Michael Morpurgo

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Michael Morpurgo Page 23

by Maggie Fergusson


  Looking at the language of paragraph two, can you create a short glossary (a list of specialised words with their definitions) of words and phrases that Maggie Fergusson uses to enrich her architectural description? Try to provide a little drawing alongside each of your definitions.

  Maggie Fergusson’s choice of verb phrases taken from this section is often imaginative and colourful.

  a) Sussex and Kent were honeycombed with prep schools.

  b) Middle-class boys were squirrelled away in these schools.

  c) Chimes of the clock tower sliced up the night.

  Can you explain what the verb phrase in a) adds to the image of the counties Sussex and Kent, what the verb phrase in b) adds to the image of all these little boys and how the image of the night is transformed in c)?

  There follows is a very simple example. In such an exercise there will almost always be what the poet Ted Hughes called a ‘goblin’ word or words – words that do not fit the context and have to be dismissed.

  Here, for example, ‘scampered’ is a ‘goblin’ word – it does not fit the meaning of the sentence in b) below. I am sure Maggie Fergusson was not focusing on schoolboys scuttling or scampering in that sentence. Instead it suggests more that the boys were hidden, or harboured, in these schools.

  Michael’s time at the Abbey boarding school seems to offer a wide range of good and bad experiences.

  Bullet-point in your own words as many of these as you can in a similar chart to the one below.

  What are the biggest differences between Michael’s school experience at this point and your own?

  In the second Morpurgo story ‘A Fine Night, and All’s Well’, Michael tells of a bullying experience led by Flashman (a character name taken from the Flashman novels and from the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays).

  Michael protects himself by following a strategy no doubt still used today: ‘to go round in a protective band of others’.

  What other advice would you give to anyone being bullied?

  Because so many of Michael’s relatives, and therefore his life, were linked to the theatre, it would hardly surprise the reader if during the two years of telling Maggie Fergusson details of his life, Michael Morpurgo’s memories were filled with drama. This certainly shows up in the resulting biography.

  The opening of Chapter Three reveals a very dramatic tale of his faintly remembered father suddenly appearing on television as the fearful Magwitch from Great Expectations. His shocked mother identifies this rough and unkempt character lurching up from behind a gravestone on the TV screen as his father.

  How does Michael Morpurgo’s first meeting with Clare in Greece also link with a famous scene – this time from a Shakespeare play?

  What impressions of training to be a soldier does Maggie Fergusson give in this section?

  Michael Morpurgo is remembered as a teacher who ‘made learning an adventure’ because his lessons were full of ‘excitement and energy’. He also creates a character who is an inspirational teacher in his third story ‘Littleton 12–Wickhamstead 0’.

  In contrast we are also introduced in the biography to teachers we definitely would not like to teach us, such as those who ‘humiliated pupils’ or the violent teacher who actually threw ‘chalk and blackboard rubbers’ at his pupils.

  Use a pyramid concept (see below) to rank your ideas of

  Throughout the biography Maggie Fergusson reveals Michael Morpurgo’s great ‘appetite for heroes’ and in this section we also learn that Michael’s wife Clare, like Michael, has a strong social conscience and identifies in spirit with Joan of Arc, St Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals) and Nobel Peace Prize winner and medical missionary Albert Schweitzer, who all stood strongly against injustice.

  Create a grid like the one below and select three people/characters that you admire and would call heroes or heroines. To make them as different as possible, you might choose one from the past, one from a book or TV programme or film and one from present-day life. Give plenty of detail for each one.

  As you read about Michael and Clare learning farming skills, setting up the first of the Farms for City Children and the arrival of the first twenty-six pupils and their teacher, what pictures did you form in your imagination of the rambling Nethercott House, its outbuildings and its fifty acres?

  In this chapter Maggie Fergusson recalls a very sad time for Michael Morpurgo. Not only was he still struggling with a lack of belief in himself as a writer, but worse was to come with the death of his mother and his friends Seán Rafferty and the great poet Ted Hughes.

  We all have sad things happening in our lives at some time.

  Can you think of a moment in your life when you were really sad?

