My gardening world Michael Morpurgo
Sir Michael Morpurgo is among the UK’s best-loved writers, author of children’s classics such as War Horse. He lives in Devon with his wife Clare, growing vegetables and singing to blackbirds. His latest books, The Birthday Duck and
A Song of Gladness, are out now.
Your new book A Song of Gladness
was inspired by an encounter with a blackbird during lockdown
– tell us more
Every day I would go to the vegetable garden and pick kale to make kale smoothies for breakfast. One morning I heard this blackbird singing to me, happy as you like. So I whistled back the same tune, and this went back and forth. Next day, the blackbird was waiting for me, so I sang back again – and I knew this was something special, a relationship. It confirmed we’re all of one universe. So I wrote the book. I read it to my blackbird
– I got a good review!
What’s so great about kale smoothies?
A while back I was ill and a good friend said, “Have a kale smoothie every morning and you’ll live forever.” I can honestly say it’s been a wonderful beginning to every day. It’s good for me, but it’s more – it’s a connection to my vegetable garden.
We have spinach, and apples off the tree: it’s become much more important.
You’re also helping children discover growing food through your charity Farms for City Children (farmsforcitychildren.org). Why
Michael Morpurgo draws wellbeing and inspiration from his rural Devon surroundings
is it important to connect children with farming and the countryside?
We have kids from primary schools to live on the farm, working with the land, planting and gathering. They’re re-forming a connection to the world about them. It’s not just for people who have lovely gardens or live on farms
– it’s for everyone. It’s everyone’s right, and everyone’s responsibility.
How do you engage children with the climate crisis?
You can’t force caring – it’s got to happen because someone loves something. When children come to the farm, I see them looking out across Dartmoor, the mist rising in the valley, and they’re amazed at the beauty. They begin to care about it, and that can be inspiring.
How do you respond to nature?
It makes you feel better, less sad and afraid. I’ve lived in the same place for 50 years
– I know who planted the trees, who made the hedges. I’m connected to it. Thomas Hardy called it “old association” – it’s knowing the landscape we live in.