The making ofAnya,or a tale of two villages

The UK editors invited Michael Morpurgo to write about the origins ofWaiting for Anya, a story set on the Franco Spanish border in the High Pyrenees during the Second World War. The young hero, Jo, is drawn into a perilous network which helps Jews to escape over the border. A European bear, a Pyrenean mountain dog, a shepherd—all feature in the story. How they come to be there is explained in the article which follows.Waiting for Anya is published by Heinemann (hard-back) and by Mammoth (paperback) in the UK, by Viking Penguin in the USA, and by Gallimard in France. It was nominated by the American Library Association as Best Book for Young Adults, and it was aSchool Library Journal Best Book of the Year; it was also an NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the field of Social Studies.Michael Morpurgo writes extensively for children and, at the same time, manages (with his wife, Clare) a project based on farms in England and Wales which gives city children a working experience of rural life. Several of his books have been filmed, includingWhy the Whales Came (Heinemann) andMr Nobody's Eyes (Mammoth). His own education at an English public school helped to shape his most recent book,The War of Jenkins' Ear (Heinemann).