  How did you know you were sad?

  What is it like to feel sad?

  Michael Morpurgo’s stories often feature sad moments. As he says in the biography, ‘to understand joy, you have first to acknowledge suffering. They can’t be separated.’

  How do you feel about reading sad books?

  Talk about a book or a film that you have enjoyed where a tragedy occurs.

  What is the saddest Morpurgo book that you have read?

  This is a chapter of sharp contrasts. The writer opens with an outline of how the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease almost devastates the Farms for City Children charity. By the end of the chapter there is much to celebrate, including literary prizes for Michael, the role of Children’s Laureate and the huge success of War Horse.

  Where else in the biography do you remember noticing Maggie Fergusson’s presentation of contrasting events?

  What effect does the use of such contrast have on the reader?

  Think of a time when you experienced a real sense of achievement. How did you feel?

  What did you do to celebrate your success?

  ‘Let the joy of the book come to the fore!’

  This is the slogan Michael Morpurgo uses to underline his belief that reading is ‘for everyone, not just for clever people, and not just for learning’.

  Can you create a slogan that represents your view of reading for enjoyment – one that will encourage others to feel like you do?

  General Activities

  Thinking about the structure of Maggie Fergusson’s biography.

  Having read all seven chapters, can you suggest a word or phrase for the topic of each chapter?

  Now create a simple flowchart using seven squares (labelled with your topic heading) and arrows.

  To explore how the sequence of the biography engages the reader, bullet-point under each heading the main emotions you felt as you read each chapter.

  At what points in the biography did you particularly identify with Michael Morpurgo?

  All seven of Michael Morpurgo’s stories underline how easy the writer finds it to enter situations ‘imaginatively’.

  To enhance your reading of these stories, can you list any similarities, common themes, plots, characterisation, etc. that they share?

  In this task you are recording any repeated patterns that appear in a number of the stories.

  For example:

  Use of first-person narrator

  Use of past tense

  With a friend or someone who has shared the reading of the biography and stories with you, imagine you are members of a panel of judges. You have to select a winning Morpurgo story out of the seven:

  ‘Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble’

  ‘A Bit of a Daredevil’

  ‘A Fine Night, and All’s Well’

  ‘The Saga of Ragnar Erikson’

  ‘Littleton 12–Wickhamstead 0’

  ‘Snug’

  ‘Didn’t We Have a Lovely Time?’

  You need to think about and discuss at least some of the following elements in the stories before awarding the prize for the winning story:

  plot

  action

  characterisation

  background

  choice of language

  any t
wist in the tale

  impact on the reader

  Finally: In the final pages of the biography, we read how Michael Morpurgo thinks it important to encourage readers to ask questions. Do you have any questions for Maggie Fergusson about any detail of Michael Morpurgo’s life presented so far?

  Of Lions and Unicorns – a Lifetime of Tales from the Master Storyteller is a beautiful anthology of Michael Morpurgo’s stories and extracts from his best-loved novels.

  Click here to order now: 9780007523320

  For interviews, videos and more, visit www.michaelmorpurgo.com

  Bibliography

  It Never Rained (1974)

  Long Way Home (1975)

  Thatcher Jones (1975)

  Friend or Foe (1977)

  Do All You Dare (1978)

  What Shall We Do with It? (1978)

  All Around the Year (with poems by Ted Hughes) (1979)

  The Day I Took the Bull by the Horn (1979)

  The Ghost-Fish (1979)

  Love at First Sight (1979)

  That’s How It Is (1979)

  The Marble Crusher and Other Stories (1980)

  The Nine Lives of Montezuma (1980)

  Miss Wirtles Revenge (1981)

  War Horse (1982)

  The White Horse of Zennor and Other Stories from Below the Eagle’s Nest (1982)

  Twist of Gold (1983)

  Little Foxes (1984)

  Why the Whales Came (1985)

  Tom’s Sausage Lion (1986)

  Conker (1987)

  Jo-Jo the Melon Donkey (1987)

  King of the Cloud Forests (1987)

  Mossop’s Last Chance (1988)

