The Butterfly Lion - Michael Morpurgo

The Butterfly Lion

By: Michael Morpurgo, Christian Birmingham (Illustrator)

Paperback | 31 July 1996

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $16.99

$16.25

or 4 interest-free payments of $4.06 with

In Stock and Aims to ship in 1-2 business days
A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion. "All my life I'll think you you, I promise I will. I won't ever forget you."

Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub from the African veld. They are inseparable until Bertie is sent to boarding school far away in England and the lion is sold to a circus.

Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but it is the butterfly lion which ensures that their friendship will never be forgotten.
Industry Reviews
A runaway schoolboy finds a magnificent monument to a magnificent animal in this ghost story, at once marvelous and matter-of-fact, from Morpurgo (Robin of Sherwood, 1996, etc.). The author casts himself as the ten-year-old narrator, whose attempt to run away from a miserable boarding-school existence ends in a dusty house, where a friendly old widow shows him a great lion cut into the chalk on a hillside - the butterfly lion. She tells him how it came to be there: Her Bertie, a lonely boy in South Africa, found and began to raise a white lion cub, tearfully saw it sold to a French circus owner, reclaimed it years later during the Great War, and brought it to England to live. When it died, Bertie spent the next 40 years carving its likeness on the hill. Astonishing in itself, the chalk lion becomes even moreso after a rain, when thousands of Adonis Blue butterflies gather on it. Urging him to come again, the old woman takes the boy back to school; only later does he learn that she died - as her husband did - years ago. This dreamlike story is suffused with a man's lifelong love for a rare, gentle animal friend.
Kirkus Reviews

Other Editions and Formats

ePUB

Published: 11th November 2021

Instant Digital Delivery to your Booktopia Reader App

Other Books By Michael Morpurgo

War Horse - Michael Morpurgo

Paperback

RRP $17.99

$17.75

War Horse - Michael Morpurgo

Hardcover

RRP $24.99

$23.75

The Butterfly Lion - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $16.99

$16.25

Farm Boy : The Sequel To War Horse - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $24.99

$23.75

King Of The Cloud Forests - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $17.99

$17.95

The Wreck Of The Zanzibar - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $17.99

$17.95

From Hereabout Hill - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $17.99

$17.95

Michael Morpurgo's Tales from Shakespeare - Michael Morpurgo
Kaspar : Prince of Cats - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $16.99

$16.25

There Once Is A Queen - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Escape from Shangri-La - Michael Morpurgo

RRP $17.99

$5.95

67%
OFF
Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpurgo

$22.25

Beowulf - Michael Morpurgo

Paperback

$24.25

An Eagle In The Snow - Michael Morpurgo

$23.50

All I Said Was : Acorns - Michael Morpurgo

$14.99

Escape from Shangri-La - Michael Morpurgo

$23.50

The Nine Lives of Montezuma - Michael Morpurgo
The Ghost of Grania O'Malley - Michael Morpurgo
Kensuke's Kingdom : New Windmills Series - Michael Morpurgo
Alien Invasion : Mudpuddle Farm - Michael Morpurgo
Pigs Might Fly! : Mudpuddle Farm - Michael Morpurgo
Flamingo Boy - Michael Morpurgo

Paperback

$16.99

Mimi and the Mountain Dragon - Michael Morpurgo