Michael Morpurgo: War Horse on Broadway, 10 simple rules and the search for new writers
War Horse, the West End theatre production of Michael Morpurgo’s acclaimed children’s book, will make its Broadway debut at New York’s Lincoln Centre on March 17, 2011.
The play, which was adapted by Nick Stafford, has consistently played to packed houses and can proudly list the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince William amongst its audience.
War Horse tells the story of one horse’s experience in the deadly chaos of the First World War. In 1914, Joey, a young farm horse, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges towards the enemy, witnessing the horror of the frontline. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey’s courage touches the soldiers around him.
First seen at the National in 2007, the play uses life-size puppets with the titular war horse animated by the Handspring Puppet Company. Steven Spielberg recently purchased film rights to the play, which has just been shortlisted for a Laurence Olivier audience award for most popular play.
Any writers out there hoping to emulate the former Children’s Laureate could do worse than follow his ten simple for writers that appeared in The Guardian recently:
- The prerequisite for me is to keep my well of ideas full. This means living as full and varied a life as possible, to have my antennae out all the time;
- Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadness’s and bewilderments and joys;
- A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion;
- It is the gestation time which counts;
- Once the skeleton of the story is ready I begin talking about it, mostly to Clare, my wife, sounding her out;
- By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I’m talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren;
- Once a chapter is scribbled down rough – I write very small so I don’t have to turn the page and face the next empty one – Clare puts it on the word processor, prints it out, sometimes with her own comments added;
- When I’m deep inside a story, living it as I write, I honestly don’t know what will happen. I try not to dictate it, not to play God;
- Once the book is finished in its first draft, I read it out loud to myself. How it sounds is hugely important;
- With all editing, no matter how sensitive – and I’ve been very lucky here – I react sulkily at first, but then I settle down and get on with it, and a year later I have my book in my hand.
Also in the news is the launch of a New Young Writers’ Competition spearheaded by Morpurgo. The WICKED Young Writers’ Award is the first of its kind to seek entries from young writers between 5 and 25 years old across all backgrounds and areas of the UK.
Michael Morpurgo will be joined on the judging panel by Gregory Maguire, author of the acclaimed novel that inspired the musical that re-imagines the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’.
"I hope the award will bring the passion and energy of WICKED’s amazing theatrical show and its ability to reach across age-ranges and backgrounds, to young people and their writing. With the encouragement of their teachers and families and the excitement of this kind of challenge, we will see original and creative writing coming through from children of all backgrounds and abilities. Let’s hope that many, many young people will be encouraged to begin their own storytelling journeys," said Morpurgo.
Entries for the WICKED Young Writers’ Award will be sought from children across the UK and Northern Ireland who will then be separated into four categories in between the ages of 5-16: 5-7, 8-10, 11-13 and 14-16. An individual Gregory Maguire Award for 17-25 year-olds will encourage writing that, in the same style as Gregory Maguire’s WICKED novels, takes a well-known story and examines it from a different perspective.
Posted: February 25th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
Steven Spielberg, Michael Morpurgo and War Horse
Steven Spielberg recently visited the West End to watch War Horse at the New London Theatre. The director and producer has bought the film rights to the play and joined the cast and crew on stage to congratulate them on the award-winning show.
War Horse uses life-sized puppets to portray the story of a horse sent to the World War One battlefields, and according to the company manager, Spielberg was very impressed with the operators’ skill.
Company manager Charles Evans said: “For every actor, Steven Spielberg is a very important employer. He hugely enjoyed it. He was very surprised by the skill of the puppeteers.”
“I loved it. I thought it was great,” remarked Spielberg to reporters.
War Horse’s author, Michael Morpurgo was interviewed by The Daily Telegraph last week in an interview in which he was asked what would constitute his perfect weekend. His answers were as eloquent as ever and they spoke touchingly of the inspiration and source behind the award-winning children’s book.
“Weekends are wonderful for what I call dreamtime. That’s the time when my ideas for stories come to me. I don’t have a working week from Monday to Friday, but at weekends I don’t feel the obligation to be at my desk,” remarked the children’s author, who went on to talk about the inspiration behind War Horse.
“There’s a lovely pub in the village called the Duke of York. My wife, Clare, and I know all the regulars very well – we’ve been living in this part of Devon for 35 years. I’ll read the newspaper and have a half pint of bitter. This pub was important when I was writing War Horse. My late father-in-law left Clare a picture when he died. It was a very frightening and alarming painting, not the sort you’d want to hang on a wall. It showed horses during the First World War charging into barbed wire fences. It haunted me and I happened to know a regular at the Duke of York who had been in the trenches. We sat down one day and he told me that he was in the Devon Yeomanry and then came out with this wonderful phrase: "I was there with horses." I asked him and another old soldier about it. It was an extraordinary moment because I didn’t know them at all. They were so matter-of-fact about it all, although one of them did get quite tearful when he started talking about friends who’d died in the trenches and what had happened to the horses. They must have told me things that they’d never told anyone before, but I think you can do that with a stranger.”
