Michael Morpurgo backs call to ensure poorer children have access to books

Leading children's author says deprived children in UK are missing out on lifetime of reading for pleasure

Deprived children are being robbed of a lifetime of reading for pleasure, by governments that are simply blind" to the benefits of loving literature from an early age, according to the author Michael Morpurgo.

Morpurgo and a coalition of leading authors, including Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and Cressida Cowell, are backing a call by BookTrust to ensure that every child from a low-income family has access to books and reading activities by investing in a programme across schools and nurseries.