Children’s BookFest welcomes Michael Morpurgo

We had such a wonderful evening with the marvellous Michael Morpurgo, which was a wonderful finale to our Schools BookFest in October!

Michael was in conversation with Kate Mosse about his latest book of Shakespeare, a beautiful collection that captures the story at the heart of these legendary plays.

The books are illustrated by a selection of people, including the extraordinary Dapo Adeola, who once visited the Morpurgo’s Farms for City Children as a child - a beautiful, full circle moment that really resonated with the audience.

Michael loves the fact that these plays raise issues which still trouble us to this day; prejudice, gender politics, the human condition, they’re all things that children need to learn to navigate. He believes in exposing children to the realities of life in a safe way, and feels that the interplay of knowledge and understanding is one of the gifts that books can provide.

He also had lots of pertinent advice for aspiring writers, the key one being to live and interesting life! Fill your head with the present and the past, listen to people when they talk, ask questions, travel if you can and make a habit of making little notes to yourself to capture ideas and experiences. His advice certainly went down well with the young people in the audience, who all very much enjoyed meeting Michael at the end of the evening.

Our thanks to One Tree Books for their unfailing support, to Chichester Cathedral, MJ Visual and to everyone who came to celebrate Michael, the Bard and the power of story.