From the horse’s mouth

Following the National Theatre’s hugely successful productions of His Dark Materials and Coram Boy, an epic realisation of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse opens at the Olivier on 17 October. Originally published in 1982, the book was, the author told me, ‘the first I’d written that I thought was any good’. He has since written over a hundred books for children, but this is still one which is counted by them (and by his wife Clare) as one of his best. I went to see Morpurgo at his home in Devon to talk about the original inspiration for the story and the prospect of having the book adapted for the stage.

Iddesleigh is an unbelievably picturesque village. It looks south, across to Dartmoor, one of the last true wildernesses in the country. The extremes of landscape — secret, high-banked lanes and the open expanses of moor — are fertile ground for stories.