books, nationally and internationally and counts Ted Hughes, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson as his favourite authors.

Michael Morpurgo bibliography

• Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
• The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
• And Pigs Might Fly!
• Arthur High King of Britain
• The Best Christmas Present in the World
• Billy the Kid
• Black Queen
• Blodin the Beast
• Born to Run
• The Butterfly Lion
• Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana
• Colly's Barn Conker
• Cool
• Cool as a Cucumber
• The Dancing Bear
• Dear Olly,
• Dolphin Boy
• Escape from Shangri-La
• Farm Boy
• Friend or Foe
• The Gentle Giant
• The Ghost of Grania O'Malley
• Hansel and Gretel
• I Believe in Unicorns
• Jigger's Day Off
• Joan of Arc
• Jo-Jo the Melon Donkey
• Kaspar
• Kensuke's Kingdom
• King of the Cloud Forests
• The Last Wolf
• Little Albatross
• Little Foxes
• Long Way Home
• Martians at Mudpuddle Farm
• Mossop's Last Chance
• The Mozart Question
• Mr Nobody's Eyes
• Mr Skip
• Mum's the Word
• My Friend Walter
• The Nine Lives of Montezuma
• On Angel Wings
• Out of the Ashes
• Private Peaceful
• The Rainbow Bear
• Red Eyes at Night
• Robin of Sherwood
• The Sandman and the Turtles
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• The Silver Swan
• The Sleeping Sword
• This Morning I Met a Whale
• Tom's Sausage Lion
• Toro! Toro
• Twist of Gold
• A Visit to the Farm
• Waiting for Anya
• War Horse
• Wartman
• Who's a Big Bully Then?
• Why the Whales Came
• Wombat Goes Walkabout
• The Wreck of the Zanzibar