This sculpted lion thus shimmers and appears to breathe and becomes a beautiful memorial to love and fidelity and friendship encouraging, in the fullest sense of that word, the young school boy to go back to the place he fled. He, a soldier in the 'Great war' and the relationship they formed and maintained with the small lion cub he had befriended in Africa and the twists and turns of their story ending with the outline of the lion cut out on the chalk hill above the house on which hundreds of butterflies land to take their nourishment. It is a story told in the first person by a young boy who runs away from his school lonely and sad and meets the old lady who relates the story of her husband from long before. It deals with loneliness and love, courage and success against all the odds and revolves around friendship, loyalty and, as is so often the case with Morpurgo, the backdrop is the Great War. It is, perhaps, my favourite Morpurgo which covers much the same familiar territory over which he often flys. I was trying to tot up the number of copies I have given, I stopped at 12. Having read this way way back in the 1990's when i was making sure I knew the content of the books I was buying for my then young nephews and nieces this has since become a stock present for me to buy for people of all ages.

Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth.

They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write.

Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex.

He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films.

The butterfly lion book cover