Meeting Michael Morpurgo!

So, a few days ago I found out that best-selling author Michael Morpurgo would be doing a book signing in Okehampton–only half an hour away from where I live–and I knew immediately that I had to go. And that book signing was today!

I first came across Michael Morpurgo’s books when I was in primary school, and The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips and The Butterfly Lion quickly became my favourites. When I’d just joined secondary school–either in the first or second year there–my class studied Private Peaceful in our English lessons.

So, a day or so ago, I went to the place on my bookcase where I was sure my copies of these novels were…only to find that they weren’t. I searched high and low, but, alas, the books were nowhere to be found! I quickly messaged my brother–who at that point was in Leicester–to see if his copies of Morpurgo’s books were at home still, and my brother gave me permission to look through his bookshelves. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he may still have his copy of Born to Run. Cue another search…and Born to Run wasn’t there.

By this point, I was getting a little worried. Where had my copies gone? And what was I going to ask Michael Morpurgo to sign? I looked on Amazon and considered ordering a new paperback of The Butterfly Lion, but it wouldn’t arrive in time.

(In the end, I bought the kindle version of The Butterfly Lion, just so I could read it again before the signing!)

I knew Michael Morpurgo would be signing copies of Coming Home, his new book, and so I hoped I could buy one of those at the signing.

We arrived at the signing about 15 minutes before it started, and the queue was already ginormous. As in, nearly-two-aisles long–that kind of ginormous. I have a faulty autonomic system and so decided I’d come back in a bit, as I can’t stand still for long periods of time, as it triggers my Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome which causes fainting and seizure-like episodes in me, as well as dizziness, nausea, and loss of vision when I’m upright. So, if I can avoid queuing, it makes sense to! Thus, my mother did the shopping, and I visited all the shops in Okehampton (walking is so much easier for me than standing stationary), looking to see if any of them had any copies of Michael Morpurgo’s books.

I trekked from shop to shop, heading straight for the book sections in each, scouring the shelves. Charity shops seemed like my best bet, as Okehampton no longer has its own dedicated book shop.

After a long search–and in the last charity shop on my journey around the town–I found a copy of Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo! Success!

And so, armed with this book, I headed back to Waitrose (the venue for the book signing). Only now the queue was even longer…

I joined my mother, who’d just finishing the food shopping and we decided to come back towards the end of the signing (hoping the queue would be shorter).

It wasn’t.

But at this point, it was getting late and so we decided to join the queue, and my mother was on hand in case I fainted from standing still. And, we just got there in time, because at that point, the queue was closed behind us! We were the last people allowed to meet Michael Morpurgo (although another lady was let in after us a little while later). What a bit of luck!

And, about twenty minutes later, I met Michael Morpurgo and it was brilliant. He’s such a lovely man and signed my newly acquired copy of Billy the Kid, as well as Coming Home (he had a stack of them on his table). He asked if my copy of Billy the Kid was one I’d had for years, and I was a little embarrassed to tell him that I’d only got it today, as I couldn’t find my copies. But he approved of buying from charity shops–recycling!

Look at my lovely signed books!

Now, before I left home, my parents told me I should definitely tell him I was a writer too. And I’m super shy about telling people. I mean, even after I got my first book deal when I was nineteen, it was nearly a year later (and a month or so before my debut novel was due to release) that I told my friends at uni.

I also met Rachel Caine at a book signing a few years ago, and I was too shy to tell her that I liked writing, or that I was working on a new manuscript.

But I told Michael Morpurgo I was also an author, and that I wanted to give him copies of my first two novels. He was so lovely, and even wanted me to sign them for him! Plus, he let me use the same pen he was using to sign copies!

It was so great meeting him, and we had a brief chat about being authors which just made it all the more lovely.