Denys James Watkins-PitchfordMBE (25 July 1905 – 8 September 1990) was an Englishnaturalist, artist and author under thepen name 'BB'. He won the 1942Carnegie Medal forThe Little Grey Men.[1]
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Denys Watkins-Pitchford was born inLamport, Northamptonshire, the second son of the Revd. Walter Watkins-Pitchford and his wife, Edith. His father wasrector of Lamport withFaxton from 1903 until his death in 1944; Faxton's church was dedicated to St Denys. His elder brother, Robert Engelard, died at the age of sixteen. Denys was himself considered to be delicate as a child, and because of this was educated at home, while his younger twin, Roger, was sent away to school. He spent a great deal of time on his own, wandering through the fields, and developed a love of the outdoors. He also enjoyed shooting,fishing and drawing; all these things were to influence his writing.
At the age of fifteen, he left home and went to study at theNorthampton School of Art. He won several prizes while there, but was irked by the dry, academic approach, and longed to be able to draw from life.[2] While at the Northampton School of Art, Watkins-Pitchford won a travelling scholarship toParis. He was later to say that he could not remember how long he had spent in Paris, but Tom Quinn[3] suggests that it was probably about three months. He worked at a studio inMontparnasse, and attended drawing classes. It is unknown exactly where he studied. In the autumn of 1924, he entered theRoyal College of Art in London.
In 1930 he became an assistant art master atRugby School where he remained for seventeen years. While at Rugby School he began contributing to theShooting Times and started his careers as an author and anillustrator. He wrote under thepen name of 'BB', a name based on the size oflead shot he used to shootgeese, but he maintained the use of his real name as that of the illustrator in all his books. He illustrated books by other writers, mostly usingscraperboard, and sold his own paintings locally.[2][3]
Watkins-Pitchford married Cecily Adnitt in 1939 in Lamport church; they had two children: Robin, who died at the age of seven fromBright's disease, and Angela. In 1974, his wife became unwell after working in the garden while a farmer was spraying insecticide on the other side of the hedge; she died a few weeks later.
He was awarded anhonorary degree byLeicester University in 1986, and was made aMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the1989 Birthday Honours.[4]
By the late 1980s, Watkins-Pitchford needed regular dialysis treatment. He collapsed suddenly in September 1990 and died while under anaesthetic in the operating theatre of an Oxford hospital.[2][3]
ForThe Little Grey Men, published byEyre & Spottiswoode in 1942, 'BB' won the annualCarnegie Medal from theLibrary Association, recognising the year's best children's book by aBritish subject.[1][5]
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 quotation has sometimes been thought to have been another one of 'BB'’s creations but it was copied by his father, supposedly from a tombstone in a north-country churchyard.[citation needed]
The words appeared on a monument toAlexander Morton inLoudoun, Ayrshire, erected in 1927.[7]
In 1975The Little Grey Men was adapted into a 10-part animated series calledBaldmoney, Sneezewort, Dodder and Cloudberry byAnglia Television in the U.K.Brendon Chase was dramatised into a 13-part series bySouthern Television in 1980.
In 1970, theSwiss Broadcasting Corporation adaptedBill Badger and the Pirates into an 18-part marionette children's television programme entitledDominik Dachs und die Katzenpiraten, inSwiss German. It was rebroadcast in March 2012.
The Little Grey Men was one ofSyd Barrett's favourite books; an excerpt from it was read at his funeral.[8]
InThe Art of Discworld,Terry Pratchett identifiesThe Little Grey Men andDown the Bright Stream as possible inspiration for theNac Mac Feegle.
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