H. E. Todd

H. E. Todd (1908–1988) was a British writer of children's fiction.[1]

Personal life

Herbert Eatton Todd was born on 22 February 1908 in Westminster, the son of Henry Graves Todd, an Elementary School Master and Minnie Helen Elizabeth Todd (nee Boyles). In a foreword to his 1978 novella Changing of the Guard he stated that he lived at 206 Buckingham Palace Road, Westminster, which the protagonist of the story visits.

He married Bertha Hughes in 1933 in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, where he lived until his death.

Writing

He is best known for his "Bobby Brewster" children's books. Often the stories would have common household items suddenly coming to life and chatting to young Bobby Brewster.

He was a storyteller as well as author, usually telling his own stories. He visited many schools to give storytelling sessions; see the reference below for people's memories of his school sessions. He also visited many teacher training colleges to give sessions about storytelling.

In 1969 and 1970, he appeared on BBC's long running children's television show Jackanory reading several Bobby Brewster stories. Unlike other episodes of Jackanory these were recorded in front of an audience of schoolchildren.

The Bobby Brewster stories were also offered as a dial-and-listen 'bedtime story' service by British Telecom in the 1980s, where children could dial a three-digit BT number and listen to a looped voice recording of a selected Bobby Brewster story every evening.

Bobby Brewster books

Most of these books contain several short stories with simple black line illustrations (most by Lillian Buchannan). There is a list of the individual stories for most of the books below.

Other Books

H E Todd met Val Biro, author and illustrator of the Gumdrop books, at a storytelling session. They collaborated on several picture books, with stories by H E Todd and illustrated by Val Biro. Most of the stories had originally appeared in one of the books listed above.

List of Stories

Here is a list of stories for most of the books that contained several stories.

Bobby Brewster and the Winkers' Club

Bobby Brewster (1954)

Bobby Brewster Bus Conductor (1955)

Bobby Brewster's Bicycle (1957)

Bobby Brewster's Camera (1959)

Bobby Brewster's Wallpaper (1961)

Bobby Brewster's Conker (1963)

Bobby Brewster Detective (1964)

Bobby Brewster's Potato (1964)

Bobby Brewster's Ghost (1966)

Bobby Brewster's Kite (1967)

Bobby Brewster's Scarecrow (1968)

Bobby Brewster's Torch (1969)

Bobby Brewster's Balloon Race (1970)

Bobby Brewster's Typewriter (1971)

Bobby Brewster's Bee (1972)

Bobby Brewster's Bookmark (1975)

References

  1. ↑ Kirkpatrick, D. L. (ed.) (1978). Twentieth Century Children's Writers. London: Macmillan. pp. 1228–1230. ISBN 0-333-23414-6.

External links