Page 90 - All About History - Issue 26-15

Five minutes with
MICHAEL MORPURGO

doing it, I noticed that the horse was listening – her
THE AUTHOR OF BEST-SELLING NOVEL WAR HORSE, NOW AN whole body language told me that she understood
AWARD-WINNING PLAY AND ACCLAIMED FILM, TELLS US WHAT not his words, but that it was important to be there
for him. That was what convinced me that I could
INSPIRED HIM AND HOW HE NARRATED THE PITY OF WAR write this story of War Horse in the first person.

The characters in the novel are deeply
complex, but there aren’t any real ‘villains’.
What inspired you to write War Horse? Why did you decide to write the novel from What is the reason for this?
WhenImovedtoDevonin1975,Ilearnedtherewere the horse’s point of view? There is only one bad character in this book, and
three men in the village who were veterans of World Iknewthatthishorsehadtobeatthecentreofthe that’s the war. That’s what hurts people, kills people,
WarI.Ijusthappenedtogetintoaconversation story, otherwise I would just be writing another story splits people up. I genuinely believe that there
withoneoftheminthepub,andhetoldmehe’d about war from one side, but I couldn’t convince is great goodness in every one of us – it may be
been there with horses. I later rang the Imperial War myselftowriteinthefirstperson.Thatallchanged perverted or corrupted or ripped out of us, but that
Museum and asked if they knew how many British when one night I went into our yard and saw a boy goodness is there. And war very often damages
horses went to war, and they said about one million. stoodtheretalkingtooneofourhorses.Hewas that. So war is the villain, and I think that is why it
ThenIaskedhowmanycameback,andtheytoldme one of the children staying on our farm as part of a has worked so well on stage. This show has blown
65,000. The horse was used on all fronts, whether charitythatmywifeandIsetupcalledFarmsFor people away all over the world not because it is
to pull guns or for cavalry charges, so it would CityChildren.Iwasjustabouttoshouttohimto about World War I, but because it is about love
probably be between ten and 15 million horses that goin,whenIrealisedwhoitwas.Itwasarather between people, and everyone is touched by that,
diedinthewar–aboutthesameasthenumberof strange little boy who had been described to me by and everyone can see the ‘pity of war’, as Wilfred
men.ThemoreIthoughtaboutit,themoreIrealised theteacherashavingaterriblestutter–oratleast Owen once put it.
that man and horse had fought this war side by side. they’d been told he did, as at the school he had
Thatseemedtometobethefirststep,tolearnthey never actually spoken. But here he was talking to this War Horse is now playing at the New London
haddonethisthingtogether,andthereforeitwas horse, not stammering, talking 19 to the dozen telling Theatre. For further information and tickets, visit
© Rex Features worth pursuing the story of a horse going to the war. himwhathe’ddonethatdayonthefarm.Ashewas www.warhorseonstage.com.

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