Lucky Button Read online

  ABOUT THIS STORY AND THE FOUNDLING MUSEUM

  Although Nathaniel’s story is fictional, it was inspired by real people and events. The Foundling Hospital was a real place opened by Thomas Coram in 1741, and William Hogarth and George Frideric Handel were early supporters. Handel first conducted the Messiah in the chapel in 1750. Babies taken to the Hospital were looked after by foster families, before returning to be educated until they took up apprenticeships or entered domestic or military service.

  If you would like to discover more about the Foundling Hospital and the children who grew up there, a visit to the Foundling Museum is the best place to start. A short walk from the British Museum and built on the site of the original Hospital, which continues today as the charity Coram, we tell the fascinating story of the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery through displays, exhibitions and fun activities.

  The Museum contains many features saved from the original Hospital building, including pews and decorations from the Chapel. You can also see paintings and sculptures by artists such as William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough; items relating to the life and work of composer George Frideric Handel, including the Messiah score he gave to the Hospital; and objects relating to the lives of the foundling children. Among these are the eighteenth-century “tokens”, the small everyday objects that mothers left with their babies as a means of identification, should they ever return to claim their child. The tokens are extraordinarily moving objects that range from coins, gambling tokens and jewellery, to good luck charms, tickets and buttons.

  One of the ways in which creative people continue the legacy established by Hogarth and Handel, is through our Fellowship programme. Foundling Fellows are remarkable and inspiring people who bring the Hospital’s history to life with projects that celebrate the power of the arts to change lives. Charles Dickens was a supporter of the Foundling Hospital in the nineteenth century and writers are an important part of the Fellowship. Michael Morpurgo became a Foundling Fellow in 2012 and we are hugely proud that this association has resulted in a story as magical and moving as Lucky Button.

  Caro Howell, Director, The Foundling Museum

  foundlingmuseum.org.uk

  First published 2017 by Walker Books Ltd

  87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ

  Text © 2017 Michael Morpurgo

  Illustrations © 2017 Michael Foreman

  The right of Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman to be identified as the author and illustrator respectively of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978-1-4063-7517-6 (ePub)

  www.walker.co.uk