Sage advice from Michael Morpurgo, speaking to a packed audience at the Greenbelt Festival yesterday afternoon. He told us how he grew up enjoying the bedtime stories read to him by his mother, and how that love survived his schooldays to re-emerge when he became a teacher himself. Faced with the challenge of keeping 35 children sufficiently engaged to learn something, he began to write his own tales to read at the end of the school day.

It was the sort of talk you don’t want to end – funny, warm, and encouraging. Sooner or later it should be available to download from the Greenbelt website for a small-ish fee, but not yet… we’re all still here camping in the wet grass, for goodness’ sake…

LATER… aargh, no it won’t be, because they didn’t record it. So you won’t be able to hear him explaining to the vast number of assembled children that he is 122 years old. You’ll have to use your imagination – or better still, grab the chance to hear him if he’s ever passing your way.

Incidentally, whilst the marquee seated over 600 and they were STILL queueing outside…

… it was possible to get a quiet and private seat as long as you didn’t mind not being able to see a thing. You’ll have to take my word for it, but this luxury location really was only about six feet away from him…