Fiction paid off for the young Morpurgo

CHILDREN’S author Michael Morpurgo recalls being jealous when, aged nine, he was on a train surrounded by his peers who were boasting about their foreign holidays.

Unfortunately, Morpurgo wasn’t off to France or Spain, he tells James O’Brien’s podcast.

“I lifted my wrist up like so, looked at [his watch] and said, ‘Well, I’m not doing much on my holidays but I hope the train’s on time because the Queen’s coming for tea at five o’clock.’ And then I looked at the rest of the carriage and they were all open-mouthed. It was just one of the great moments of your life because you’d fooled everybody.”

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