50 Fun Facts About War Horse

Michael Morpurgo set the opening of War Horse on a family farm in which English county, where he wrote it?

Devon is both Joey's first home and Michael Morpurgo's own: he wrote the novel after talking to First World War veterans in his local pub.

Which director, known for Second World War films, made the 2011 film War Horse his first about the earlier conflict?

Steven Spielberg saw the London stage show, admitted it moved him to tears, and was announced as the film's director three months later.

In War Horse, how do a British and a German soldier decide who keeps the wounded Joey in no man's land?

A coin toss gives Joey to the British side, and the two enemies part on friendly terms after a few minutes of peace between the trenches.

The life-size horse puppets in the stage version of War Horse were built by a company from which country?

South Africa is home to the Handspring Puppet Company of Cape Town, whose horses each need three performers: two working the legs and one the head and neck.

Which black stallion becomes Joey's closest companion after the two meet in army training in War Horse?

Topthorn was never bred for the plough, so he learns farm work from Joey once both horses are behind German lines.

What traps and wounds the terrified Joey as he bolts across no man's land near the end of War Horse?

Barbed wire also inspired the book: Michael Morpurgo was haunted by a 1917 painting of British cavalry horses caught in it during a charge.

Which future Game of Thrones star made his professional debut as Albert in the London stage production of War Horse?

Kit Harington won the part of Albert while still at drama school, and Jon Snow, his first television role, came soon after.

In Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, what was Albert's father meant to buy at the auction where he bought Joey instead?

A calf was the plan, but he came home with a colt bought for three guineas, which his son Albert named and came to love.

In the 2011 film War Horse, Albert teaches Joey to come when he imitates the call of which bird?

An owl call is what saves Joey years later, when a bandaged Albert makes it just as an army doctor is about to put the injured horse down.

Why is Albert turned away when he first tries to join the army to follow Joey in War Horse?

He is too young, but Albert promises to come for Joey, and the sequel says he later lied about his age to enlist.

Which French girl cares for Joey and his companion each night on her grandfather's farm in War Horse?

Emilie loves the two horses as Albert loved Joey, and after the war her grandfather tracks Joey down at an army auction.

In Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, Joey bolts in terror after his first sight of which new weapon of war?

A tank sends Joey running, and it marked the future: armoured vehicles went on to replace cavalry horses in battle.

Which composer scored the 2011 film War Horse in the same year he wrote the music for The Adventures of Tintin?

John Williams prepared by watching horses each morning at a California farm, and the score brought him another Oscar nomination.

Which London company first staged War Horse in 2007, in a run first planned to last just 16 weeks?

National Theatre audiences kept it going far longer: the show moved to the West End for seven years and became the company's most successful production.

Who is Joey's first rider in the army, killed in a charge soon after reaching France in War Horse?

Captain Nicholls dies in the cavalry's first charge against the Germans, and a nervous new trooper is given Joey to ride.

Which Michael Morpurgo novel is the sequel to War Horse, picking up the story of Joey and Albert's family years later?

Farm Boy is told by Albert's great-grandson, and Michael Morpurgo has called it his favourite of his own books.

In the author's note to War Horse, a portrait shows Joey as a red bay with which marking on his forehead?

A white cross marks the Joey of the opening pages; the portrait was invented, but so many visitors asked to see it that a real one was painted in 2011.

After their capture in War Horse, what do the Germans first set Joey and his companion to pull, saving many lives?

An ambulance cart makes the pair famous and respected among the Germans; only later are they taken away to haul artillery.

In Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, where is Albert serving when the wounded, mud-caked Joey is led in?

A veterinary hospital is where Albert works, yet he knows his old horse only after cleaning off the mud and hearing Joey answer his whistle.

The 2011 film War Horse was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar but lost to which French-made winner?

The Artist, a nearly silent tribute to old Hollywood, took the top prize, while War Horse won nothing from its six nominations.

Which old farm work horse does Joey bond with at Albert's home before the army takes him in War Horse?

Zoey is the family's old mare who pulls the plough beside Joey, and in the sequel the pair work the land together after the war.

In Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, what kills Joey's closest companion soon after the two horses drink together?

Heart failure fells him after long work hauling guns, and the German soldier who loved him dies moments later in an Allied bombardment.

Which moorland, also the secret code name for the shoot, supplied the family farmhouse in the 2011 film War Horse?

Dartmoor also gave the film its skies and landscapes, and the director said he had never been handed such natural beauty in his long career.

In Michael Morpurgo's sequel to War Horse, Joey and the old farm mare win a ploughing bet against which new machine?

A tractor, a green Fordson, tips into a ditch near the end of the contest, and the family keeps it in the barn as their prize.

In the 2011 film War Horse, the medals and pennant of Albert's father come from his service in which war?

The Boer War left Albert's father with a gallantry medal and lasting scars, and Albert ties the pennant to Joey's bridle when the horse is sold.

Which unknown stage actor made his feature film debut as Albert in the 2011 film War Horse?

Jeremy Irvine beat hundreds of hopefuls, then spent two months learning to ride and so long in muddy trench scenes that he caught trench foot.

