Looks Can Be Deceiving…
Published on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019
When Dick was a farmer, his normal farm vehicle was a second-hand Land Rover, but for a period during the 1950s he owned an old, custard-coloured, ex-baker’s van, which he regularly used for transporting livestock. On one occasion, he was taking a favourite nanny goat to be mated. Rachel, a noble animal with a patrician […]
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Dick’s Birthday
Published on Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
Dick King-Smith was born on the 27th March 1922. That is exactly 97 years ago today! Although Dick died in 2011, in an almost magical way, it feels as though a small part of him lives on through the stories he wrote. The fact that to this day, many, many children from around the world […]
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Pets For Keeps
Published on Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
Over the years, Dick had hundreds of pets of all different sorts. From budgerigars to mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, tortoises, cats and dogs and many more. He also had lots of farm animals during his twenty years as a farmer, and these included cows, goats, hens, ducks, pheasants and of course, pigs! As most […]
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Dick King-Smith, My Dad
Published on Monday, March 4th, 2019
Every so often I get a little bit of reflected glory, when someone connects my surname with the man who wrote “The Sheep-Pig” and found fame when it was made into the delightful film “Babe”. Of course, that isn’t quite the full story: my father, Dick King-Smith, wrote over 100 books – starting in 1977 […]
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Storytelling Week
Published on Wednesday, January 30th, 2019
Wishing everyone a happy Storytelling Week. Reading stories aloud to children is a fantastic activity, with many benefits for the child and the reader. These benefits include helping children acquire early language skills, enabling them to develop a positive association between books and pleasure and building a solid foundation for school and later success. It […]
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Dick’s TV Career
Published on Friday, January 25th, 2019
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, Dick was lucky enough to present several children’s television shows, including one called Rub a Dub Tub, one called Pob’s Programme and one called Tumbledown Farm. In all three programmes, Dick would meet lots of different animals, accompanied by this faithful Dachshund Dodo, or his brother Tony’s lovely black Labrador […]
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Dick’s First Book
Published on Thursday, January 10th, 2019
Many years ago, in 1976, when Dick was 54 years old, he started to write his first story for children, The Fox Busters. It was based on his experience of being a farmer twenty years earlier, when one day a daring fox had attacked and killed in broad daylight some fine white cockerels that Dick […]
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Amusing Animal Poems
Published on Thursday, December 13th, 2018
Dick wrote poetry throughout his life, much of it humorous. He once teamed up with the brilliant Quentin Blake to make a book called Alphabeasts. We absolutely love Quentin’s illustrations as they really help Dick’s poems come to life.
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The Queen’s Nose: A BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisation
Published on Wednesday, November 21st, 2018
Dick’s enchanting story The Queen’s Nose, a tale about Harmony Parker and her magical 50 pence piece, has been adapted into a BBC radio full-cast dramatisation, which is now available to own! Harmony Parker is ten years old and loves animals. She longs for a pet of her very own, but her parents won’t allow […]
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Wilhelmina the Orphaned Badger Cub
Published on Monday, November 5th, 2018
Dick and his whole family were always very keen on animals. There were always lots of dogs, birds, some cats and various other pets at their family home. One day in around 1953, one of the family came across a badger cub that had fallen through the bars of a cattle grid near their home […]
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