LoveReading4Kids Says
Michael Morpurgo’s much praised novel Listen to the Moon was inspired by a gruesome medal commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania 100 years ago off the coast of Co. Cork, and a newspaper report he came across during his research about a small child being spotted on top of a piano floating amongst the wreckage.
Michael will share this extraordinary story and answer questions from the audience. He will also talk about Dreams of Freedom, a book of inspirational quotations about human rights, published with Amnesty International, for which Michael has written an introduction.
A Note from the Michael Morpurgo “There was once in our family a hideous medal, commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania in May of 1915. On one side, if I remember rightly, there was the ship going down, on the other a skeleton, selling tickets to the passengers. The medal has long since vanished, but ever since those two images stayed with me.
I learned later that the ship was torpedoed by a German U Boat, 12 miles off Kinsale, in the south of Ireland. It was at the time the greatest single wartime civilian disaster in history. I discovered too that three hours or so after the sinking, the grand piano from the dining saloon of this luxurious liner was found floating on the ocean, in some reports, with a child still clinging on.
That was my inspiration for Listen to the Moon. It is a story of love and loss, of family and community fractured by war, of the power of hope, and above all of the will of the human spirit to survive.”
A Piece of Passion from Pubisher, Ann-Janine Murtagh “Michael Morpurgo is simply the Master of British Storytelling and I feel privileged to have published many wonderful Michael Morpurgo novels over the years but when I first read Listen to the Moon I fell in love with his writing all over again and as if for the first time.
It is a supremely beautiful book from a storyteller at the very height of his powers and a testament to the transforming power of storytelling itself. Listen to the Moon is just perfect. We are hugely proud to be publishing it on the HarperCollins Children’s list this Autumn’.
LoveReading4Kids
About Listen to the Moon
Alfie lives off the coast of England. Merry lives in New York City. Until Merry and her mother set sail on the Lusitania for England, where Merry's father is recuperating from a war injury. People told them not to go, hearing rumors that the Lusitania might be carrying munitions. But they are desperate to be reunited with Merry's father. Alfie and his father find a lost girl in an abandoned house on a small island. The girl doesn't speak, except to say what sounds like "Lucy." Alfie's mother nurses her back to health. The others in the village suspect the unthinkable: Lucy is actually German--an enemy--because she's found with a blanket with a German tag. Told from Alfie and Merry's points of view, this exquisite novel tells of friends, enemies, and unexpected kindnesses. Listen to the Moon by Michael Morpurgo is war story and a tragic sea ship story, inspired by the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I.
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Michael Morpurgo Press Reviews
Please invite this wonderful story in, you won't regret it. History is rarely more movingly alive. Morris Gleitzman
Praise for Michael Morpurgo:
Michael Morpurgo writes brilliantly about war and animals, conveying the big emotions without preaching. Guardian
Champagne quality over a wide range of subjects. Daily Telegraph
There are few children's writers as compelling as Michael Morpurgo. Daily Express
Morpurgo, as always, is subtle and skilful, and incorporates social and moral issues into his writing without being self-righteous or detracting from the quality of the narrative Elizabeth Reilly, British Council
The former children's laureate has the happy knack of speaking to both child and adult readers. Guardian
'Our national treasure . . . Hugely moving' New Statesman
About Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo began writing stories in the early '70's, in response to the children in his class at the primary school where he taught in Kent. His books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide in almost 40 languages to date. A former Children’s Laureate and current President of BookTrust, Michael was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity. He has won many prestigious awards including the Smarties Prize, the Writers Guide Award, the Whitbread Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Eleanor Farjeon Lifetime Achievement Award.
His novels have been adapted in a number of plays and films including War Horse directed by Stephen Spielberg (2011), Private Peaceful, Waiting for Anya and Kensuke's Kingdom (2023) which has been nominated for 'Best Feature Film' at the 2024 British Animation Awards
The National Theatre’s adaption of War Horse has been seen by over 10 million people in over 100 cities around the world, broke the West End record for weekly ticket sales and won 5 Tony Awards and 2 Olivier Awards The National Theatre's global phenomenon of War Horse is returning to UK theatres in September 2024.
A son and grandson of actors, Michael has acting in his blood and enjoys collaborating and performing live adaptations of his books at festivals, concerts and theatres.
Michael's books have been translated into many languages including Chinese, Bulgarian and Hungarian, Hebrew and Japanese. He travels all over the UK and abroad talking to people of all ages at literary festivals, telling his stories and encouraging them to tell theirs.
With his wife Clare, he set up the charity Farms for City Children, which offers children and teachers from inner-city primary schools the chance to live and work in the countryside for a week on one of the charity’s three farms in Devon, Gloucestershire and Wales. Over 100,000 children have visited the three farms run by the charity since it began in 1976. Teachers frequently comment that a child can learn more in a week on the farm than a year in the classroom.
For more information about the work of Farms for City Children, please visit www.farmsforcitychildren.org
Michael Morpurgo lives in Devon with his wife Clare.
Anthony Horowitz on Michael Morpurgo:
'Michael Morpurgo is the most solid, classical of children's authors. He sits outside the series-driven blockbusters so beloved of publishers nowadays: he hasn't created a Harry Potter or an Alex Rider – and I admire him for resisting that. We are opposite sides of the same coin and, although his work has never influenced mine, I admire the eloquent, considered voice of his best books. He has an unerring moral compass – his schoolteacher past has never quite left him – and books such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion have a strong social concience and an honesty that makes them universal.' (The Guardian)
In November 2016 Michael Morpurgo won the J M Barrie Award for his contribution to children’s literature. This award is given every year by Action for Children’s Arts to a “children’s arts practitioner” whose lifetime’s work has delighted children and will stand the test of time.
David Wood, chair of Action for Children’s Arts, said Morpurgo is “one of our greatest storytellers”.
“Michael Morpurgo has thrilled and delighted huge numbers of young readers since becoming a children’s author in the early 1970s," Wood said. "Action for Children’s Arts is delighted to recognise Michael’s outstanding contribution by presenting him with the J M Barrie Award 2016. His work will undoubtedly, like Peter Pan, stand the test of time, making him a truly worthy recipient of this award."
Morpurgo added: “Storymakers and storytellers like Barrie, and like all the previous winners of this award, have given us the hope and faith children need, we need, to keep flying, have sustained us through dark and troubled times, have banished doubt. To touch the lives of children, to witness their listening and reading silence, is reward enough in itself. This is simply the icing on the cake.”
Take a peek at Michael's 10 Rules for Writing.
You can also read about his life in War Child to War Horse, a collaborative biography with Maggie Fergusson.
More About Michael Morpurgo
