Best-selling author Michael Morpurgo entranced children in Ilkley with a moving presentation about a Christmas Day wartime truce.
The former Children’s Laureate read The Best Christmas Present in the World – based on a soldier’s letter to his wife following the football game that took place in no man’s land on December 25, 1914 – to a packed King’s Hall during Ilkley Literature Festival.
He was accompanied by a cappella singers Coope, Boyes and Simpson at an event that was supported by The Grammar School at Leeds, the major sponsor of Ilkley Literature Festival’s Children’s Festival.
Year 7 pupil at the school Emma Hope was among the audience. She said: “Michael Morpurgo is a good storyteller because he makes everything so real.
“I have read quite a few of his books and they are mostly a bit sad, but they make you think a lot. I really enjoyed the event, and the singers doing songs in different languages helped to make it all come alive.”
Head of history at the grammar school Keith Milne said: “Michael Morpurgo proved a master storyteller, and, in so doing, proved the power of history to keep minds young and old enthralled.”
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