RENOWNED author Michael Morpurgo treated the children of Okehampton to a special one-off book signing event at Waitrose this week.

The famous novelist has dedicated his time to write a children’s Christmas book this year, which will be sold exclusively in Waitrose stores to raise money for charity.

The book, titled Coming Home, is about a little robin who sets out on an epic journey through dark forests, driving rain, clapping thunder and flashing lights.

Mr Morpurgo, well-known for his books War Horse and Private Peaceful, signed copies of his new book and met fans at Okehampton Waitrose on Monday afternoon.

Flocks of children, accompanied by their parents, were delighted to meet the authour — who was happy to sign books, take pictures and chat to visitors about this work.

For every Coming Home book produced, a donation of 50p was made to Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, helping to tackle loneliness, isolation and bringing people together at Christmas.

Some of the additional profits made by book sales will go toward towards Mr Morpurgo’s own charity, Farms for City Children.

This charity offers urban children from all over the country a unique opportunity to live and work together for a week at a time on a real farm in the heart of the Devon countryside.

Kate Wade, of Farms for City Children, said: ’Farms for City Children was delighted to be collecting donations from our local supporters in Waitrose this week.

‘Michael founded the charity alongside his wife, Clare, 40 years ago, at Nethercott House in nearby Iddesleigh, so it felt like “Coming Home” and collecting from a home crowd in time for Christmas.’

Vickie Mills, Waitrose Community Matters partner, said: ‘We had hundreds of people queueing around the shop and Michael really made an effort to talk to everyone and signed lots of books, showing his passion and really instilling his love of reading to all the children.’