Escape From Shangri-La By Michael Morpurgo

Escape From Shangri-La is a heartfelt war story from Britain’s best-loved children’s author, Michael Morpurgo. It explores the legacy of strife and loss in World War Two. I have read a few of the author’s novels and they always pull at your heartstrings.

Cessie has never seen her grandfather, not even in photos, until the day he turned up on the doorstep out of nowhere. Shortly after that, the old man has a stroke. After he recovers, he has lost most of his memory. Popsicle is diificult to live with ashe is often moody and forgetful. But Cessie loves him and is very attached to him.

After a series of incidents, Cessie’s parents decide to send Popsicle to Shangri-La, a nursing home for the elderly. Popsicle hates nursing home but now he is stuck in the very place he fears most.

Cessie is determined to help Popsicle escape and to unravel the truth of his past. It’s a past he remembers only in glimpses – a lifeboat, a tin of condensed milk, and a terrifying night on the beaches of Dunkirk in World War Two. Gradually, Popsicle recovers his memory and, with Cessie’s help, realises a dream by taking the residents of Shangri-La on an adventurous journey across the channel in his lifeboat to Dunkirk to search for a woman who saved him during the war. When they return to the port, Popsicle and his son, Cessie’s father, are finally reconciled.

This book is about family rifts, lost love, school bullying, the horrors of war, old age, kindness, forgiveness and above all the power of humility.