Michael Morpurgo & Farms for City Children

The Gaitpost spoke to Michael Morpurgo about his inspiration for Farms for City Children, meeting Joey for the first time and his writing day.  

“I’m an early riser – I always have been and get up before my wife, Clare. I make her breakfast, usually some fruit and yoghurt and depending on whether we are in London or Devon, love to look out over either the Thames or Okement rivers and contemplate the day ahead before the phone starts ringing.

Inspiring the next generation

Back then, my wife and I were teachers and had taught enough to know there was only so much you can teach in a classroom. The majority of children in the country were urban, living with traffic and concrete. They knew nothing about the countryside except maybe Old Macdonald Had A Farm from rhymes or how their food was produced.  There were an awful lot of children who were not being successful at what they did in school. They had no experience of life outside of the city and as teachers and parents we felt we had to help these children to make the best of their lives.

My wife fell in love with Devon and I loved living by the North Sea in Essex and we both had a fascination for the countryside having never lived there for very long. But what made us both contented was the life in the countryside. We had both enjoyed wonderful experiences in the country and believed it was the children’s right to experience it as well.

We felt we had to put the children in touch with their planet, to learn what it takes to make their food and the hard work that goes in to the land.  We were very young, and maybe a bit stupid, but my wife was left some money and we bought Nethercott House in Devon.

We knew this was where we wanted Farms for City Children to run from and since 1976 we have had over 90,000 children through the programme. The greatest thing that you can give children when they are young is the belief that they can do something, the self worth to be useful and on a farm there is work like that everywhere.

You can clean a shed or groom a horse and see you have done well. All the time the children are on our farms, their work is being admired and critiqued in order for them to learn.

Literary influencers

There are two writers who continue to inspire me. I wasn’t a great reader as a child. I preferred rugby but the first book I ever truly loved was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. When I first read it, I felt that I was inside the book. I was Jim Hawkins, on the Hispaniola living the adventure.  Stevenson was a brilliant writer with I also loved his Travels with my Donkey and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Later in life when I moved to Devon, I became greatly inspired by the work of Ted Hughes. He became President of Farms for City Children and I knew how important his experience of wandering the Yorkshire Moors had been to his poetry.  His language is so strong and gets under my skin.

How was the need for educating city children about farming, the countryside and food production changed over the 40 years?

It has become more urgent that is for sure – the more we live in cities the more detached we become from the countryside. All those years ago, there was a butcher and a baker on every high street and you would see sacks of flour and people making bread, a connection to how and where our food was made. All that has gone now.

Supermarkets offer food as a commodity – there are no pictures of sheep and no reference to an animal having lived a life. We know the climate is in trouble, the damage being done to other creatures, water problems – we know all that but you aren’t going to convince the next generation, who are going to have to look after it, unless they invest in it.

They need to love the countryside when they are young and enjoy wonderfully enriching experiences that stay with them: fish jumping, hide and seek in the trees. If there is no connection, how will things ever change – the next generation needs to live it, breathe it and want to change things.

Meeting Joey

I had a gradual introduction to Joey because when the National Theatre first decided to put on the show, they showed me a giraffe puppet. Bit by bit, as the production came together, the creative team made a maquette of Joey to see how he would work and he slowly but surely came to life.

A big thank you to Michael for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak to us. We look forward to seeing Joey back on stage in 2017. If you a parent reading this and would like your children to experience the ‘muck and magic’ that is the hallmark of Farms for City Children, why not suggest a school trip to your class or head teacher. 

There are lots of events throughout this special anniversary year where children can meet Michael.

Visit www.farmsforcitychildren.org or www.michaelmorpurgo.com to find out more.

For information about the War Horse 2017 tour visit: www.warhorseonstage.com 

Tickets are on sale now