Author Michael Morpurgo has been Knighted in the New Year Honours List for 2018.
The New Year Honours List for 2018 recognises the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the United Kingdom.
This year, author Michael Morpurgo has been awarded a Knighthood in the New Year Honours List for services to Literature and charity.
Speaking of the Honour, Sir Michael Morpurgo said “Well, how extraordinary. We all know that any kind of success we might have in our lives is because of the people who have helped us on the way. So, my mother who first gave me a love of stories by reading to me in bed at night, Ted Hughes who encouraged me to write and go on writing at a time when it seemed rather hopeless and Clare, my wife, who set up Farms for City Children with me, and who has supported me and inspired me throughout my writing life are the people who have been the mainstays of my life. But I have to say that I have been inspired both in the work we have done with Farms for City Children and in my writing, by children, both by their needs and their enthusiasm.”
Sir Michael Morpurgo was born in 1943 in St Albans and was educated at Kings Canterbury, Sandhurst and Kings College London. He taught for ten years in both state and private schools and is married with three children and six grandchildren.
His first book was published in 1975 and he has since published over 100 titles. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. Michael’s books have also been adapted for film and the stage, including most recently the National Theatre’s enormously successful production of War Horse.
Together with his wife Clare he founded Farms for City Children, an educational charity, in 1976. The organisation now runs three farms welcoming over 3,000 children a year. In 1999 he was awarded an MBE for services to youth, and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE.
His books have won the Whitbread Award (The Wreck Of Zanzibar), the Smarties Book Prize (The Butterfly Lion), the Children’s Book Award (Kensuke’s Kingdom) and Cercle D’Or Prix Sorciere (King Of The Cloud Forests), the Blue Peter Book Award and the Califonia Young Reader Medal (Private Peaceful), the Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year Award (Alone On A Wide Wide Sea) and several have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He was Children’s Laureate from 2003-2005.
Find out more about Sir Michael Morpurgo on his website.
