Dick King-Smith (27, March 1922-4, January 2011) was an English writer of children’s books. His most famous book is The Sheep-Pig, which was adapted to a major motion picture known as Babe.
Fun Facts about Dick King-Smith:
1. Ronald Gordon King-Smith was born in Bitton, a village south of Gloucestershire. His father, a decorated soldier, Captain Ronald King-Smith, ran paper mills
2. After graduation from Marlborough College, Mr. King-Smith enlisted in the Grenadier Guards and was commissioned as a platoon commander at the very end of 1942
3. His platoon fought in Italy and participated in the Salerno Landings, fighting with many others to take over the country.
4. He was severely injured when a German soldier threw, ironically, a British hand grenade at him. His life was saved only because he found shelter behind a tree. He went back to Britain, lucky not to be dead, and ended his war career.
5. In 1943 he married Myrle England, whom he met on Christmas day when they were 14 years old. She was his “first reader” and supported his literary career until her death. The couple had three children.
6. After Myrie’s death, Mr. King-Smith married an old family friend Zona Bedding but found it difficult to keep on writing.
7. Even though he’s known as a successful author, Dick King-Smith’s first love was farming Unfortunately, he did not like the business aspect of running a farm and ran a few of them at a loss for two decades until he was forced to abandon this occupation.
8. He moved on to teaching but was limited to teaching lower classes due to his challenge with long division.
9. Luckily for him, the only number that counted for his third career was the number of titles he wrote (over 100) and the number of readers who bought them (around 15 million).
10 People who knew him found him good mannered, optimistic, old-fashioned and, not surprisingly, a lover of animals.
Zohar — Man of la Book
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Sources:
Dick King-Smith | Wikipedia
Dick King-Smith | Candlewick Press
Obituary: Dick King-Smith | Books For Keeps
