Review: Little Manfred, by Michael Morpurgo

Charley has never really understood why her mother is so fond of the toy dog, Little Manfred. She doesn't know why her mother cries when the toy is broken. But in 1966, just after the World Cup, she and her brother Alex meet two strangers on the beach below their house. Strangers with a story to tell...


Little Manfred was written for the Imperial War Museum. It's a (slightly) fictionalized account of a true story; Little Manfred was made by a German POW for the children of the family he was lodged with. Morpurgo's beautiful account captures the futility of war, and how even in extra ordinary circumstances, people can make ordinary lives.

Illustrations by Michael Foreman.

"The ship was already turning and steaming away. We had to stand there and watch. We left nearly 2,000 men to drown, not the enemy to us anymore, who had sunk the Hood, but fellow sailors. For one sailor to leave another to drown, no matter what uniform he wears, cries out against all he believes in, against all traditions of the sea. To leave one would be bad enough. To leave 2,000...I still see those men in the water every day of my life."

"But you did pick up nearly a hundred of us, Marty," said Walter. "I have told you often that you must never forget this. On the Hood, they never got a chance - only three survived."

For a while, neither of them spoke, but looked out to sea, each lost in his own thoughts. The silence was broken by a pair of gulls, screeching and swooping overhead.

I said the first thing that came into my head. "My dad says that every gull you hear is the ghost of a dead sailor, letting you know he's still alive."

...

"I also do not believe in ghosts," Walter told him, "but I like this idea of your father's  very much. "