When asked to list his favourite things, this is what he came back with:
- Listening to Beethoven – loud
- Chatting around the dinner table with friends
- Mowing the lawn – you get a great sense of achievement when you look back at what you’ve done
- Drinking Châteauneuf-du-Pape
- Enjoying life, rather than worrying about it
Michael Morpurgo was honoured with an MBE in 1999, the OBE in 2006 and was Children’s Laureate from 2003 until 2005. He 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: February 5th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
DreamWorks acquires rights to Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse
Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Revel Guest are producing are taking on the Great War by acquiring the rights to Michael Morpurgo’s novel War Horse. Billy Elliot scribe Lee Hall has been approached to write the screenplay.
Michael Morpurgo biography, bibliography and book reviews
In War Horse, Michael Morpurgo tells an incredibly moving story about one horse’s experience in the deadly chaos of the first world war. In 1914, Joey, a young farm horse, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges towards the enemy, witnessing the horror of the frontline. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey’s courage touches the soldiers around him.
“From the moment I read the book, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make. Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country,” said Spielberg.
War Horse was first published in 1982 when it was a runner-up for the prestigious Whitbread Award.
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: December 18th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
Audio Book Review: Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo, read by Virginia McKenna
Synopsis
Rushy Bay was forbidden territory to Gracie and Daniel. And not just because of the currents; the Birdman lived there. Gracie brings the curse of Samson Island on her own family. It is only the Birdman who can avert the tragedy.
Narrator: Virginia McKenna
Length: 4 hours and 16 min.
Review
Michael Morpurgo’s enchanting tale of friendship, war, legends and curses is set amongst the raw and wild beauty of The Isles of Scilly. This wonderful story carries echoes of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and is adeptly narrated by Virginia McKenna whose regional accents are accurate and warm. Her reading captures the setting superbly and her pacing and delivery are both spot on.
Why the Whales came is a delight yet another example of what a good author Morpurgo is.
About the narrator
In 1956, Virginia McKenna won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film A Town like Alice and two years later was nominated for Best Actress again for her role as the World War II SOE agent Violette Szabo in Carve Her Name with Pride.
However, McKenna is best remembered for her 1966 role as Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free for which she received a nomination for a Golden Globe. Bill Travers, her real life husband, co-starred with her, portraying conservationist George Adamson, and the experience led them to become active supporters for wild animal rights and the protection of their natural habitat.
For her services to wildlife and to the arts, in 2004 McKenna was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire. In March 2009 Virginia McKenna published her memoir The Life in My Years.
Her audiobook work also includes The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
About the author
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.
Posted: December 17th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Audio-books, Michael Morpurgo
Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo instrumental in vetting database climb-down
Laws forcing the 11 million people who help out in schools and nurseries to undergo criminal record checks to prove they are not paedophiles are to be dropped following a massive outcry. Millions of adults who volunteer to work with children will no longer be forced to undergo criminal records checks after the Government watered down its new vetting system.
The U-turn by Schools Secretary Ed Balls means that leading children’s authors, who said they would stop visiting schools in protest at the new rules, will not now be required to register on a database designed to protect children from paedophiles. The complaint by authors including Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake, was first revealed by The Independent in July.
Ed Balls ordered a review of the 2006 safeguarding vulnerable groups acts by Sir Roger Singleton, a former chief executive of Barnardo’s, who will publish his report tomorrow. Last night, a spokesman for Balls said he would accept all of Singleton’s recommendations in full. The law will be amended as soon as possible.
This will mean that someone working with children will have to undergo vetting only if he or she has contact with the same group at least once a week, rather than once a month as stated in the act. People, such as authors, who go into different schools or similar settings to work with groups of children, should not be required to register unless their contact with the same children is frequent or intensive.
Posted: December 15th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman
Michael Morpurgo to visit Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral will play host to children’s author, Michael Morpurgo, for a one-off event on Monday, December 14. He will be narrating a dramatisation of one of his best-selling titles, On Angel Wings, and will be joined by the actress, Juliet Stevenson.
On Angel Wings tells the story of how a young shepherd boy becomes the first to see the new-born baby Jesus.
Proceeds from the event, which starts at 7pm, will go jointly to the cathedral’s mission and ministry and to Farms for City Children.
Tickets cost £10 for adults and £5 for under-16s, and can be bought from the cathedral box office in the visitors’ centre. Alternatively, call 01962 857275 or visit www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk.
