It is a quite outstanding tale to tell and no less outstanding for the author himself.

“My book sat on everyone’s back shelves, not being read for 25 years.  Then,15 years ago, I worked alongside two others to try to turn the novel into a screen play for a six- year period. Clearly it was never good enough,” said Morpurgo at the War Horse press conference on Monday, also attended by director Steven Spielberg, producer Kathy Kennedy and stars Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The 68- year- old former primary teacher moved to a farm in Devon 30 years ago and has this week become an accidental Hollywood star.  The idea for his novel came to him while chatting to three 80- year- old men in his local pub.  Between them, two had been to WW1 and the third had seen a horse sale in his local village. His research took him to the Imperial War Museum where he learnt that “one million horses went to war. Only 65,000 came home and many were sold to the French for meat.”   Shocked to the core, he began to write the tale of a war, a boy and his beloved horse. “I felt lucky to have been witness to (the men’s) story” and now their stories live on through his.

The novel was published 25 years ago. Then, two years ago, Steven Spielberg saw the play at the National Theatre and contacted him immediately, eager to buy the rights and make the film.  From the outset, Morpurgo was overwhelmed by Spielberg’s commitment. He comments “this is a story- maker who really cares about the stories he takes on and he was clearly passionate about my story.”

Kathy Kennedy says that Spielberg ‘immediately responded to the simplicity of the story’. The director added that he had regarded War Horse as a “love story” with the horse as a metaphor for “common sense, or horse sense”. He went on to explain that he had also been motivated to make the film for his 15- year- old daughter, a keen competer and he joked: “I don’t ride but I know how to muck out a stable.”

Crucially, Morpurgo and Spielberg shared a common goal.  They were both adamant that the film should appeal and educate all members of the family.  The story was to be loved but was also to be provocative, make people think and remind them of oppressive war times.

The resulting collaboration will, of course, ensure this.  The book, the play and the film will reach millions worldwide. Morpurgo said he was conscious that he trod softly on the memories of people who lost family during the war and that despite a happy storyline it was important that people remember the background – the brutality of war.

War Horse opens across the UK on Friday.

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About the author

Emma Parlons
Emma is a freelance writer and enthusiastic networker. She founded Meeting of Minds, a networking group for female entrepreneurs in London in 2009. She joined www.evolvdigital.com as New Business Partner at the start of 2010 bringing her PR and online retail marketing experience to the team. Prior to joining Evolv, Emma was founder director of online beauty start-up, www.returntoglory.co.uk, and has also worked as a freelance PR consultant for a number of boutiques (on and offline), having had extensive business PR experience working as Head of Consumer Communication at AOL UK (1999 – 2007) and as Deputy Head of Corporate PR at Freud Communications (1997 – 1999).

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