Michael Morpurgo talks Liverpool, War Horse and success he never saw coming
'I grew up with the sound of Liverpool in my ears, and thank God for it'
There aren't many bigger names in children's literature than Michael Morpurgo. The English author's books, which are known for recurring themes such as survival, characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Indonesian jungle or the trenches of the First World War, have captured the hearts of children and adults alike across several generations.
Morpurgo, who was the third Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005 and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity, has produced best-sellers including Private Peaceful, The Butterfly Lion and War Horse. The stage adaptation of the latter, which won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Play, is coming to Liverpool's Empire Theatre from April 8-19.
The story begins in rural Devon at the outbreak of World War I when Joey, young Albert’s beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. He’s soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in No Man’s Land.
Albert, who remained on his parents’ farm, cannot forget Joey. Though still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find Joey and bring him home.
The production uses life-sized horses created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to life on stage.
This week, Morpurgo spoke to the ECHO about the play, how its story is relevant in today's climate, and the importance that Liverpool played in shaping Britain, after two world wars. The author, who published War Horse in 1982, says he never imagined that his book would become so successful across multiple formats, including the 2011 Steven Spielberg movie.
He said: "When you write a book, what are you doing? You're just telling a story down on paper - and it literally is on paper in my case, that's how I write, by hand.
"The first thing you hope is that it will get published. You're not hoping for anything beyond that. I wrote this very early on in my writing life. I think it was about my fourth book and none of the others had been exactly Harry Potter; they did enough to get re-printed, but no more than that.
"I didn't expect any great success and, anyway, you don't write a book about the First World War, which is about history and something quite dark and difficult for young people, and expect it to be a whizzbang success - that wasn't on the cards ever.
"And, indeed, the book didn’t sell very well. The most copies it ever sold in a year was 800, so we're not talking remotely about a best-seller. It went onto a few children's bookshelves, it was in a few bookshops and it went into paperback - and I thought that's it, that's fine, that's what happens to books and you don't sort of shut down about it because you're very fond of it.
"It was my wife's favourite book because it's set in Devon, which is where we live and she's loved all her life, and she also knows and loves horses, so for her it was my best book." Morpurgo jokes: "I think she actually thinks it’s my best book now - which doesn't say much about the 100 or so I’ve written since, but there we are."
Over two decades after War Horse was published, the National Theatre contacted the author, telling him they wanted to adapt it for the stage, something Morpurgo originally thought was 'absurd'. He continued: "When I was first told by the National Theatre, and the wonderful director called Tom Morris, 22 years ago now, ‘I’ve decided it’s a good idea to make this story into a play’, he told me it was going to be using puppets.
"I thought: 'This is ridiculous. How can that possibly work?’ You can't have a pantomime horse in a story which is quite poignant and hard, and in many ways - yes, joyous - but you go very deep in the story, and you can't have a puppet horse wandering around.
"Anyway, he said: ‘What I’d really like you to do is come up to London and see the puppeteers I want to use’. He’d worked with these people, Tom Morris, called Handspring Puppets from South Africa; he’d worked with them at another production and thought they were the most extraordinary original puppeteers he’d ever worked with.
"He was then working as an associate director at the National Theatre, and he had in his mind to bring these extraordinary puppeteers to the main stage at the National Theatre, because he felt puppets should play as much of a role as people can do in a play.
"Usually, puppets tend to sort of run around on the edge of the story and keep people amused, but he knew these people had extraordinary power. The main power they had was that they are part of the puppets; three of them play huge animals, and the first one I saw when he took me out to London was a giraffe.
"He showed me a giraffe, full size - I promise you, walking across the stage with three visible puppeteers inside. It had an extraordinary effect because I’d never had a giraffe make me cry until that moment. What was happening was that these puppeteers were human beings becoming giraffe, and inhabiting, if you like, not just the movements of giraffe, but the spirit of giraffe, the wildness giraffe, the danger around giraffe. It was all there in this extraordinary puppeteering performance, walking across the studio floor.
"[Tom] turned to me and said: ‘What do you think? Do you think these people could create such a horse, create Joey?’ I said: ‘absolutely’. I was convinced if you could do it with a giraffe, you could most certainly do it with a horse.
So, the National Theatre worked for two years on creating the most extraordinary show. The music is amazing, the costumes, the lighting, the sound. They got everyone in there to make the best production they could, and it's been the most successful production the National Theatre have ever had."
War Horse has been on the stage for almost 20 years now, winning an array of awards along the way. It was stopped during the coronavirus pandemic however, three years later, the decision for its return was made. Morpurgo said: "We all decided what a great thing it would be to create the show again, but not just to recreate it, they wanted to see if they couldn't make it even better - and they have, that's what’s extraordinary.
"They've done wonders and it's now travelling around on its second countrywide tour - and coming to the great Liverpool, which knows a thing or two about music and drama."
Morpurgo says that in recent years, the story of War Horse has become ever-more intense for audiences. He added: "The story isn’t about war, it’s about a longing for peace, and you have to go through the war to grasp how important that is.
"It's become much more intense for audiences when I go to see it now - the silences were always there but they’re deeper now; people know this is Ukraine, this is Gaza going on here - there are people being killed in front of your eyes, people are suffering and there's loss that we know is there. This story seems to remind people of the pity of it, and, in a way, that's what it was written for."
Speaking about the importance of Liverpool in at-war and post-war Britain, Morpurgo said: "I was in Liverpool quite recently. It's not a place I know well but I know it culturally, like a lot of people do all over the world.
"I do know that, in my own lifetime, it's been the centre of culture in this country. The music that’s grown out of Liverpool and the poetry that's grown out of Liverpool - like Roger McGough and The Beatles - it’s been at the heart of a Britain trying to find itself post-war. I know how badly the city was damaged and I know the part that it played, the ships that sailed out of Liverpool and never came back - those boats went down in their hundreds over in the Atlantic and the last place they ever saw was Liverpool.
"It's very much part of the whole post-war situation in this country, but also a place of great hope because, as a young man of the 60s, I grew up with the sound of Liverpool in my ears, and thank God for it."
To find out more about War Horse at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, and to book tickets, click here.