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.
Posted: December 5th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
The Snow Goose voted the novel most worthy of rediscovery
The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico, was the clear winner in a search to identify literature’s most neglected novel, conducted by the Open Book programme on Radio 4.
A modern classic, The Snow Goose is set in the years running up to the remarkeable evacuation of Dunkirk in the Second World War.
Gallico, who wrote The Snow Goose in 1940, triumphed ahead of contenders including Samuel Johnson and Patricia Highsmith. However, listeners also responded with their own suggestions, proposing more than 500 titles they believe should also receive the exposure of a Radio 4 Classic Serial adaptation.
The BBC said that it would consider the listener suggestions for future dramatisations but The Snow Goose will be first to go into production next year.
Michael Morpurgo, the leading children’s author, made the radio case for The Snow Goose. He said: “I still have the copy with my 13-year-old handwriting in it. It is an epic story told in a very few words. I am pleased it has won because the short story has been a neglected form. It is a beautiful description of extraordinary affection between two people without that becoming a full-blown love affair.” (Times Online)
Morpurgo, a former Children’s Laureate, said that the novel had been an influence on War Horse, his story about the fate of animals who served on the front line in the First World War, which was turned into a hit National Theatre production.
The Snow Goose finished ahead of Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope, with The Rector’s Daughter, by F.M. Mayor third choice in the BBC vote.
A review of The Snow Goose will be appearing on Fantasy Book Review in the very near future.
Posted: November 21st, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
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
Michael Morpurgo’s latest epic and the importance of telling a good story
Michael Morpurgo, the celebrated children’s author and former Children’s Laureate recently commented on how important it is that teachers can tell a good story.
In an interview with Paul Clements of The Times Morpurgo, a primary school teacher himself 30 years ago, said “When I became a teacher, I quickly learnt that it’s really, really difficult to get a room of 30 or 35 children listening to you. I thought I was quite good at teaching, but there would always be three or four faces looking out of the window. The only time I had all their heads pointing one way was when I was reading a great story.”
He went on to say that much can be learnt from other countries; “To be a teacher in Finland is something seriously important in society, like being a doctor or a lawyer. “
“But the trick is to train teachers first: inculcate them with enthusiasm before they ever walk into a classroom.”
In the same interview Morpurgo himself admits; “I was never a great reader, but there were two stories I loved best: Kipling’s The Elephant’s Child and The Jungle Book. Deep down, I’ve always wanted to write a book about a wild child and an elephant.”
“With reading, I was very lucky. I had a mother who read to me, not because she had time – she was a busy woman – but she found 10 minutes to come and sit on my bed with a book.”
To read the interview in its entirety, please visit The Times online website.
Today sees the publication of the author’s latest book, Running Wild. After the Asian tsunami of 2004, he came across a newspaper snippet which acted as the inspiration for the book; “It was about a boy in Sri Lanka – or perhaps it was Indonesia – who had been doing the equivalent of a donkey ride with an elephant on the beach. The elephant sensed that the wave was coming and, with the boy still on his back, charged up into the jungle. It saved his life.”
Running Wild is a heart-rending jungle adventure. When 10-year-old Will’s father dies in the Iraq war, his mother surprises him with a trip to Indonesia. But little could she have known what awaited them both there. The first Will knows that anything is wrong is when Oona, the elephant he is riding along the beach, begins to spook. Then, suddenly, she takes off into the jungle with Will on her back. And that’s when Will sees the wave come crashing in! With his mother almost certainly drowned, with nothing to cling onto but an elephant and nothing to help him but the clothes on his back, Will faces a terrifying future. But maybe the jungle , and Oona the elephant, can help him!
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 3rd, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
Warwick literary festival a must for October
Warwick’s popular literary festival will be taking over the town at the beginning of October.
Amongst the household names at the festival will be romantic novelist Katie Fforde , Joan Bakewell, Sarah Waters, who will be in conversation with Andrew Davies, former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, and Fiona Millar, journalist, educational campaigner and partner of Alastair Campbell the former press secretary to Tony Blair.
Controversial Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy will also be appearing along with Horrible Histories author Terry Deary and Professor Steve Jones.
The festival takes place over four days, from Thursday October 1 to Sunday October 4, and also includes a host of workshops and events for children.
The itinerary can be seen here, www.warwickwords.co.uk.
Posted: August 30th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo
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Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
On the Letherii continent the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore begins its march into the eastern Wastelands, to fight for an unknown cause against an enemy it has never seen. The fate awaiting the Bonehunters is one no soldier can prepare for, and one no mortal soul can withstand - the foe is uncertainty and the only weapon worth wielding is stubborn courage.
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