Michael Morpurgo OBE, the former Children’s Laureate, is best known for such books as War Horse and Private Peaceful. Now the St Albans-born writer comes to Watford to talk about the World War One book he has edited, Only Remembered. He talks to Rosy Moorhead.

Where did the idea for Only Remembered come from?

The idea came from a conversation with the publisher at Random House about how best to mark the Centenary of World War One with a book for all generations that would try to tell the stories of the war in words, pictures, illustration and song.

How did you come to be editing it?

I think it is because of my connection with World War One through War Horse and Private Peaceful and my writing.

How were the contributors selected?

When I began putting together Only Remembered, we asked 100 or so of Britain’s leading figures how they best remembered the World War One. We selected people – some friends, some well known and lesser known, people we knew had some connection or who had written about it before. We asked them to remember their first impression of the war and to write about it. Each had a story or a family recollection, a poem, a song, a picture they wanted to pass on.

Were they completely free to choose whatever they wanted?

Yes, completely free, so in the book you will find Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, Sebastian Faulks and Edward Thomas. You will learn that the first jelly babies were called Peace Sweets, and will see pictures by Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer, and extracts from the Wipers Times, the incredible newspaper of the trenches.

Did any of the contributors’ choices have a particular effect on you?

I was particularly moved by a piece by teenager Flora Fergusson who wrote sensitively about visiting the Flanders Field’s cemeteries. There is a poem by Raymond Briggs in which we learn why so many ladies he grew up with were called ‘Aunties’.

What does the anthology say about how the war changed our world?

I hope it helps in a way to do the only thing that it can do, which is to do what Alan Bennett says in his play The History Boys, ‘to pass it on.’ It is, after all, what we are here for. All these contributions to the book are personal choices. Each had a story or a family recollection, a poem or a song or a picture that they wanted to pass on. In reading it again, what I feel is overwhelming admiration and gratitude for the courage that the First World War generation showed both at the front and at home. But it is also about the waste of young lives on all sides, about the pity of it. And it leaves me with a longing for a world without war.

How has Ian Beck’s artwork added to the overall feel of the book?

Ian Beck’s artwork is both powerful and sensitive. It draws the eye to the page and speaks directly to the reader.

Have you contributed any pieces yourself or did you limit yourself to editing it?

As my contribution, I chose a piece translated from the French, from the book On Les Aura, illustrated by Barroux (published by Phoenix Yard Books). It comes from a recently discovered diary for an unknown French solider as he goes off to war and into action in 1914. It is simply and movingly told.

What’s coming up next for you?

I’ve got a new book out in September called Listen to the Moon published by Harper Collins.

  • Michael Morpurgo is at Merchant Taylor's School, Sandy Lodge Road, Moor Park on Thursday, July 10 at 7.30pm. Details: Chorleywood Bookshop, 01923 283566, chorleywoodbookshop.co.uk