He then hears Millie's voice asking him to look after the chalk lion on the hill. It’s not War Horse, however, but Morpurgo’s later children’s novel The Butterfly Lion. Michael goes back to the house, finding it deserted. It’s the story of a boy and a beast, written by Michael Morpurgo, and it makes elegant use of puppetry. Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub from the African veld. All my life I’ll think of you, I promise I will. He finds a plaque commemorating Bertie's heroic acts in the war, and learns from a teacher that Millie died only a few months after Bertie. A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion. When the lion dies, Bertie and Millie carve a lion out of the chalk in the hillside in memorial, before Bertie dies himself.Īfter being told the story, Michael returns to school. Together they discover that Monsieur Merlot's circus has closed down, but that the Frenchman lives nearby with the lion.īertie marries Millie and brings the lion back to England, where they live happily for many years. Millie, who has become a nurse in the hopes of finding Bertie, reads about him in a newspaper and the two are reunited. Later, when fighting in France in the First World War, he saves two men's lives and is given a Victoria Cross. When the pair leave school, they continue to write until war breaks out, and a letter arrives from Bertie informing Millie that he has joined the army. He tells Millie all about his life in South Africa, and his white lion cub. Bertie escapes from his school and meets Millie, and the two become fast friends, flying kites together.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |