2024
First Published
4.50
Average Rating
80
Number of Pages
Young Michael Morpurgo always loved the small painting of a boat hanging on Aunty Iris’s wall. But all she would ever say about it was that her beloved Alfie had painted it and given it to her years ago – before he’d left for France during World War II and had never come back. Michael decides to try and find out what happened to Alfie himself. He embarks on a journey that takes him to the marshes of an English coastal village and across the Channel into France, learning a profound lesson along the way about service and the surprising endurance of memory.
Avg Rating
4.50
Number of Ratings
62
5 STARS
60%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
2%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Michael Morpurgo
Author · 154 books
Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.
