Exploring the deep forest of Michael Morpurgo’s life Interviewer: Welcome back everyone to the BBC channel! My name is John Mulaney and ​ today we have a special guest. He’ll be talking about his life and we’ll ask him some questions for the curious ones! Please welcome, Michael Morpurgo! Morpurgo: Hi there everybody! As the young man has said, I´m Michael Morpurgo, I’m an ​ author, and I came over here to reveal some things. Interviewer: Well, great! Let’s start. First of all, you have a very wide variety of books, some ​ stories are joyful ones, with a lesson to be learned, and others are quite dark and gruesome. Is there anything from your childhood that is reflected in one of the books? Or maybe did you go through a painful time when you were a kid? Morpurgo: I wouldn’t say I had a traumatic childhood, however, I’d say that there were some ​ rough patches that I had to go through. When I was very young my father wasn’t present due to the fact that he was at war. Not having that father figure for a long time created a void in my heart, but over the years I learned to live with it. Then Jack Morpurgo, my stepfather, came in the picture, and once my father came back, he and mum got a divorce. Interviewer: That’s so sad to hear. A parent figure is crucial for the aging of a child. And ​ what happened after the divorce? Morpurgo: After the divorce, if I recall well, we moved to London and I assisted the primary ​ school at St Matthias in the Warwick Road. Interviewer: Did you go to any other school? Or was that the only one? ​ Morpurgo: No, no. I went to some other schools as well. I went to a boarding school in ​ Sussex and, if I remember correctly the name, The King’s School in Canterbury. Interviewer: Was there any particular one that you disliked, and if so, why? ​ Morpurgo: I myself didn’t quite enjoy going to school. Anyhow, I distinctly remember one ​ which I hated the most, and do you know which one? It was the boarding school, because I really missed home, so it was as if I was homesick everyday, every hour for 6 years! Interviewer: Hahaha, I myself went to a boarding school for a year and a half. I just wanted to ​ jump off a window. I missed my family and I wasn’t really the principal’s cup of tea. Morpurgo: Yeah, principals can be really tough and scary at times. ​ Interviewer: When you finished high school, what did you do? ​ Morpurgo: Then, I headed over to the army, which eventually I found out it wasn’t really my ​ type of life. Nevertheless, I liked the uniform, the friendships and the food! Interviewer: Well, it’s good you think about it that way, not everyone should be a soldier or a ​ general! Morpurgo: Couldn’t have put it in other words! ​ Interviewer: Around that time or later on, were you in a relationship? ​ Morpurgo: Around that time, I met Clare, my wife. We got married really young and had ​ three beautiful children, also at a really young age. I went back to college and got a degree. I became a teacher and really enjoyed reading to children. Then I went to another school, and as I ran out of authors, I started writing some things of my own. Interviewer: Wow, that’s a very interesting backstory of how you began to write! Well I’ll ​ ask you my last question and then I’ll let you free. Here in BBC we were told your charity was going really well, would you mind telling us a little about it? Morpurgo: Of course! It’s basically a house where children can stay and we take care of ​ them. It’s been active for 40 years and over 90,000 children have come. Clare and I handled it for 25 years but now trained and efficient people have the job in their hands! Interviewer: Well, thank you Mr. Morpurgo for coming all the way over hear to share with us ​ a little of your past, and I so very value having shared this time with you! Morpurgo: Thanks to you! I’ll look forward to telling you other thing some other time! ​ Interviewer: Well for everyone watching at home, we hoped you have enjoyed the interview! ​ Susan will come next with “Cooking for Wolfgang Puck”. Until then, goodbye! .