'There is a lot in common between actors and writers, he feels, both requiring a belief in the character.'

Suzanne Elvidge interviews writer and Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo is a writer who says he doesn’t write for children, he writes for himself.

Michael’s parents were both actors, and he says his readings allow him to express perhaps a frustrated desire to act. 

There is a lot in common between actors and writers, he feels, both requiring a belief in the character. 

Michael was educated in Christian schools and gained an enormous respect for the church and a love of its music, glory and peace. 

However, he describes his faith as ‘dodgy’, with great doubt over the Church’s interpretation of the teachings of Christ. 

He sees the gospels as precious works and as metaphors that help us think, but more as stories of the events rather than as verbatim reports. He is still working it out, he says.

War

As a young child in the last couple of years of the war, Michael Morpurgo grew up using bomb sites as playgrounds, building dens and climbing walls.

However, he was aware of a great feeling of sadness and loss through his childhood and adolescence, as he became aware that the bricks represented not only destroyed houses but lost lives. 

He lost an uncle, Peter, who was a sergeant navigator and only 21 when he died, and the image of this handsome young actor has stayed with him all his life, almost becoming alive to him even though they never met.

A heroic figure to a small boy, Peter partly inspired Michael’s short career in the army. Michael sees war as a scab that we as a nation keep going back to scratch with our involvement in overseas battles despite 60 years of local peace.

This childhood experience has inspired a number of stories that are anti-war, including the World War I story War Horse, now a play performed at the National Theatre.

Writing

Michael came into writing through necessity – as a teacher at a primary school, trying to engage a Year Six class, he discovered that reading was a way to get them on board. 

A new book just wasn’t working, and he started to tell the kids his own stories. And it worked. “You tell your own stories better, because you have more invested in it,” he explained.

With the encouragement of his headmaster, he got it published, and this gave him the courage to continue.

So you want to be a writer…

Michael is often asked by children about how to write, and his initial advice is a little surprising… Don’t. 

He tells them to find things to write about first – to keep their eyes, ears and heart open, and be vulnerable to the world, and to get into the habit of scribbling, be it feelings, overheard conversations or images. 

This helps them to begin to write as naturally as they speak. He writes what he enjoys, and sees books as a way to learn to empathise and writing simply as something he loves, something to get up in the morning for.

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