"Mr Morpurgo Comes To The Festival"

Last year, writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare spent 3 glamorous months living at London's Savoy Hotel.
Imagine doing that: I can...

Morpurgo was " Writer in Residence" at the Savoy and as the Morpurgos usually live on a farm in Devon, this must have been rather a treat.
But listening to him this week at Chester Lit Fest (www.chesterfestivals.co.uk/literature ) and realising how creative and energetic this man is, I strongly suspect Mr Morpurgo ( while lolling in lap of luxury, of course) ALSO spent his time there very usefully...

For one thing: the idea for his new book " Kaspar, Prince of Cats" ( Harper Collins, 2008) was created at the Savoy.
The book began life while the Morpurgos ate in the Savoy diningroom; this is a lavish place, not unlike the splendid dining salon on the Titanic.
In the Savoy, there's also a statue of a black cat; he's called Kaspar and his purpose in life is to make up numbers to a safe 14, whenever 13 folk gather scarily around a table...
And in Mr Morpurgo's story: "Kaspar" becomes the only cat to survive the Titanic disaster . It's a story seeped in history which is clearly a favourite theme. It features a Countess, a Bellboy, and a voyage on the world's most famed ship.
And if the book-buying queue at Thursdays's Festival is anything to go by, it's making waves with children of Chester..

This was a superb session. Michael Morpurgo has published well over 100 books and he inspired his big audience ( many under 12, although lots older) with his thoughts on both reading and writing.
He never patronised; he encouraged, he delighted.
Mr Morpurgo was the most welcome of visitors.

PS: Having a couple of weeks break from Blog; there's other writing stuff I need to get stuck into ( hmm: very elegantly put) ....BUT although blogging's fun, Blog 's got sharp teeth and Blog's VERY clever at nibbling away one's time...
See you soon.