Michael Morpurgo has written more than 100 books and has won the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award, and the Blue Peter Book Award. He is the author of Private Peaceful, Kensuke's Kingdom and War Horse, which has been made into a Tony Award-winning Broadway play and a Golden Globe-nominated film. He was Children's Laureate from 2003-2005, a role that took him across Britain to inspire a love of reading in children. Michael and his wife Clare founded Farms for City Children in 1976 at Nethercott Farm in Devon, and Michael has called the project his 'greatest story'. They aim to expand the horizons of children from towns and cities all over the country by offering them a week in the countryside living together on one of their farms.