  My Friend Walter (1988)

  Albertine, Goose Queen (1989)

  Mr Nobody’s Eyes (1989)

  Old Sticky (1989)

  Jigger’s Day Off (1990)

  Waiting for Anya (1990)

  And Pigs Might Fly! (1991)

  Colly’s Barn (1991)

  The Sandman and the Turtles (1991)

  The Marble Crusher (1992)

  Martians at Mudpuddle Farm (1992)

  The King in the Forest (1993)

  The War of Jenkins’ Ear (1993)

  Arthur, High King of Britain (1994)

  The Dancing Bear (1994)

  Snakes and Ladders (1994)

  Stories from Mudpuddle Farm [1] (1994)

  Blodin the Beast (1995)

  Mum’s the Word (1995)

  Stories from Mudpuddle Farm [2] (1995)

  The Wreck of the Zanzibar (1995)

  The Butterfly Lion (1996)

  The Ghost of Grania O’Malley (1996)

  Robin of Sherwood (1996) republished as Outlaw (2012)

  Sam’s Duck (1996)

  Farm Boy (1997)

  Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana! (1998)

  Escape from Shangri-La (1998)

  Joan of Arc (1998) republished as Sparrow (2012)

  Red Eyes at Night (1998)

  Wartman (1998)

  Kensuke’s Kingdom (1999)

  The Rainbow Bear (1999)

  Wombat Goes Walkabout (1999)

  Billy the Kid (2000)

  Black Queen (2000)

  Dear Olly (2000)

  From Hereabout Hill (2000)

  The Silver Swan (2000)

  Who’s a Big Bully Then? (2000)

  Mairi’s Mermaid (2001)

  Out of the Ashes (2001)

  Toro! Toro! (2001)

  Cool! (2002)

  The Last Wolf (2002)

  Mr Skip (2002)

  The Sleeping Sword (2002)

  Cool as a Cucumber (2003)

  Gentle Giant (2003)

  Private Peaceful (2003)

  The Best Christmas Present in the World (2004)

  Dolphin Boy (2004)

  Little Albatross (2004)

  The Orchard Book of Aesop’s Fables (2004)

  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2004)

  The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (2005)

  Fox Friend (2005)

  I Believe in Unicorns (2005)

  Alone on a Wide Wide Sea (2006)

  Beowulf (2006)

  On Angel Wings (2006)

  Singing for Mrs Pettigrew: a Story-maker’s Journey (2006)

  Born to Run (2007)

  The Mozart Question (2007)

  Alien Invasion! (2008)

  Animal Tales (2008)

  Cock-a-doodle-doo! (2008)

  Hansel and Gretel (2008)

  Kaspar, Prince of Cats (2008)

  Pigs Might Fly! (2008)

  This Morning I Met a Whale (2008)

  The Voices of Children (2008)

  The Best of Times (2009)

  The Kites are Flying! (2009)

  Mudpuddle Farm: Six Animal Adventures (2009)

  Running Wild (2009)

  An Elephant in the Garden (2010)

  It’s a Dog’s Life (2010)

  Not Bad for a Bad Lad (2010)

  Shadow (2010)

  Little Manfred (2011)

  The Pied Piper of Hamelin (2011)

  Homecoming (2012)

  Where My Wellies Take Me (with Clare Morpurgo) (2012)

  A Medal for Leroy (2012)

  Beauty and the Beast (2013)

  Pinocchio by Pinocchio (2013)

  Acknowledgements

  ‘There’s no point in doing this if we don’t have fun,’ said Michael as we signed our contracts. My first thanks go to him and to Clare for their infinite kindness, hospitality and patience, and for making all our meetings, email exchanges and telephone conversations feel much more like pleasure than work.

  I would like to thank my editor, Clare Reihill, for her unfailing support and steady nerve, and my agent, Gillon Aitken, for his clear thinking and sage advice.

  My employers at the Royal Society of Literature have been extraordinarily generous in enabling me to find time to write. I am particularly grateful to Anne Chisholm and Colin Thubron.

