Rehearsals have begun for the National Theatre's production of War Horse, which comes to Kent this month, as it prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

The most successful play in the National Theatre's history, it will rehearse for three weeks before taking to the stage at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.

Based on author Michael Morpurgo's book, it features the world famous puppetry work of Handspring Puppet Company to create Joey the horse.

Michael Morpurgo's parents met at the Marlowe, where the show will run from Friday, September 15, and he was teaching at a school near the town when he wrote it.

War Horse is a story of courage, loyalty, and friendship about a young boy called Albert and his horse Joey, and is set against the backdrop of the First World War.

He said: "I grew up in a family scarred by war. This was, I am sure, why I came to write War Horse all those years ago, why peace and war have been at the heart of so many stories I have written before and since.

"My mother gave me my love of stories, a teacher or two at my school - also in Canterbury by the way, the same school where Kit Marlowe went a few years before me. Then there was my friend Ted Hughes who kept me writing when things were not going well; and I owe much to my own children and the children I taught in school, who became my first readers and listeners.

"And my wife Clare is always my first reader and editor, and who always thought War Horse was my best book. She was right, it seems. She must be, because Joey has trotted on all these years, in one guise or another, as a book, a play, in concert form, as a film. Now when I write another book, I am "the author of War Horse." That I owe to the play, to the National Theatre, and to yet another of my benefactors, Tom Morris, who had the crazy notion of adapting the book to the stage in the first place.”

War Horse will open at the Marlowe on Friday, September 15 and run until Saturday, October 14.

Theatre director Mark Everett added: "There’s an excited buzz around the theatre now the National have finally arrived."

War Horse premiereed in London on October 9, 2007. Since then, it has been seen by more than seven million people worldwide and won 25 awards.

There are limited tickets available - go to marlowetheatre.com, or call 01227 787787 to book.