Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo is a celebrated English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist, best known for his children's novels such as War Horse (1982). His work is renowned for its "magical storytelling," recurring themes like the triumph of an outsider or survival, the relationship of characters with nature, and vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or the trenches of the First World War. Morpurgo served as the third Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is the President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity.

He was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943 and was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War before returning to London, and later moving to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and began writing. After ten years, he left teaching to establish 'Farms for City Children' with his wife, which includes three farms in Devon, Wales, and Gloucestershire, open to inner-city school children who come to stay and work with the animals.