Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

• ISBN: 9780008352141
• ISBN 10: 0008352143
• Imprint: HarperCollins GB

RRP: $19.99

Once again Michael Morpurgo demonstrates exactly why he is a master of middle grade historical fiction, even at the venerable age of 80+. If you have read his memoir Such Stuff: a Storymaker’s Inspiration, you will already be aware that most, if not all, of Michael’s stories are sparked initially by a factual event or person. Some of them, such as this one, weave a plausible fiction around more than one historical event or circumstance.

Introducing Cobweb…

‘All the books I write begin with some kind of a truth, something I remember, something I hear about, read about, some historical event that happened yesterday or a thousand years ago, something that sows the seed of a new notion for a story.

So when a friend of ours, Nick Gammage, tells us he is going to walk 250 miles from the coast of West Wales along the Drovers’ Road to London for Farms for City Children, I’m fascinated.

What’s a drover? I ask him. And he tells me that drovers were herders of sheep and cattle who, with their dogs, used to drive farmers’ animals to market to sell them in the towns and cities. They did this for thousands of years, until the trains and roads came. They followed well known routes from inn to inn, travelling about 20 miles a day, driving hundreds of sheep and cows.

Essential to this was a good reliable dog who drove the animals on, went after stragglers, and kept robbers away. He told me that the dogs they used in west Wales were often Pembrokeshire corgis.

When they arrived in the city the drovers had to sell the animals which took time. So they would send their dog home, 250 miles to the coast of Wales. These dogs would find their way home on their own, stopping at nights in the same inns, where their food had been prepaid by the drover.

The moment I heard that I knew I had to tell the story of one of those amazing corgis. I called him Cobweb, because we have a cat on the farm called Cobweb. Silly reason I know. But we all love Cobweb.

I can’t wait to hold this book in my hand and read it. It has the best surprise ending of any book I’ve ever written. Trouble is I know the ending already, and that’s so annoying.’

Michael Morpurgo

It’s certainly a remarkable history and one I have never heard of, despite the fact that we are well used to the notion of drovers in Australia. More astonishing I think is the thought of a corgi doing this extraordinary journey. I guess because nowadays we are so used to seeing these playful little dogs as pets (and of course, knew them from trotting beside the late Queen).

Michael combines this historical fact of corgis as drovers’ dogs, and finding their own way back to Wales, with the story of the French drummer boy who was saved by Matthew Clay at Hougoumont/Waterloo (3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – The Scots Guards).

Although Clay mentioned the boy in a letter to his mother, there is still a mystery surrounding what happened next. Morpurgo’s creation of a very plausible outcome will have young readers completely entranced. It’s another highly engaging read that will immerse children in a period of time as well as a place with which they have very little connection, but will undoubtedly find much to enjoy – bravery, loyalty, love and a happy ending. What more could one want? Another outstanding read from this treasure of a writer – 5 🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕 rating.