Michael Morpurgo is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature. He was the third person to become Children's Laureate and held the title from 2003 to 2005.

Michael studied at King's College London, and went on to teach primary school pupils in Kent. While he was teaching he discovered his talent for storytelling, stating "I could see there was magic in it for them, and realised there was magic in it for me."

In 1976 Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare Morpurgo established the charity 'Farms for City Children', with the primary aim of providing children from inner city areas with experience of the countryside. The charity now has three farms in Devon, Gloucestershire and Wales.

His story War Horse is an award winning National Theatre stage production and the feature film based on the novel and directed by Steven Spielberg was released in 2011.

Michael Morpurgo was raised to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006 for services to literature.

To find out more about Michael Morpurgo, please visit www.michaelmorpurgo.com.

To view a video greeting from Michael Morpurgo please click here.