Turned away by his own son, Cessie’s long-lost grandfather finds himself in the place he fears most – a nursing home called Shangri-La. This is a fresh reissue of a much-loved story with a beautiful new cover. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.Michael Morpurgo is a master storyteller, former Children’s Laureate and multi-award winner. To be honest, I think one of the biggest character developments came from a very minor character!Įscape from Shangri-La is a nice little kid’s book, but I wouldn’t suggest it for older teens and/or adults like some of his other works (such as Dear Olly or Cool, which, although they are totally kids books, are great for adults too especially if you’re trying to explain something to both yourself and a child ( Dear Olly deals with physical disability and Cool deals with a child in a coma)). I didn’t really get “into” the characters, aside from Cessie’s granddad as I loved the history and romance aspect. There were so many boats on D-Day that a lot are often forgotten about, and he takes one of these “forgotten” (read: fictionalised, in this instance (at least, I think)) boats and makes them real and remembered. Something I really like about Morpurgo’s work is that he takes unknown characters and/or situations and puts them into big historical events. The plot is simple but effective: stranger on the door, mysterious place he doesn’t want to go, and then… argh, this is hard, that’s a great spoiler.Įscape from Shangri-La talks a lot about WWII and it’s based around the D-Day landings and the boats which were used, which is how the climax of the plot happens.
I didn’t feel that involved with this story, however, but I did enjoy it. It was a warm and friendly story, about family and love and history, as much of Morpurgo’s works are. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while and I got through it pretty quickly. Cessie misses him a lot, but she still doesn’t understand the mystery of something he kept on saying: “Don’t let me go to Shangri-La, Cessie. He’s great, until he starts forgetting things and has to go to a nursing home. Everything was normal until a stranger turned up on the doorstep and said he was Cessie’s grandfather.
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