Michael Morpurgo, a powerful person in the countryside, signs multi-book deal
It has been an eventful week for children’s author Michael Morpurgo. He came in at number seventy-nine in a list of the powerful people in the countryside and signed a multi-book deal with HarperCollins.
It was not only Morpurgo’s written work that saw him appearing in the list of most-influential countryside dwellers but also his role as founder of Farms for City Children. The organisation gives young children from urban parts of England the chance to experience life on a farm in the heart of the countryside. In the past 30 years, more than 50,000 inner city children have visited one of the farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire.
The multi-book deal includes signed digital and audio rights for more than 50 of his backlist titles. The deal was agreed by HarperCollins Children’s Books publisher Ann-Janine Murtagh and Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates. The six-book deal includes world rights and the first book, which is already being written, will be published in spring 2010. The new books will include fiction and colour-illustrated titles.
HarperCollins is also planning a major relaunch of Morpurgo’s website this autumn to make it more interactive. It will feature digital and downloadable resources, author videos, audio samples and materials for schools.
For more information on Michael Morpurgo and his work, visit http://www.michaelmorpurgo.org/
About Michael Morpurgo
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. 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.
Posted: September 7th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
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