Born in St Albans in 1943, Michael Morpurgo is the author of over 100 books, including the bestselling children’s novels War Horse, Private Peaceful and The Butterfly Lion – the stage production of War Horse has been seen by over 8 million people worldwide. With his wife Clare he set up the charity Farms for City Children and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature. Last month he published Owl Or Pussycat, a picture book based on his earliest memory (David Fickling Books).
1. Film
Sunshine on Leith (dir: Dexter Fletcher)
This has comforted us through several evenings. A film that grows out of its music – music and songs by the Proclaimers – it is the story of the homecoming to Leith and Edinburgh of two Scottish soldiers during the war in Afghanistan. The hopes and expectations are high. They have survived. All will be well. But fortune and love are as fickle as usual. The acting is utterly convincing, the directing sensitive, music and song and story so tightly woven you don’t notice the joins. Utterly memorable, deeply moving. I’m moving to Leith!
2. Music
Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason at BBC Proms
The Kanneh-Mason family are remarkable. But we must forget the story and simply listen to the music. Here Sheku and Isata played Beethoven, Barber, Rachmaninov and Bridge with deep conviction and fine sensitivity. They filled the empty Albert Hall with such glorious sound. Poignant and powerful, it was the moment in this pandemic where hope reigned, where human spirit triumphed.
3. Television
The Salisbury Poisonings (BBC One)
I have rarely seen a play live or on TV that engaged me more deeply than The Salisbury Poisonings. In a way, I did not want to watch it. But I’m so glad I did. The acting and directing was done with great sensitivity. Absent was all the usual contrived over-the-top tension of TV crime drama. Here, all was understated, no attempt to ratchet up or dramatise the horror of a community under a terrible and invisible threat. The calm, the fear of the unknown, the courage – we are seeing all this played out all about us now, as we live through this pandemic.
4. Place
Bluebell Wood
Most days during recent months we have been going on the same walk, close to our home in deepest Devon. Bluebell Wood is a place that belongs to the badgers and the deer. We see them rarely – in the evenings sometimes, if we’re lucky. We follow the path down to a shining stream that leads us across a water meadow to the river, the Torridge, Tarka’s river, Salar’s river. Swallows and martins and swifts are there, flying high, skimming low. The cows and calves are drinking. It’s their river too. We look for the flash of a kingfisher, or a glimpse of an otter, for a fish jumping, a salmon or sea trout. No ringed pool for us today. Home, up the steep lane where early purple orchids and primroses grow. And the bumblebees are flying. Their place too.
5. Fiction
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A book still not as much read as it should be in this country. Perhaps it is because it is hard to categorise. A children’s book or not a children’s book? I’d say it’s a universal story for all ages, all people. The story is of an airman who has crash- landed in the desert and of his meeting with a mysterious Little Prince who asks questions endlessly, but never answers them. We learn of the planets he has visited, the people he has met. It is revealing, troubling, deeply true and touching. A story to help us through dark and difficult times. We have crash-landed and are asking ourselves uncomfortable questions about ourselves and our planet.
6. Puppetry
Little Amal
Through the National Theatre’s production of War Horse I have come to know and love the work of Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company. So I was fortunate to see an early preview video of their most recent creation. Created for Good Chance theatre, Little Amal is a puppet the size of a giant, three metres high, a moving sculpture that will be walking next year all the way from the border of Syria and Turkey, up through Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium, to Manchester, following the route of so many asylum seekers trying to find a place of safety and a new home. A wondrous sculpture, an inspired idea, a beautiful message of intent and hope.