  Anne Chisholm also read the book in draft, and so did Anthony Gardner. Their comments and suggestions were invaluable. I am indebted to my kind and sharp-eyed sister-in-law Madeline Fergusson for her painstaking proofreading and fact-checking, and her help in compiling the bibliography. I am grateful to Carol Hughes for permission to quote from letters from Ted Hughes to Christopher Reid, and to Michael and Clare Morpurgo.

  I would like to thank Robin Ravilious for permission to use the photograph of Michael Morpurgo on the front cover of the adult edition of this biography; Carol Hughes for permission to reproduce the photograph of Ted Hughes and herself; Matt Writtle for permission to reproduce the photograph of Michael Morpurgo in Ypres; Apex News and Pictures for permission to reproduce the photograph of Michael Morpurgo reading to children from St John the Baptist School, Hoxton; the National Theatre for permission to reproduce photographs from the set of the theatrical production of War Horse; Charles Green for permission to reproduce the photograph of Michael and Clare Morpurgo after the MBE ceremony; and the CBC Still Photograph Collection/Dale Barnes for permission to reproduce the photograph of Tony van Bridge on the set of Great Expectations. I am grateful for permission to use photographs of Michael Morpurgo and ‘Joey’, and Michael and Clare Morpurgo with Steven Spielberg on the set of War Horse, © DreamWorksII Distribution Co., LLC All Rights Reserved; and to the University of Bristol Library Special Collections for permission to reproduce the photograph of Allen and Clare Lane (DM1294/1/6/p57). The photograph of Michael and Clare Morpurgo and their grandchildren is © Frank Baron/Guardian. Lines from Walter de la Mare’s ‘The Listeners’ are reproduced with kind permission of the Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare, and the Society of Authors as their representative. All other photographs and quotations are reproduced with the kind permission of Michael and Clare Morpurgo.

  Among the many others to whom I owe thanks are Clare Alexander; Karin Altenberg; Christine Baker; Stephen Barlow; Sebastian Barker; Jane Batterham; Veronique Baxter; Louise Beere; Daniel Bennett; Marian Bennett; Em
ily Berry; Anthony Bilmes; Quentin Blake; Peter Campbell; Helen Chaloner; Paul Chequers; Emma Chichester Clark; Piet Chielens; Susannah Clapp; Mick Csaky; Laura de Lisle; John Dunne; Julia Eccleshare; Robin Edmonds; Tabitha Elwes; Ted Emerson; Gill Evans; Jane Feaver; William Fiennes; Adam Finn; Peter Florence; Michael Foreman; Anne and Ronald Graham-Clarke; Nick Grant; Peter Henderson; David Hicks; Helen Hillman; Sir Michael Holroyd; Lady (Jean) Hyde Parker; Sir Nicholas Hytner; Paula Johnson; Denise Johnstone-Burt; Judith Keenlyside; Lady (Elizabeth) Leslie; Jeanne Lindley; Hannah Lowery; Joanna Lumley; Roger McGough; Virginia McKenna; Edna Macleod; Elizabeth Manners; Jane Manners; Eloïse Morpurgo; Kay Morpurgo; Léa Morpurgo; Linda and Mark Morpurgo; Pieter Morpurgo; Rosalind Morpurgo; Tom Morris; John and Virginia Murray; Ann-Janine Murtagh; Henrietta Naish; Mary Niven; Guy Norrish; John and Patricia Owens; Simon Owens; Rachel Page; Joy Palmer; Seonaid Parnell; Philippa Perry; Gina Pollinger; Cally Poplak; Philip Pullman; Robin Ravilious; Simon Reade; Anne and Patrick Robbé; Richard Roberts; Robin Robertson; Olly Rowse; Beaty Rubens; Juliet Stevenson; Daniel Swift; Kris Taylor; Christine and David Teale; David Ward; Graham Ward; Hetty Ward; Neil Warrington; Tim Waterstone; Stephen Webster; Joan Weeks; and Laura West.

  Last, and most of all, I thank my husband, James Fergusson, and our daughters, Flora and Isabella. This book is for them.

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2013

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers

 

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