Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake and Jacqueline Wilson join Authors4Oceans

A campaign to prevent the pollution of the Earth's oceans with plastic, begun by Lauren St John, now has 50 children's writers involved

Fifty children's authors, including Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake and Jacqueline Wilson, have come together to call on the book trade to ditch plastic and help save the oceans.

The Authors4Oceans campaign wascreated by the award-winning novelist Lauren St John, whose children's books include the eco-adventure Dolphin Song and the forthcoming seaside mystery Kat Wolfe Investigates. St John devised the project, which is asking publishers, booksellers and young readers to help halt the amount of plastic being dumped in our oceans, after she ordered a drink in a bookshop, and found it came with a plastic straw.