Denys Watkins-Pitchford
Denys James Watkins-Pitchford
Early life
Denys Watkins-Pitchford was born in
While at the Northampton School of Art, Watkins-Pitchford won a travelling scholarship to
Later years
Watkins-Pitchford married in 1939, and had two children, Robin, who died at the age of seven from
Works
For The Little Grey Men, published by
- (1922) Diary & Sketchbook (Published in 2012)
- (1937) The Sportsman's Bedside Book
- (1938) Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox
- (1939) Manka, the Sky Gypsy: The Story of a Wild Goose
- (1941) The Countryman's Bedside Book
- (1942) The Little Grey Men
- (1943) The Idle Countryman
- (1944) Narrow Boat[4]
- (1944) Brendon Chase
- (1945) The Fisherman's Bedside Book
- (1945) The Wayfaring Tree
- (1948) Meeting Hill
- (1948) The Shooting Man's Bedside Book
- (1948) A Stream in Your Garden
- (1948) Down the Bright Stream (sequel to The Little Grey Men (1942), later released as The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream)
- (1949) Be Quiet and Go A-Angling (Pseudonym Michael Traherne)
- (1950) Confessions of a Carp Fisher
- (1950) Letters from Compton Deverell
- (1950) Tide's Ending
- (1952) The Wind in the Wood
- (1953) Dark Estuary
- (1955) The Forest of Boland Light Railway
- (1957) Alexander
- (1957) Ben the Bullfinch
- (1957) Wandering Wind
- (1957) Monty Woodpig's Caravan
- (1958) Monty Woodpig & his Bubblebuzz Car
- (1958) Mr Bumstead
- (1958) A Carp Water (Wood Pool): And How to Fish It
- (1959) The Wizard of Boland
- (1959) Bill Badger's Winter Cruise
- (1959) Autumn Road to the Isles
- (1960) Bill Badger and the Pirates
- (1961) Bill Badger and the Secret Weapon
- (1961) The White Road Westwards
- (1961) The Badgers of Bearshanks
- (1961) Bill Badger's Finest Hour
- (1962) Bill Badger's Whispering Reeds Adventure
- (1962) September Road to Caithness
- (1962) Lepus the Brown Hare
- (1963) Bill Badger's Big Mistake
- (1964) The Pegasus Book of the Countryside
- (1964) Summer Road to Wales
- (1967) Bill Badger and the Big Store Robbery
- (1967) A Summer on the Nene
- (1967) The Whopper
- (1968) At the Back o' Ben Dee
- (1969) Bill Badger's Voyage to the Worlds End
- (1971) The Tiger Tray
- (1975) The Pool of the Black Witch
- (1975) Lord of the Forest
- (1976) Recollections of a Longshore Gunner
- (1978) A Child Alone
- (1979) Ramblings of a Sportsman-Naturalist
- (1980) The Naturalist's Bedside Book
- (1981) The Quiet Fields
- (1984) Indian Summer
- (1985) The Best of BB
- (1987) Fisherman's Folly
- (1990) The Confessions of a Coastal Gunner (published in 2011)
Further reading
- BB - A Celebration Edited by Tom Quinn (Wharncliffe Publishing Ltd)
- BB - A Symposium Compiled and edited by Bryan Holden (Roseworld Productions Ltd)
- BB's Birds by Bryan Holden (Roseworld Productions Ltd)
- Letters From the Roundhouse compiled by Gordon Wright (Roseworld Productions Ltd)
- Faxton - The Lost Village by Bryan Holden (Roseworld Productions Ltd)
- BB Remembered: the Life and Times of Denys Watkins-Pitchford, Tom Quinn, Swan Hill Press 2006
Motto
Inside all his books appeared the quotation:
- The wonder of the world
- The beauty and the power,
- The shapes of things,
- Their colours, lights and shades,
- These I saw.
- Look ye also while life lasts.
This quote, so apt for his works, has sometimes been thought to have been another one of 'BB'’s creations but it was in fact copied from a tombstone in a north-country churchyard by his father.[citation needed]
Adaptations of his works
In 1975 The Little Grey Men was adapted into a 10-part animated series called
In 1970, the Swiss public TV station
Trivia
The Little Grey Men was one of Syd Barrett's favourite books; an excerpt from it was read at his funeral.[5]
References
- ^ a b
(Carnegie Winner 1942). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
- ^ a b c "Authors BB". The Medlar Press. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008.
- ^ ISBN 1904057829
- ^ "Towpath and Riverside". The Scotsman. Scotland. 7 December 1944. Retrieved 2 August 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett & the Dawn of Pink Floyd". Archived from the original on 8 January 2008.
External links
- The BB Society
- BB or Denys Watkins-Pitchford biography at Stella & Rose's Books
- Model train gallery at Countryside Models — based on The Forest of Boland Light Railway
- D. J. Watkins-Pitchford at Library of Congress, with 42 library catalogue records (includes work published as by BB or B. B.)
- Michael Traherne at LC Authorities, 1 record (another pseudonym)