Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse
Written by Maggie Fergusson
Narrated by Stephen Thorne
3/5
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About this audiobook
The life of Michael Morpurgo OBE, as a biography, and autobiographical stories.
Michael Morpurgo OBE is a national treasure. With books such as ‘Private Peaceful’, ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and ‘The Wreck of the Zanzibar’ he has enchanted a whole generation of children, weaving stories for them in a way that is neither contrived nor condescending. His is a rare gift.
In 2007, Michael’s novel ‘War Horse’ was adapted for the stage by the National Theatre. Five years on, it continues to play to packed audiences of all ages and has been turned into a blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg, propelling Morpurgo to household-name status.
Michael’s own story is as strange and surprising as any he has written, and is shot through with the same thread of sadness found in almost all his work. How did this supremely unbookish boy who dreamed of becoming an army officer become a bestselling author and Children’s Laureate instead? What personal price has he paid for success? And why, amidst his triumphs, is he now haunted by regret?
In a unique collaboration, Maggie Fergusson explores Michael Morpurgo’s life through seven biographical chapters, to which he responds with seven stories. The portrait that emerges is one of light and shade: the light very bright, the shade complex and often painful.
Maggie Fergusson
Maggie Fergusson was for many years the literary editor of The Economist's lifestyle magazine, Intelligent Life, and is author of two biographies, George Mackay Brown: The Life and Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse.
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Reviews for Michael Morpurgo
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An interesting listen, about someone I think, on balance, I'm quite glad I don't know. Told as 7 chapters of a life, Michael Morpurgo responds to each with a short story. The best of the short stories was the second, about meeting the ghost of Thomas Becket, and the 6th, about sailing into a Fjord and finding a sole person trying to keep his village alive.I'm not going to try and describe this is much detail, it is a life, and it continues to the present day. I'm just not sure that I'd like him, if we met...