Michael Morpurgo denies 'censoring' Merchant of Venice in children's book | Michael Morpurgo | The Guardian

"The notion that I censored this, it is such nonsense. I chose the 10 plays I love the most, that I felt young children would respond to," he said. "To be honest with you, The Merchant of Venice is not a play I enjoy myself. I didn't ‘refuse' to include the play, no one told me to do it - I sat down quietly and decided the 10 I would do. It's completely wrong and a kneejerk reaction."

Morpurgo said the book, which will be published next year and was only intended to include 10 of Shakespeare's plays, was focused on plays that had "very strong storylines, and plays that children would be most likely to see at the theatre or study at school". Starting on 8 January, performances of his retellings by the Royal Shakespeare Company will be made available to schools around the UK for free for five weeks.