'Tender, affecting, wise - a deeply human and uplifting story' CHLOE DALTON
'A moving, vulnerable portrait of love, nature and a life well-lived' RORY STEWART
'A warm, rich, generous book. A pleasure from first page to last.' KATHERINE RUNDELL
The long-awaited memoir of life and love on a Devon farm - Michael Morpurgo's most personal and moving book to date
Fifty years ago, Michael and Clare Morpurgo packed their young family into a car in London and set off for a remote farm in rural Devon, down a narrow track called Burrow Lane.
It was on this magical farm that Michael, then a young schoolteacher, became a writer. Over the years, it would inspire many of his best-loved books, including War Horse and Private Peaceful.
Here, Michael and Clare raised their family - and, in many ways, grew up themselves. They also welcomed more than 100,000 children from towns and cities to experience life in the countryside through their charity, Farms for City Children.
This is the remarkable love story of Michael and Clare, and an account of the joys and hardships of life on the farm across five decades: a journey through the seasons and years that shaped the land around them, and the lives of the children forever changed by their time there.
'Touching and extraordinary, this true story seems like a fairy tale' JOANNA LUMLEY
Down Burrow Lane was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 21/09/2026
Michael Morpurgo is the award-winning author of more than 150 books, including Private Peaceful, Kensuke's Kingdom and War Horse, which became the most successful play in the National Theatre's history and a Golden Globe-nominated film directed by Steven Spielberg. He has won many literary prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Writers' Guild Award, the Whitbread Award, and the Eleanor Farjeon Lifetime Achievement Award. Michael was Children's Laureate from 2003-2005, a role that took him across Britain to inspire a love of reading in children.Michael and his wife Clare founded Farms for City Children in 1976 at Nethercott Farm in Devon, and Michael has called the project his 'greatest story'. They aim to expand the horizons of children from towns and cities all over the country by offering them a week in the countryside living together on one of their farms.