PUPILS at Casterton, Sedbergh Prep School were delighted to meet celebrated children's author Michael Morpurgo.

He visited the school to talk about story writing and telling, and to thank the children for raising money this year for his charity, Farms for City Children.

The pupils, aged five to 13, gathered in the school’s theatre to listen to the award-winning Children’s Laureate (2003 - 2005) and author of ‘War Horse’, ‘Private Peaceful’,’Shadow’, talk about his book 'I Believe in Unicorns.' It is set against the backdrop of war–torn Europe and explores the power of stories to transform lives.

The children were invited to ask questions and were interested to know where he draws his inspiration from. He answered that everyday life was his biggest source, from chatting to people at parties, to walking around boat yards looking for good boat names, to talking to children about their pets.

He explained to the budding story writers in the audience that he also keeps interesting news stories from the press and looks through those for ideas. One of the highlights was when children were invited from the audience to join him on stage to demonstrate how he builds a story and all children went away with a signed book plate.

Headmaster Scott Carnochan said: "It was a privilege to have Michael Morpurgo visit the school to talk to the children. His words, as expected, were truly inspirational and captured the minds of our pupils. When telling his stories to the children, I witnessed 220 young pupils hanging on every word; you could have heard a pin drop. It was just wonderful!”

‘War Horse’ was ‘discovered’ by National Theatre Associate Director Tom Morris during Michael Morpurgo’s laureateship. Now the biggest-selling production ever at the New London Theatre, the book is also to be transformed into a production on Broadway and a film by Steven Spielberg.