Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime in Stories
at Seven Stories

Part 2: This article was written by Sue Martin, FRSA. Sue is our Partnership Bookseller and literacy and Early Years education specialist. Sue leads on our literacy projects at home and overseas.
file_004.jpg
Discover Seven Stories on-line here…

Michael Morpurgo, A Lifetime in Stories; an exhibition curated by Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, Newcastle upon Tyne from the 2nd July 2016 to June 2017…

This is a unique opportunity to visit this remarkable collection of notebooks, manuscripts and correspondence that have been part of Michael Morpurgo’s story writing, life and dreams. The exhibition combines much of his life and ethos and is woven into an iconic display, on the fourth floor of Seven Stories.

Take your time…this exhibition requires that you stop and dream a while, reminisce or ponder on the way Michael can find stories in places, wherever he is; stories from the past, stories of animals, children and people, from war time and in present day. He is a great story-teller and story writer and the author of over 150 books for children, Children’s Laureate and a voice for reason and peace.

This blog will take you on our journey through the exhibition and point you in some directions, we hope it will mean you also will have chance to make this journey one day over the next year. It’s worth it!

Michael Morpurgo was born in 1943 and went to boarding school at seven, and eventually into military officer training at Sandhurst and then he became a teacher. He found the military life difficult and as a teacher he wanted to help children to be creative, give them opportunities, take them out into the world and fire their imaginations, tell stories. There was a clash between curriculum driven tasks and this approach. Later, with his wife Clare, they moved to Devon, where they developed Farms for City Children.

He became friends with Ted Hughes and learnt that, as he said, “I have a story of my own to tell and a voice of my own with which to tell it.

Interesting quotes from the videos at the exhibition in the Dreamtime corner are;
“Live an interesting life. Fill your head with this world, of which you are part, care about it deeply, make up your mind to write about events, memories, conversations and something will emerge.”

“Lose yourself in the story, get into it and go for it; know the people, the place, let the dreams in your head reach the pen on your page, tell it as if to your best friend, as a secret.”

There are many orange notebooks in the exhibition, school notebooks filled with Michael’s writing, thoughts, changes, crossings out and revision. He works and receives inspiration wherever he is, but his favourite place is his converted shepherds hut.

There are too many books to mention them all, but my favourites are; War Horse, which only sold a few thousand copies until it was made into a stage production and is now his most famous book. Farm Boy, the sequel to Joey the war horse, Why the Wales Came, set on Samson island in The Scillies. Along with The Wreck of the Zanzibar, Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea, The Dancing Bear and Waiting for Anya.

7stories-1.jpg
Seven Stories – nestling on the river bank…

There is a curiosity about the books, the man and his talents at finding the story and retelling in a wonderful style, which will mean further reading and an excuse to add more of his titles to our bookshelves.

A final quote…
“I know it, lying under the sun on a summer’s night. I know it watching buzzards floating over the valley where I live. It is a learnt belonging from children who stop to gaze, to breath in the world about them, to feel part of it.”

Michael Morpurgo, A Lifetime in Stories at Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, Newcastle upon Tyne. A digitised archive is available on www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers

booksgowalkaboutlogo4
Books and authors taken around the world…
Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Michael Morpurgo
at Seven Stories

Newcastle - Shining City image of the TyneNewcastle, shining city in the North…

Part 1: This article was first published on the pages of conversationsEAST, another project of SmithMartin LLP in the East of England. Part of a series of articles celebrating culture, technology and the arts in The North.

Continuing our theme of ‘Northern Energy’, we were in Newcastle upon Tyne this week and, on Friday afternoon, took time to visit Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books. They have an important exhibition and research project into the donated archive of the writer Michael Morpurgo. Below is what we thought.


”Michael Morpurgo Exhibition 2 July 2016 – Sunday 2 July 2017, Newcastle UK. A Lifetime in Stories.
Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books introduces an exclusive exhibition drawn directly from Michael Morpurgo’s extensive archive donated to Seven Stories in 2015”.  


