Denys Watkins-Pitchford (1905 – 1990) was a naturalist, illustrator, art teacher and author of books for children.
Like Gavin Maxwell, he spent his childhood roaming round the countryside, in his case Northamptonshire; no doubt a bit lonely as he was considered too delicate to be sent to school unlike his two brothers, one of whom died aged thirteen. In later life his nom de plume was BB. My Bellew grandfather used to express extreme disapproval saying “I’ll give the blighter two barrels of BB”. If you are a city slicker you may think BB is a credit rating but in a rural context it is the size of large shot in a cartridge suitable for wild-fowling.
If I may digress, it is interesting to reflect on how many authors began their careers as assistant masters in public schools. Jeremy Greenstock (more diplomat than author) and John le Carré both taught at Eton, Terence White at Stowe, and BB at Rugby. Perhaps this says more about the rapid turnover of junior masters than anything more formative.
Nic, Vulpine Correspondent, (in the Comments bar) drew my attention to Wild Lone, written by BB in 1938, that I read as a child at Barmeath. The book’s full title is Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox – need I say more. He also mentioned The Belstone Fox. Both these books and the two in On Otters have one thing in common. They are not anthropomorphic. This sets them aside from most children’s books from Wind in the Willows to Paddington via Pooh. Sounds like a journey – all aboard for the service from Windermere to Paddington via Crewe. They are written by naturalists depicting the realities of animal existence “red in tooth and claw”. The mortality of the creatures, like our own, is left in no doubt.
The quote is from Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H. In part it alludes to the random cruelty of Nature so chimes well with the otters and foxes.
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed.
Another vivid example in a different genre is Janáček‘s 1927 opera: The Cunning Little Vixen.