Dick King-Smith

Born in Gloucestershire in 1922, Dick King-Smith grew up surrounded by pets and knew from a young age that he wanted to be a farmer. He served in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, spent twenty years as a farmer, and then had a further career as a primary-school teacher. But he found greatest success and satisfaction in later life as a children’s author. Many of his stories are inspired by his farming experiences, the children he taught, his large family and numerous pets. He wrote around 130 children's books, which have been translated into many languages, won many awards and sold over 15 million copies worldwide. They include The Sheep-Pig, which won the Guardian Award and was filmed as the hugely successful and beloved Babe, as well as The Hodgeheg, The Queen's Nose, The Fox Busters, the Sophie stories, Daggie Dogfoot (Pigs Might Fly) and many more. Dick's story The Water Horse was also turned into a major Hollywood film, and The TV series' The Queen's Nose and Harry's Mad were very popular. Dick even presented and starred in several television shows during the '80's and '90's with his Dachshund sidekick Dodo.

In 2010 he was made OBE for services to children's literature. Dick King-Smith died in 2011 at the age of eighty-eight. Dick’s legacy and love of animals continues today with the family-run and incredibly popular Twitter channel @DickKingSmith
You can learn more about Dick's stories and his interesting life here - www.dickkingsmith.com