I love adventure stories, especially ones that take you on boat journeys. And now I love those that are piloted by wee little gnomes that are thousands of years old. There’s lots of stuff to love about this book; it’s an exploration of wildlife, and a celebration of biodiversity and communality.

He was an active conservationist, and according to Matthew Oates, the author of His Imperial Majesty: A natural history of the Purple Emperor butterfly (to be published by Bloomsbury), he played a significant part in rescuing the Purple Emperor from local extinction by nurturing its larvae in his garden and fighting the Forestry Commission who kept removing its food source, the sallow. The threegnomeshave many amazing adventures along the way. There is the terrifying incident with the stoat which nearly catches them, and their stay in Crow Wood, when they make friends with Squirrel, and where Giant Grum (the human keeper of Crow Wood) shoots and kills Otter! Otter had helped Dodder find his way up the Folly brook and reunited him with his brothers. Dodder feels so guilty about the death of his poor friend that he prays to Pan for help in ridding Crow Wood of Giant Grum and receives an answer - the death of Giant Grum - after which there is much banqueting by the animal folk and Dodder is named 'Dodder the Giant-Killer'! First published in 1942 this glorious read won the Carnegie Medal for the most outstanding children’s book of that year and has been reissued several times ; it’s latest incarnation is this kindle version, which will hopefully find it a whole new audience. BB was the pen name of Denys Watkins-Pitchford and he later wrote a sequel called, “Down the Bright Stream,” which has also been published on kindle. Denys Watkins-Pitchford had a great love of the countryside and this is reflected in his writing, which describes a realistic portrayal of nature. Although not idealised, it is wonderfully descriptive and he does not shy away from the fact that his central characters live off the countryside. They wear clothes made from mouse or bat skin, they fish and gather fruit and nuts to eat. Sometimes, times are hard and sometimes bountiful, but there it is a place of both beauty and danger.Oates credits BB with inspiring his lifelong devotion to that particular butterfly by writing captivatingly about it in Brendon Chase, a children’s novel published in 1944 and made into a TV series in the 1980s. Since researching BB, I have come across many people, from amateur fishermen to gamekeepers and naturalists, who speak of the effect his writing has had.

The housekeeper told us that the previous summer BB’s wife Cecily, his emotional mainstay, had died prematurely after being enveloped in pesticides sprayed by the neighbouring farmer. He himself died sixteen years later, in 1990, flying away like his wild goose weather-vane just before my first child was born. The Farmer is Nanny Goat's owner. In Down The Bright Stream, Baldmoney uses his best Sunday shirt to build Wonderbird. BB WAS reluctant to tell of his inmost thoughts, but we do know that he was influenced by an earlier generation of writers on the outdoors — including Henry David Thoreau and Richard Jefferies, but, above all, W. H. Hudson — all of whom had mystical tendencies. This book, the cleanest language, the cutest characters, the most heartwarming relationships, the most emotional plot and reunions, crazy delicious food, splendid descriptions and details-- White Stoat is a vicious ferret who serves as Giant Grum's henchman, and is rewarded for killing rabbits.Marcus Crouch, Treasure Seekers and Borrowers: Children's Books in Britain 1900–1960, The Library Association, 1962, p. 92. While at the Northampton School of Art, Watkins-Pitchford won a travelling scholarship to Paris. He was later to say that he could not remember how long he had spent in Paris, but Quinn [3] suggests that it was probably about three months. He worked at a studio in Montparnasse, and attended drawing classes. It is unknown exactly where he studied. In the autumn of 1924, he entered the Royal College of Art in London. In 1930 he became an assistant art master at Rugby School where he remained for seventeen years. While at Rugby School he began contributing regularly to the Shooting Times and started his careers as an author and an illustrator. He wrote under the pen name of '"BB"', a name based on the size of lead shot he used to shoot geese, but he maintained the use of his real name as that of the illustrator in all his books. He later illustrated books by other writers, and sold his own paintings locally. [2] [3] Later years [ edit ]

Sneezewort is the youngest, most sensitive gnome who follows the lead of his older brothers and is usually assigned the less interesting tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Bub'm is a rabbit whom the gnomes rescue from a snare in the first book. Also a general term for rabbits. Down the Bright Stream (sequel to The Little Grey Men (1942), later released as The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream) This novel has been described as the most distinguished fantasy of the war years, a fantasy which sought to capture the beauty and wonder of an English year, a timely and timeless book. Through the choice of gnomes for the protagonists, the author was able to get closer to nature and show more effectively the hazards wild creatures face. [10] The authenticity of the natural history satisfied the preference of the Carnegie committee for realism over fantasy, and the book won the award for the most outstanding children's book of 1942. [4] [11] Two gnomes, Baldmoney and Sneezewort, set off one spring morning up the Folly Brook in search of the long-lost Cloudberry who, a year before, had himself gone in quest of the stream's source. They leave behind the older, rather grumpy, Dodder who'd lost a leg to a fox many years ago; thus begins a voyage upriver, full of delights but also fraught with danger and mortal perils.One aspect of his books which has misled some of his readers is that he liked to illustrate his own work using his real name, while reserving his alias for the text. Never boastful about his ability, he wrote: “I had two gifts — an ability to write after a fashion and to paint and draw with a modest degree of skill.” The book was published in 1942, in the dark days of the Second World War. BB’s warm-hearted fairytale lightened the wartime gloom. Such is the book’s appeal to young and old alike that it has stood the test of time and it is still in print. Its sequel ‘Down The Bright Stream’ (1948) continued the gnomes’ adventures in similar grand style. Sorry to dwell on the point, but I think it’s worth discussing the problems inherent in nature writing, even today where there’s a tendency to greenwash social/cultural/national problems in some orgasmic dreamcloud of language, fetishising ‘Nature’. The Little Grey Men established (Denys Watkins-Pitchford, A.K.A. ‘B.B.’) at the forefront of children’s literature.”—CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards Though it’s a little galling to discover that I am not the only person who thinks that 1941’s [Carnegie Medal] winner, The Little Grey Men by BB, is a terrifically moving elegy for an England now almost extinct, it is gladdening in the extreme to know that other people have also been beguiled by the beauty of a meticulously observed countryside inhabited by gnomes with a passion for pipe-smoking.

Denys James Watkins-Pitchford MBE (25 July 1905 – 8 September 1990) was a British naturalist, an illustrator, art teacher and a children's author under the pseudonym "BB". He won the 1942 Carnegie Medal for British children's books. [1] Early life [ edit ] Watkins-Pitchford won the 1942 Carnegie Medal recognising The Little Grey Men as the year's best children's book by a British subject. [4] I'd like to give this book 4.5 stars! It was absolutely charming, and so delightfully, Britishly written - published in 1942! I would love to have someone read this book to me in an English accent! This book included illustrations by the author, and several pieces of music (written out as sheet music!) which I believe the author wrote as well, and which I am happy to be listening to my daughter, C, play right now! Truly well done! I read this book because I saw it on an internet list of books people loved as children, and stayed with them throughout life. I loved the way the author wove the story around life in the British countryside...the gnomes and other "fairy folk" are well described and interesting. He also used language beautifully to name the animals in the wood:Look ye also while life lasts: it’s what I tell my creative writing students. Wake up! Turn off your phones! Take time to stand and stare. But often I too go around in a dream, rehashing old conversations and forgetting to notice what’s going on under my nose. Most of us do. The Little Grey Men established (Denys Watkins-Pitchford, A.K.A. ‘B.B.’) at the forefront of children’s literature. Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL7499237M Openlibrary_edition