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A tender, lyrical tale from the author's childhood in an idyllic English village, with environmental and conservational themes.In this involving tale, master storyteller and former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo revisits the "landscape of his memories", telling of his boyhood fifty years before. The village of Bradwell is a stone's throw from the sea and is peopled by quirky characters such as the three Stebbing sisters, the white moustachioed Colonel Burton and Bennie the village thug. But the heroine of this story is the serene Mrs Pettigrew, who lives in a railway carriage down in the marshes with her dogs, donkey, bees and hens. Industrial reality intrudes when plans are made to build a nuclear power station on the marshes, and when a village battle ensues for and against this environmental hazard, young Michael finds himself caught up in the sad fate of Mrs Pettigrew and the landscape of his boyhood.
About the author
Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE is one of the greatest storytellers for children writing today and has written more than one hundred books, the most famous of which, War Horse, has been adapted for stage and screen to international acclaim. He has won numerous major literary awards, including the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, and was Children’s Laureate 2003–2005. In 2006 he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to literature, and in 2018 he was made a Knight Bachelor. Michael now lives on a farm in Devon with his wife, Clare, and describes himself as “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over”. Visit Michael's website at www.michaelmorpurgo.com.Peter Bailey was born in India and grew up in London. Since graduating from the Brighton School of Art, his extraordinary career has seen him illustrate books by some of Britain's best-known authors and poets, including Allan Ahlberg, Philip Pullman and Alexander McCall Smith. For twenty years he also taught illustration at the Liverpool School of Art and many of his students have gone on to great success. Alongside his work for children, Peter has also illustrated books for adults for The Folio Society, including a collection of John Betjeman’s poetry.
Summary
A tender, lyrical tale from the author's childhood in an idyllic English village, with environmental and conservational themes.