Seven Stories summer 2016 events Pic-m
View, print or download this Guide here…pdf

Through one of our our sister projects, Books go Walkabout, an international delivery system to get authors, illustrators and poets, and their books,  to corners of the world previously unreached, we have an abiding interest in children’s literature as you would expect.

The Seven Stories Morpurgo exhibition is certainly about a fantastic canon of work dedicated to the young imagination. However, the research team have extracted illustrative and delightful insights into, and evidence of, the writing process, using the archive generously donated to the Centre by Michael Morpurgo in 2015.

What the display and featured narrative does offer, in the broadest terms, is an insight into the creative process, the research and writing of a book, much of which in this Seven Stories gallery has taken place before the arrival and dominance of the word processor.

Not only an exhibition in praise of the work of Michael Morpurgo, but an illustration in itself of what can be achieved with a simple notebook and a pen or pencil. The imagination does not need an elecrical socket and plug to thrive apparently!

Some key exhibition elements:

Michael Morpurgo was born in 1943, and his early life was beset by sadness and conflicting tensions. It was interesting to see the detail of Michael’s school, home life and reaction to his early experiences in the British Army. This thematic thread of war and militarism can be traced through the exhibition, as in Michael’s life. His mother’s grief at the loss of her brother in the Second World War was an equally powerful emotional driver for the writing.

In 1962 Michael met his future wife Clare, and it was the summons home by his mother, with the pretence of an imaginary illness, that offered the opportunity for them to get married, against the prevailing condition that cadets of the Royal Military College Sandhurst must be single. A signal turning point in a creative life which solidified his pacifism, well evidenced and illustrated by this exhibition.

Wombat Goes Walkabout Pic-m
Own your own Wombat here, from Amazon.co.uk

His first short book, published in 1974, was It Never Rained, an interconnected narrative about five children.  By 1999 Mopurgo was ready to publish Wombat Goes Walkabout, with wonderful illustrations by Christian Birmingham. A great story about digging holes and how a wombat can save the day.

1982 saw the release of War Horse, perhaps Mopurgo’s most famous creation. The exhibition offers the visitor a display of many of the notebooks, first drafts, corrections and re-typed double spaced manuscripts that drove the creation of this seminal work.

This series of displays offers, we thought, a powerful illustration of how writing is both a physical and an intellectually layered process, but which requires a gritty determination to see the story through to the final end – publication. It is this revisiting and deterministic approach to his craft of writing that makes a Mopurgo novel so dramatic and engaging we suspect.

War Horse cover image
You can buy this book from Amazon.co.uk here…

To an archivist this is vital in determining the writers emotional condition on any particular creative day. As his pen moves rapidly across the notebook page, Michael has left a marker, a measure of intensity, for later researchers seeking to determine his emotional or creative state. Something a plastic keyboard, no matter how powerful the micro-processor it is connected to, could ever offer the interested reader in years to come.

Looking at the Morpurgo ‘war’ material, we pondered on what must be a pivotal issue for the contemporary archivist or researcher. With ready access to technology, publishing processes and cloud storage – how will future archivists and seekers of process engage with material that is electronic and resting, potentially, in a thousand different formats, storage facilities and locations around the globe.

Interestingly, MIT Technology Review has just published an article on the use of computing and data mining techniques to show that there are, it contests, only six basic ’emotional arcs’ in storytelling. These are…

…a steady, ongoing rise in emotional valence, as in a rags-to-riches story such as Alice’s Adventures Underground by Lewis Carroll. A steady ongoing fall in emotional valence, as in a tragedy such as Romeo and Juliet. A fall then a rise, such as the man-in-a-hole story, discussed by Vonnegut. A rise then a fall, such as the Greek myth of Icarus. Rise-fall-rise, such as Cinderella. Fall-rise-fall, such as Oedipus.

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601848/data-mining-reveals-the-six-basic-emotional-arcs-of-storytelling/  Article – Data Mining Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling  Accessed: 09.07.2016

We are intense users of the notebook and pen ourselves, in our ordinary workaday lives, but have to recognise that research and analysis would now be immeasurably diminished without technology. We wondered, travelling through the Michael Morpurgo exhibition, an historical audit trail of the creative mind, what other contemporary children’s and young adult writers take on ‘techno’ is today?

