Author and storyteller Sir Michael Morpurgo has spoken of his and his wife Clare’s pride at receiving a BBC award for their Farms for City Children project.

The couple, who live at Iddesleigh, received the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Award’s ‘Derek Cooper Outstanding Achievement Award’ for their fifty years’ work introducing children to farming life.

They founded the charity Farms for City Children in 1976. Over the years it has given 100,000 children the chance to experience life on its three farms, at the couple’s Nethercott House in Devon (the first farm involved); Lower Treginnis in Pembrokeshire, and Wick Court in Gloucestershire.

This award recognises the charity’s ‘exceptional’ contribution to connecting young people with farming, food production and the natural world, and its dedication to enriching the lives of generations of children.

The 2026 BBC Food and Farming Awards, created to ‘honour those who have done most to promote the cause of good food’, took place in Titanic Belfast on Wednesday, October 21.

Michael (famous for his many children’s novels such as ‘War Horse’) and Clare, both former teachers, set up the project to give children ‘wonderful and memorable experiences to help them discover themselves and the world around them. Michael has said the relationship between a boy on the project in Devon and a horse partly inspired War Horse.

He said: “Clare and I are very proud to receive this award, for setting up Farms for City Children fifty years ago and for the farming families in Gloucestershire, Devon and Wales who have supported us over the decades.

“It’s a great surprise to get this award. It’s a wonderful feeling for us to be recognised for what we’ve been working on for so long, but now it’s all down to the farmers themselves, who are doing all the work on the ground.

He added: “The children aren’t coming to the countryside for a holiday, it’s like work experience. They come, 40 a time, from inner-city primary schools, to work alongside farmers to learn skills and understand what earning a living off the land involves and what country life is like. These children would be unlikely to have the chance to know anything other than inner city life. They remember the experience it for life. They leave with memories of the coast in Wales, the views of Dartmoor at Nethercott and the River Severn in Gloucestershire.”

The award categories were judged by small expert panels, while Michaels and Clare’s award was judged by all the panel judges combined.

The judges were Paula McIntyre (chef and broadcaster), Charlotte Smith (BBC rural and consumer reporter), Sheila Dillon (food journalist/broadcaster), Jaega Wise (beer expert and broadcast host), Leyla Kazi (food and drink blogger and broadcaster), and Mali Harries (actor and broadcast host).

The other annual awards were Countryfile Young Countryside Champion (won by Lily Herniman, 18, for her voluntary work with the UK Wild Otter in South Molton); Best Food Producer, Best Drinks Producer, The Digital Creator Award, The Archers and Farming Today Farming for the Future Award 2026, The Food Innovation Award,and The BBC Radio Ulster Food Hero Award.

The event was supported by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and Food NI.