From the BBC came news of the New Year Honours 2018:

“The author Michael Morpurgo has been knighted for services to literature and charity. He is best known for his children’s novels, including War Horse and Why the Whales Came.

He says his knighthood gives him a platform to advance one of his main passions: “The opportunity to talk about children’s literature and how really important that is to our young people growing up today.

“They learn so much – not just the spelling and the punctuation, all that’s very important – but what you learn from a book is understanding and empathy.

“You learn to understand about other people, people of different colour, of different religion, of people of a different age – and reading can do that. So it’s wonderful to be in a position to maybe do that more powerfully.”

Here here Sir Michael. I bow to you and your excellent work and your beautiful words. I hope to be sharing wonderful stories with my grandson soon as a way of growing his understanding and empathy.