L-R: Michael Morpurgo, Rebecca Cooke and Thomas Pickersgill
Two lucky children met children’s author Michael Morpurgo at St Edmundsbury Cathedral recently and presented him with their winning entries to Suffolk Libraries ‘Best Christmas Present in the World’ competition.
Suffolk Libraries received over two hundred entries from around the county, but it was Thomas Pickersgill (from Bradfield St George near Bury) and Rebecca Cooke (from Walpole near Halesworth) who most impressed the judges with letters showing off their amazing imaginations. The competition asked children to write to Michael Morpurgo telling him what their best Christmas present would be.
Thomas had written that the best Christmas present for him would be the ability to transform into various animals and to go on a fantastic journey, whilst Rebecca wanted to be able to jump in and out of her favourite story books to meet the characters and have adventures.
The children and their families presented their winning letters to the author after watching him perform his festive short story ‘Best Christmas Present in the World’ alongside ‘Born Free’ actress Virginia McKenna. The former Children’s Laureate and author of Warhorse also wielded a conductor’s baton to direct the audience in a mass singalong of Good King Wenceslas.
Both Thomas and Rebecca are regular visitors to their local Suffolk Libraries branches, and Rebecca is an active member of the Young Writer’s group at Halesworth Library which is run by professional author Annaliese Matheron.
Mr Morpurgo recommended that both children continue with their creative writing as they both showed amazing talent.