Harrogate History Festival is welcoming War Horse author and children’s master storyteller Michael Morpurgo as a special guest and presenting him with its Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award. He talks to Catherine Turnbull about what the award means to him and why history is crucial to understanding who we are.

Michael Morpurgo has enthralled generations of children and their parents, weaving stories of the past with more than 130 books such as Private Peaceful, Kensuke’s Kingdom, The Butterfly Lion and The Wreck of the Zanzibar. He’s a former Children’s Laureate, an OBE, has a string of 11 honorary doctorates and is vice chancellor of the Children’s University.

His impressive CV shows few other children’s authors can rival his output and influence. If anyone deserves Harrogate History Festival’s Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award, presented in association with the HWA (Historical Writers’ Association) it is Michael Morpurgo.

Michael welcomed the award saying: “This award shows people that putting the places I have been in an historical context going back 1,000 years and up to the 20th century wars, has contributed to our understanding of who we are today.

This is a specific contribution. History is the foundation of our society, who we are and where we are going, and it is crucial that we pass this on to our young people. What has happened before shapes the culture of our society.”

He puts this into a current context as refugees sweep into Europe and battle to scale the wire fences keeping them from Britain. “Britain is a nation built of refugees and migrants,” he says. “In my book Twist of Gold I tell the story of the refugees of the Irish potato famine when one million people were looking for a place to settle. Millions of people fled from east to west at the end of World War Two and we have welcomed waves of others over the centuries – Jewish people, Jamaicans, Africans and Roman, Anglo Saxon and Viking invaders.

“The current refugees need our help and should be embraced, cared for and educated to become a part of who we will be. Victims of evil regimes should be helped, not rejected.

“These stories of the cruelty and the danger of the evil of some men must be told. Unless you tell these stories of the past, children won’t know how to stop these things happening again.”

He writes his stories for himself, for his own understanding, and believes children should not be told a sanitized version of the truth about the past. They see the same magic in the stories as he does.

History was not always his strong point. In his school report when he was nine he was graded ‘Fair’ and was in 18th place out of 19 boys. “It was all about dates. It didn’t engage me at the time but it did give me a chronological framework in which to put my stories later on. Nowadays with all the projects pupils have to do and history at the back of the curriculum it is even worse.”

The world wars of the last century are a recurring theme. Michael was a war baby, born in 1943, and his parents split up because of World War Two. “I grew up playing on bombsites and seeing soldiers with missing limbs. Everyone was affected in some way. I didn’t set out to tell war stories but the subject has emerged from who I am.”

His mother told him a story about how they were on a train and German fighter planes attacked it. The driver drove into a tunnel and stayed there until the danger had passed whilst the passengers told each other stories. This became the trigger for his latest book, The Eagle in the Snow, which he will be talking about at Harrogate History Festival.

This is the extraordinary tale of the man who could have stopped the war, a moral thriller, and how he tried to fix his mistake. “Like most of my books this is close to the truth and is about being extraordinarily brave in everyday life.”

He will also speak about WW1 book Listen to the Moon, which is just out in paperback. A young girl is found on an uninhabited isle in the Scillies with no memory of who she is. Is she a mermaid, a victim of a German U-Boat or even a spy? This story was triggered by a medal owned by his wife Clare’s family, commemorating the sinking of passenger ship the Lusitania.

The most famous of all Michael’s stories is War Horse, which made him a household name. The 2007 novel was adapted for the stage by the National Theatre and its puppet horse has enchanted whole families and war veterans. Steven Spielberg turned the tale into a blockbuster film.

Michael and Clare founded the charity Farms for City Children in 1976. Working with the children and animals is continual fodder for the writer. “Joey the war horse came to me when I saw a young boy confiding in a horse over a stable door. Like all my war stories there is always hope and redemption. We have hope for Joey as he strives to get through the wire and out of no man’s land.

“The play doesn’t show horror; it respects the audience and children do what we do and see for themselves what the story is about. We grieve for what has happened in the past but there is hope. This is the history lesson we need to understand the present.”

Special Guest Michael Morpurgo will appear at the Harrogate History Festival alongside Melvyn Bragg, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Ken Follett, Kate Mosse, Neil Oliver, Tracy Borman and more, Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October at The Old Swan Hotel. For a full line up, and to book, visit: www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com Box Office: 01423 562 303.