Denys Watkins-Pitchford
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Denys James Watkins-Pitchford MBE (25 July 1905–October 1990) was a British author, illustrator and countryman who wrote under the pseudonym BB.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Lamport, Northamptonshire on the 25th July 1905, second son to the Revd. Walter Watkins-Pitchford, the rector of All Hallows Church in Lamport. His childhood home was Lamport Rectory, set in the Northamptonshire countryside. He had a great love of the outdoors and enjoyed hunting, fishing and drawing, all these things were to influence his writing greatly. He was educated at home by his father until 1920 when he went to Northampton School of Art; while there, he won a scholarship to study in Paris. On returning to England he completed his studies at the Royal College of Art. In 1930 he became an assistant art master at Rugby School where he remained for seventeen years. While at Rugby School he was to begin contributing regularly to the Shooting Times and start his career as an author and illustrator. Deciding that the name Denys Watkins-Pitchford was too long and unwieldy he wrote under the nom de plume of 'BB' (a size of shot used for shooting wild geese) which he felt was more easily recognizable, but he maintained the use of his given name as that of the artist in all his works.
[edit] Writing career
His first book The Sportsman's Bedside Book, a book that had grown from an article he had written for the Shooting Times, was published in 1937 by Eyre & Spottiswoode. It was the only book 'BB' did not completely illustrate himself; the publishers insisting that artist G. D. Armour's drawings be included as well. His second book and first work of fiction, Wild Lone (1938), was the story of Rufus, a one-eared fox, and was to become a classic of its time. This time it was completely illustrated by himself using for the first time his trademark scraper-board technique, a style of art that had until then only been used for advertisements.
He wrote two more books Manka: The Sky Gypsy and The Countryman’s Bedside Book, before writing his first children’s book Little Grey Men (about "the last gnomes in England"), this was published in 1942 and won the 1942 Carnegie Medal. Down the Bright Stream (1946) continued the adventures of the gnomes from Little Grey Men; The Forest of Boland Light Railway (1955) and The Wizard of Boland (1973) comprise another well-loved series of gnome stories.
In 1949 he had a book published called Be Quite and go A-Angling under the pseudonym of "Michael Traherne", an experiment he did not repeat. In total he wrote more than fifty books, contributed to more than twenty other books by different authors, and also illustrated over forty more. His last book, A Fisherman's Folly was published in 1987.
[edit] His books
- (1937) The Sportsman's Bedside Book
- (1938) Wild Lone
- (1939) Manka
- (1941) Countryman’s Bedside Book
- (1942) Little Grey Men
- (1943) The Idle Countryman
- (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
- (1949) Be Quiet and go A-Angling
- (1950) Confessions of a Carp Fisher
- (1950) Letters form 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
- (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's 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's
- (1980) The Naturalist Bedside Book
- (1981) The Quiet Fields
- (1984) Indian Summer
- (1985) The Best of BB
- (1987) Fisherman’s Folly
[edit] Death and after
In 1989 he was appointed to the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He died a year later in October 1990.
In January 2000 Tom O'Reilly founded the BB society, to act as a focal point for BB collectors and enthusiasts, it now has a membership of about 400. To mark the centenary of his birth in 2005 a official archive of his works was opened in Rugby School Library.
[edit] Trivia
Inside all of 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.