Perhaps this is a Seven Stories seminar series in the making? Pen or Processor, the creative methodology in contemporary children’s literature. We would buy a ticket! (Ed.)

A visual treat:

Towards the end of the exhibition content is a section dedicated to Michael Morpurgo’s artistic collaborators, the artists who have contributed to the written work.

It offers the visitor a fascinating insight into how the imagination is populated by the story, how the psyche is suggested a character and landscape by Michael Morpurgo’s writing. It is also, within the context of this article, a soaring endorsement of the power and durability of putting a hand to paper. Surely no machine can replace the creative evocation of story by the artists below?

The work on display includes artwork from Quentin Blake, Gary Blythe, Peter Bailey, Christian Brimingham and Tony Kerins amongst others. We particularly warmed to the diversity of images in the exhibition that depicted the sea. Whether Kensuke’s Kingdom or When the Wales Came, the original cover art to be seen provokes an imaginative dream of action, wind, water and a tale to be told.

We loved it.

(A list of artists on show…Gary Blythe, Quentin Blake, Loretta Schauer, Gemma O’Callaghan, Michael Foreman, Sarah Young, Sam Usher, Peter Bailey, Faye Hanson,Francois Place,   Emma Chichester-Clark, Christian  Birmingham and Tony Kerins.)

It was wonderful to see this collection of individual artistic work within the context of theSeven Stories Michael Morpurgo exhibition. But each artist has a separate body of work which is lively, imagination capturing and enchanting in equal measure. We hope  you can use the links above to explore this on-line collection ‘gallery of galleries’ too.

Getting to Seven Stories NE1 2PQ :

If you leave the impressive Newcastle Central Station and turn right down towards Quayside, you can turn left along Quayside and walk, past the Pitcher and Piano until you come to St. Ann’s Steps on the left. Ascend them. At the top, look back down the river to the bridges receding into the distance. Turn and  cross the road and right down to Cut Bank on the left, following the river left along for a couple of hundred yards and Seven Stories will apppear on your right.

The journey there, if the sun is shining, can be as uplifting as your visit to The National Centre for Children’s Books. This is a fascinating insight into the work of our national story teller. Seven Stories offers a whole rainbow of experience around ‘the children’s book’, whether a holidaying family looking to stimulate young imaginations, a visit to the cafe and bookshop, or a serious academic look at the sweep of children’s literature.

Editor Notes:

‘Seven Stories was able to support the acquisition from Michael Morpurgo through support from Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘Collecting Cultures’ programme, which has been awarded to Seven Stories in recognition of the museum’s national role in telling a comprehensive story of modern British children’s literature’.

Source: Seven Stories web site. Accessed 09.07.2016 See http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection/collection-highlights/michael-morpurgo

The exhibition is delivered and developed through a new Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Seven Stories and Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics.

The KTP is possibly the first of its kind between a university English department and an external organisation, and is being funded by InnovateUK and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

You can read Dr. Jessica Sage’s blog for more insights into her exploration of the archive here.


Header image: The Shining Tyne 2016: Tim Smith MA, FRSA

booksgowalkaboutlogo4

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Discover Series – Ancient Egyptians,The Roman Empire

The Ancient Egyptians by Isabel and Imogen Greenberg
View or buy this book from Amazon.co.uk here…

The Ancient Egyptians is the first book in the new Discover Series, published by Frances Lincoln and newly released on 7th April.

The style and illustrations make this a very good read into life at this time. It is a perfect companion for curriculum use and research in the classroom as well as in the home. It’s great as inspiration for wall displays in schools across the UK. It’s a book that is not only easy to read in the graphic style but will allow the information to stay with you.

The information in the book includes everything from pharaohs and mummies to daily life and the role of the Nile, via hieroglyphs and archaeology. A map and a timeline complete this fabulous book by graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg and her sister Imogen Greenberg.

