Michael Morpurgo: Sing along with the birds and you are sure to find hope To mark International Dawn Chorus Day, the beloved author looks back on a timely encounter with a blackbird in the garden 2 May 2021 • 6:00am 'Making books, writing my stories, telling my tales, has kept me hopeful all through the pandemic.' Credit: JAY WILLIAMS I am too young to remember the war, just. But if there has been a Dunkirk moment in my life, it has been during the past year. Keeping calm and carrying on was no longer just some nostalgic historical slogan. It was what I was trying to do, we were all trying to do. What else could we do?