“.. the stories which range across the oceans are the ones that are mostly about travelling the world in the biggest sense, in the most epic sense and I wrote one called Alone in A Wide Wide Sea and this is because I discovered that just after the Second World War thousands and I mean thousands of children who were not wanted in the country, they were either orphans or there were parents who couldn’t keep their children …
… so the Government decided and lots charitable organisations decided, look we’ve got to find homes for them in other parts of the world and that Australia and Canada and places, they were terrific because there were parents there who had no children of their own and they wanted to adopt these children….
… so they put these children, I mean thousands of them, on ships in places like Liverpool and they sailed across the ocean to the other side …
… I thought I might like to write a story about one of those young kids who went across to Australia and things happen to them in Australia and eventually they find some degree of happiness.”
Watch Michael talk about the adventures that inspired his stories around the theme of Voyages