There is also a special exhibition at The British Museum on Ancient Egypt’s Sunken Cities which open on 19th May.

The Roman Empire by Isabel and Imogen Greenberg
View or buy this book on Amazon.co.uk here…

Discover the Roman Empire is also newly published on 7th April and written and illustrated by Isabel and Imogen Greenberg.

It covers a length of time in the Roman Empire starting with the rise and ending with the fall of the empire. There are great sections on Roman beliefs, architecture, inventions and daily life. It is a good book for the curriculum in primary schools and also to read at home.

We recommend for ages 7-10 years and as a book to have at home for all the family.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

3,2,1…DRAW!

DrawRe-imagine your world with Serge Bloch, the iconic illustrator who was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Illustrators in 2015.

3,2,1 DRAW! published in Feb 2016 is a completely different way of inspiring children to draw.

Each page has a similar image on the other side but without the cartoon or doodle drawings, so you can just complete your own and recreate some everyday objects. Great fun!

It’s perfect for taking away the fear of a blank sheet of paper and excellent for story telling, e.g who else could make a car out of a match box?

There’s more about Serge on his illustrations based website, fascinating style of drawings and design.

An inspirational book from Wide Eyed Editions.

We recommend for ages, well all ages and beyond!!

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

50 Things You Should Know About Series from QED. Human Body, Prehistoric Britain

50 Things H Body50 Things You should Know about the Human Body by Angel Royston

This has everything you would need to know about the Human Body, unless you are about to embark on a medical degree!!

The facts are really clearly presented with illustrations that are accurate and easy to identify how parts of the body are working. The pages are well laid out and text and illustrations are combined to make an engaging impact. Each section has a different colour and the glossary and index at the back of the book will point the reader to the right places in the book without being off putting to children with any reading difficulties.

The start of the 50 Things You Should Know About Series from QED Publishing, well worth buying for home, school or the library. We suggest the book for 6-9 year olds and beyond.

50 Things You should Know about Pre-Historic Britain by Claire Hibbert 50 Pre His

From The Old Stone Age, through the Ice Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and touching on the Romans, this book has everything you need to start work on prehistoric Britain and to lead the reader into all sorts of interesting directions.

Particularly good section on an Iron Age Village and dwellings in Scotland called, crannogs, brochs and wheelhouses. For instance a crannog is a roundhouse that stood on a jetty and Loch Tay there were 18 crannogs.

We suggest the book for 6 – 9 year olds and beyond.

Great new series from QED Publishing and is part of their new books published in November 2015.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Tiger, Mog and Pink Rabbit
– a Judith Kerr retrospective

Juidth Kerr exhibitThe Judith Kerr exhibition had been held and produced by Seven Stories and was available to view in the Jewish Museum, London.

Fortunately for me I had a few hours to spare and couldn’t have found a better place than this exhibition. There is something about Judith Kerr in her work and in her expression of her life that is so wonderfully understated, but yet so powerful in evoking the characters and the settings for the stories.

The Tiger who Came to Tea, just has so much appeal and his appetite for all the food and drink was insatiable! There is a life size model in the exhibition amongst a chaotic kitchen.

Mog, of course, is just everyone’s favourite cat, and is the perfect pet at times and at others shows how contrary all cats can be, ie Mog at Christmas. Also in the exhibition was my favourite place, a huge cat basket with books for reading. Just right for curling up within!

And When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, the pictures from Judith’s own drawings and paintings at the time were on display, and some of the events that were happening around her, and just why they had to flee from Berlin.

She is quoted as saying, ” If we had tried to leave Germany a day later, if I hadn’t been stopped from asking questions on the train… I can never forget how lucky I am.”

I could have spent a whole day here, but had to catch the train, homeward bound.

Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers

Mog

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Let’s Talk about Art
at The Royal College of Art

Sch of ArtOn a wet and windy autumnal evening I walked into the Royal College of Art for the making and creating of the book, The School of Art, published by Wide Eyed Editions.

Hosted by Ibby and Books for Keeps, this was a wonderful way to spend the evening.

Professor Teal Triggs and RCA graduate, Daniel Frost were sitting on the floor of the podium in front of the poster,I was early, and it was a good chance to take a photo and have a pre chat before the event.Image 2

With a glass of wine in my hand more people started to join the group and the lecture started.

Both Teal and Danny had a strong sense of enjoyment in developing the book, and the magic of the book was shown in their love of portrayals of the professors of different aspects; Professor of Ideas, Professor of Senses, Professor of Making and Professor of the Planets.

The design for the Professor of Ideas in a cloud with her ideas around her in the very comfy chair,was inspired by Daniel.

Teal said that the characters led the narrative and the concept for Professor of Ideas, for instance, was of an Edwardian woman ‘who knew her own mind but was not afraid to wear a string of pearls.’

Publishers Wide Eyed Editions have another success in this book, for the inspiration for the idea and the creating of such a beautiful book, with especial praise for Jenny Broom, editor.

Recommended for children, 7-9, 9-12 years by

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

The Arabel & Mortimer Series by Joan Aiken, illustrated by Quentin Blake

A wonderful series and now republished with Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

Image 2Mortimer and Sword Excalibur is the fifth book and Mrs Jones packs Arabel and Mortimer off for a quiet afternoon in Rainwater Crescent Gardens. But as Mortimer investigates the new underground car park he discovers that it is just possible that the long lost sword, Excalibur is waiting to be found.

The Spiral Stair, is based in the zoo. Arabel comes to the rescue as Mortimer becomes entangled in snakes and giraffes.

The books are an excellent new edition and the compact size is just right for an emerging reader, or even for a fluent reader in the midst of a busy holiday time.

Illustrations are, undoubtedly the best of Quentin Blake and portray the characters brilliantly. The text is pure Joan Aiken, with the sharpness of the story intrigue and mix of humdrum life and exciting adventure.

Image 1

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers – the best in children’s books always on line

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

The Arabel and Mortimer Series

Image 1A wonderful revision of the Arabel and Mortimer Series written by Joan Aiken and illustrated by Quentin Blake has just been reissued by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.Arabel’s Raven is the first story in the series. Mr Jones takes home a bedraggled raven who becomes his daughter’s best friend. Together they form a real bond and adventures are numerous with thefts and a robber’s quarrel entwined in the story.

The books are wonderfully illustrated by Quentin Blake and bring the characters to life in the most amusing ways. Who else could draw a girl and a raven with saucepans on their heads and make them look totally natural?

A great series and the new release is sure to bring well loved characters back to life. The stories are for sharing and also for reading alone for 6 yrs old and onwards.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers – the best in children’s books always on line, buy this book for £4.99 through Dolphin Books(via Amazon)

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Kate Grenville at Australia & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts

Image 2Kate Grenville was in conversation at the Australia and NZ Festival of Literature and Arts in London on Saturday 30th May.

Her new book One Life, has just been published with Cannongate. It is the story about her mother Nance, born in 1912 in New South Wales. A remarkable story, not because Nance became famous or wealthy but the story is about a woman growing up in a harsh family, in Australia in the 1920’s and onwards.

After training as a pharmacist, she went to work in a local chemist and learnt much more about life than dispensing drugs.

Kate Grenville has a remarkable way of telling a story and after a few minutes of conversations and readings from One Life, it felt that we knew this woman Nance, her character of directness and ambition, to do all she could to make the most of life. As a young girl this was not easy at that time, but her determination was unstoppable!

It was a schoolteacher who changed her life and Mr Crisp, left her with a love of literature. Nance instilled in Kate a love of words, Nance had poetry in her mind and was able to deliver apposite quotes just when needed.

This was an amazing chance to listen to Kate Grenville and also hear about the very special book, The Secret River. Image 1

So now to read the book, One Life, from the opening pages it will be a book that will be hard to put down.

Check out the website for further conversations and adventures at the Australia and New Zealand Festival with lots of exciting authors.

Sue Martin

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.