It would be hard to spend more than a few minutes in the picturesque Devonshire village of Iddesleigh without bumping into Michael Morpurgo, either in person or in spirit. A picture of Joey – a handsome bay horse supposedly painted by a cavalry officer in 1914 – hangs above the mantelpiece in the village hall, just as described in the author’s most famous novel, War Horse. And just as in the novel, a clock below the picture is frozen at one minute past 10.
The pub, meanwhile, is papered with War Horse memorabilia, while the lanes leading to the village are dotted with signs to a War Horse theme park, although Morpurgo grimaces when he spots one, explaining that it’s the work of an entrepreneurial local farmer. It has nothing to do with the charity he and his wife, Clare, set up in 1976 to provide an experience of farm life for city children.