Which actor plays the army officer who buys Joey and promises Albert to look after him in the 2011 film War Horse?

Tom Hiddleston plays the doomed officer, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the major who rides beside him into the German guns.

Michael Morpurgo found he could write War Horse after watching a boy with which difficulty talk freely to a horse?

A stammer kept the boy almost silent with people, yet beside the stable door one evening the words flowed, and the horse stood and listened.

Which German soldier, who never wanted to go to war, befriends Joey while the horses haul artillery in War Horse?

Friedrich tells the horses he did not want to be a soldier, and he is killed by Allied shelling at the spot where his favourite has just died.

Which Saturday Night Live host played Joey himself, in place of a puppet, in a 2011 sketch mocking War Horse?

Jimmy Fallon galloped about slapping his legs for hoofbeats and ended with a robot dance, watched by Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as a British couple.

War Horse was the highest-grossing First World War film until which 2017 release overtook it six years later?

Wonder Woman, a superhero story set in the same war, passed the roughly $177 million that War Horse had earned worldwide.

Which co-writer of the 2011 film War Horse had earlier written a BBC comedy series set in the trenches?

Richard Curtis, co-writer of Blackadder Goes Forth, produced over a dozen drafts in three months and shares the screenplay credit with Lee Hall.

Cavalry scenes for the 2011 film War Horse were shot on the estate where which duke's charger Copenhagen lies buried?

The Duke of Wellington rode Copenhagen at Waterloo and retired him to Stratfield Saye, where a charge with 130 extras was filmed for the screen.

In the 2011 film War Horse, where does the French girl hide Joey and his companion from German soldiers?

Her bedroom keeps the horses out of sight, but they are seized soon after, when her grandfather lets her ride Joey for her birthday.

In the 2011 film War Horse, which crop goes into the rocky field Albert and Joey plough to save the farm?

Turnips are sown, but heavy rain ruins the harvest in 1914, and that loss is what forces Albert's father to sell Joey.

In the 2011 film War Horse, Albert is gassed and his friend Andrew killed in 1918 at which battle?

The Somme saw a second great battle in the war's final year, and the gas leaves Albert with bandaged eyes when Joey is brought in.

War Horse author Michael Morpurgo spent nine months as a cadet at which British military academy before quitting?

Sandhurst did not hold him: he said reading the First World War poets as a cadet helped turn him towards teaching and then writing.

Which Poet Laureate and neighbour does Michael Morpurgo credit with giving him the confidence to write War Horse?

Ted Hughes lived close by and, with the poet Seán Rafferty, urged him on; Hughes's book Poetry in the Making had first inspired him to write.

War Horse was published in 2010 as Ceffyl Rhyfel, an edition in which language of the British Isles?

Welsh readers got their version from the publisher Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, a year before the film set off a rush of requests for new translations.

Which royal's 2009 trip to see War Horse in the West End was a first private theatre visit in four years?

Queen Elizabeth II went with Prince Philip that October, six months after the show opened at its West End home.

The stage version of War Horse adds which jealous cousin of Albert, who rides Joey into battle and is captured?

Billy is the son of the uncle who bids against Albert's father for the foal, and he is killed as a prisoner while brandishing his grandfather's knife.

Which playwright adapted Michael Morpurgo's War Horse for the stage, working with the puppet makers on the script?

Nick Stafford wrote a script the author first thought could never work; Michael Morpurgo said the people behind it must be mad to try.

Which sergeant bids for Joey against an old Frenchman at the army auction that ends Michael Morpurgo's War Horse?

Thunder is outbid by the old man, who turns out to be the grandfather of the French girl and lets Albert have Joey for a small price.

Back home at the end of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, Joey fails to warm to which girlfriend of Albert?

Maisie marries Albert after he comes home, but she and Joey stay wary of each other, each a little jealous.

For which British literary prize was Michael Morpurgo's War Horse the runner-up in the year it was published?

Whitbread Book Award judges named it a runner-up in 1982, yet the novel reached only a handful of languages until the stage and screen versions arrived.

The Berlin staging of War Horse and the German release of the 2011 film share a title that loosely means what?

Comrades is Gefährten in German, and the 2013 Berlin run was the first production of the show in a language other than English.

Which English village stood in for Albert's home village in the 2011 film War Horse, despite its stone-built look?

Castle Combe in Wiltshire has stone walls and stone roofs, nothing like the cob and thatch of the story's own county; the author filmed a cameo there.

Michael Morpurgo conceived War Horse after talking to veterans in the pub of which village, his home since the 1970s?

Iddesleigh's thatched pub is where a yeomanry veteran told him about working with horses in the war, and the same parish inspired Private Peaceful.

Michael Morpurgo's research for War Horse found that, of a million horses sent abroad from Britain, how many returned?

62,000 came home by his count, while the rest died in the war or were slaughtered in France for meat.

After Joey's first rider is killed in War Horse, which nervous trooper is chosen to ride him into the next charge?

Warren rides heavily but treats Joey kindly, and the two are carried into the enemy lines and captured in that charge.