Loyal Creatures

Morris Gleitzman was born in Lincolnshire and moved to Australia in his teens. He worked as a paperboy, a shelf-stacker, a frozen chicken de-froster, an assistant to a fashion designer and more before taking a degree in Professional Writing at Canberra College and becoming a writer. He has written for TV, stage, newspapers and magazines but is best-known for his hugely succesful children's books including Two Weeks with the Queen, Bumface and Once.

Tender and terrible; beautiful, brave and brutal, Morris Gleitzman has written a most remarkable story of men and horses in war, uncompromising and unflinching in its portrayal of the agonies of the First World War for men and horses alike. Sparely and supremely well written, this is quite simply one of very best novels I have read. MICHAEL MORPURGO.