Michael Morpurgo & Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Lives Beyond the Page

Sat 21 Nov 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Tom Gatti

Join two former children’s laureates, both champions of the written word, for a conversation about reading, writing and helping children to flourish. Michael Morpurgo and Frank Cottrell-Boyce have not only nourished generations of young readers with their writing, but their quiet activism transforms children’s lives. Down Burrow Lane tells the remarkable story of Michael and his wife Clare’s charity Farms for City Children. A British Childhood is Frank’s call to protect the innocence and imagination of childhood.

Chaired by Tom Gatti.

Venue: TTP Stage (Cambridge Union)

Duration: 1 hour

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Author Biographies

Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE is one of Britain’s best loved children’s authors. He has written over 150 books, has served as Children’s Laureate, and has won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Writers Guild Award, the Whitbread Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Eleanor Farjeon Lifetime Achievement Award. With his wife, Clare, he is the co-founder of Farms for City Children. Michael was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an award-winning author and screenwriter. Millions, his debut children’s novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He is also the author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Cosmic, Framed, and The Astounding Broccoli Boy. His books have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children’s Fiction Award and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth was shortlisted for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal.

Chair Biography

Tom Gatti is Literary Editor for The Observer. He is the editor of Long Players: Writers on the Albums That Shaped Them, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.