Michael Morpurgo talks about Adolphus Tips, the story of how 946 American soldiers lost their lives during World War Two...

At first glance Adolphus Tips seems a pretty grim story for a family audience. What made you choose it?    

At first glance you’re right. One of the great challenges of writing about serious subjects for young people is to find a way of telling the story without patronising, and without sentimentalising. In this case, I came across the story of a cat called Adolphus Tips who was owned by a farmer’s daughter at Slapton. This cat had to be left behind when the family, along with hundreds and thousands of others, were moved from their homes and farms and villages so that the Americans could practise life-like landings from the sea on the beach at Slapton sands. The true story is that the families were gone from their houses over a year, and all that time Adolphus Tips, the family cat, was left in a live exercise area with bombs falling all around. The cat survived and was found again by the family when they came home after the D-Day landings, after all the American soldiers were gone. During these exercises, the US soldiers and local people got to know one another and to like one another, and it was during that year of exercises that Operation Tiger happened, during which German e-boats surprised the American ships and landed craft at sea and attacked them. Nine hundred-and-forty-six died, and this event was hushed up by the US and the British for a long time. 
So yes, a grim story, but on the other hand, a time when people from different lands and different cultures got to know one another well and when friendships were made. I concentrated my story on that family and the relationship between them and two black American GIs and their search for the missing cat, for the farmer’s daughter. It was a way into telling the story, I felt, maintaining the seriousness of what happened, about the loss, but also about the love and the triumph of love over loss.

The story’s about displaced people. Given the current situation regarding migrants and refugees, is there any significant message within Adolphus Tips that we may do well to heed in 2016?              

Everyone in the story of Adolphus Tips is, for one reason or other, obliged to leave home. The Americans over here, thousands of miles from home and family. The farming families expelled from their houses and the evacuee children finding refuge in the village. So everyone in the story is in one sense a migrant, and everyone is supporting everyone else. Is there a message in that? I hope so.

Why Kneehigh?

What I love about Kneehigh is their wonderful inventiveness and the way they weave together wonderful acting and glorious music and song. And terrific dance, and a script that never puts a foot wrong.

Are the techniques and devices you use to engage a young reader different from the ones used to engage a young theatre-goer?

No difference. When you write or make a play for whatever audience, all that’s important is that you mean it and that you write and act with total commitment, that you never talk down to any audience and treat them with the respect and sensitivity they deserve.

Earlier this year, Adolphus Tips was the first ever family-friendly production to be staged at the Globe, a theatre more usually associated with Shakespeare plays. What prompted the venue to choose the story for its first foray into family entertainment?

Emma Rice created the play last year for at the Asylum at the wonderful Heligan Gardens in Cornwall, where Kneehigh put on some of their shows. It was a huge hit there, wonderfully received and universally acclaimed. Shortly afterwards, she was appointed as artistic director at the Globe, and I believe felt it important to reach out to a wider audience at that theatre, a brave and important decision. There will be many families who saw 946 at the Globe and loved the spirit and energy of it and will no doubt be back to see Shakespeare there.

For people who loved the stage version of War Horse and might be hoping that Adolphus Tips is a similar experience, in what ways will the production satisfy their desire?

In every way, but it is significantly different as a show, smaller in scale, more intimate, funnier, but like War Horse deals with serious issues. In War Horse, the puppets took centre stage and were huge. In 946, the puppets were important but not so significant in the production. They were also infinitely smaller, especially the sheep and the mice!

As with Adolphus Tips, you feature animals in a number of your stories. What do you feel they bring to your books?

I think for many children, an animal helps them go to places they would otherwise not venture into. With a dog, horse or cat as a companion, a young reader can empathise more readily, and so for a writer it does allow me to engage with subjects that might otherwise be too difficult or traumatic for younger readers. Also, I am fascinated by the relationship between animals and humans and how it affects us.  How we can give and receive affection and trust.

Which of your books is your favourite?

All my books are special to me - they are all my babies if you like. Often it’s the latest one that I’ve written that’s my favourite. I’d been dreaming it for so long, living and breathing its story, so that when it finally arrives as a newly published book, smelling wonderful and fresh out of the box, there is nothing like it. However, if I was to mention some favourites, War Horse would be up there, and the prequel to War Horse - Farm Boy - and Private Peaceful. War Horse is my wife’s favourite too and that means a lot. 

Is there a children’s book that you wish you’d written?

I wish I’d written The Iron Man, which I admire because of its epic quality, its economy of writing and the beauty of the language.

What advice would you give to a would-be writer of children’s stories?  

Write from the heart and get it down, without worrying too much. Settle on an idea that you care about, that you’re really passionate about, then research around it and dream it out in your mind. Don’t plan out the plot too much, rather let it emerge as you write. Try and live inside your story, hear and feel it all around you and become the characters.

946: The Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips shows at The REP, Birmingham from 6 to 15 October and Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, from 8 to 12 November