This is the tale of Joey, a Thoroughbred/draft steed cross that started life profiting the youngster of a British farmer. He does not understand the pressures in the human world that advise men to remove as well as remove each various other. He does not understand what the various colored outfits show he does not care if the private he is assisting talks English, French or German.

He values horse factors: water, lawn, doing his task well, as well as a kind master to profit. He went on to tell us about his publishing career, his children’s farm project, and his success with stories like War Horse and others, including a reading from his book.In the technique begun by Black Sophistication, the hero as well as storyteller of this story is a horse. We moved around a lot from school to school, which was quite unsettling for everyone, but finally ended up teaching in a little village primary school in Kent, at Wickhambreaux, where I ran out of other writers’ stories to read, so started making up some of my own!” He married his girlfriend Clare, had kids, went to study at King’s College London, then decided to be a teacher. “I decided the army life was not for me.” I liked the uniforms, good food and the friends I made, but hated being shouted at,” he says.

“I went into the army, to Sandhurst, where officers are trained. His dad had fought in the Second World War, so as a young adult, he decided to join the army. His fascination with war developed from an early age. Michael grew up in St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to Northumberland with lots of other children, because of the bombing raids on the cities. Approximately the same number of horses died in WWI as people, and it was research into this kind of history that inspired me to delve deeper and write the story of War Horse.” It might sound a bit sentimental but this wasn’t a silly, sentimental man, but a solid former soldier, who said he could talk to his horse when no-one else would listen, and depend on the horse during times of conflict.

“I was inspired to write War Horse by a man who told me that his best friend during WWI was his horse. I write about the things that interest me, and sometimes these things are sad. My writing reflects the realities of life - the good things and the bad. People die, animals die, and bad things happen. When a child asked him, “What makes you write about sad things?” he replied, “Life is a mixture of sad times and happy times. He shared what inspired his stories when he spoke at the Thame Arts and Literary Festival in Buckinghamshire, England. Well-known children’s writer and the author of War Horse, Michael Morpurgo, is a former primary school teacher who’s developed a fascination with the First World War. Michael Morpurgo at Thame Art at Literary Festival © Susie Kearley

War horse by michael morpurgo