Raise a glass to BB

This forum belongs to BB (Denys Watkins Pitchford).
User avatar
Shaun Harrison
Zander
Posts: 3561
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:34 pm
11
Location: Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire Border
Contact:

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Shaun Harrison »

So long as we keep waking in the morning then that is worthy of celebration but nicer when we have extra things to celebrate too.

User avatar
TraditionalAngling
Brown Trout
Posts: 1457
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:55 pm
12
Location: Derby
Contact:

Re:Ray Badger Walker

Post by TraditionalAngling »

From the Daily Telegraph 2011

Just three months before he died in 1990, the much-loved countryside and children’s author Denys Watkins-Pitchford MBE, or “BB” as he is better known, laid down his pen, having finished his final book. He had written it in an old exercise book with barely a correction. It is astonishing to think that an 83-year-old man, by this time blind in one eye and on twice-weekly dialysis, could have mentally transported himself back to the marshes, gullies and creeks of his hunting years one last time.

In a literary career spanning more than 40 years, BB, who took his nom de plume from the heavy shot used to bring down wild geese, wrote more than 60 books. Most of them he illustrated himself, beautifully and with a passion for the natural world that still shines through.

In 1942, BB won the Carnegie Medal for his children’s book Little Grey Men, a wonderful tale about the last gnomes of England and their quest to find their lost brother, Cloudberry. BB always swore that he actually saw a gnome, as a child, near the family home in Lamport, Northamptonshire, and he never lost an almost childlike mysticism.

Yet it was his conversational way of recording observations and stories from a rural scene which has now largely faded from view that has guaranteed the author an enduring place in the hearts of all those who love the English countryside.

When he finished the final chapter of Confessions of a Coastal Gunner, BB called an old friend and confidant, Ray “Badger” Walker. Badger’s day job is as an IT specialist, but he is a man of many talents: a fly-fisherman of some note, and a champion in the ancient art of hedge laying.
Related Articles



“Badger,” BB said, “this might come in useful for you! I’d like you to have this for all the happy times. Maybe you’ll get it published one day.”

He then wrote at the top of the first page: “Dedicated to Ray Walker” and for good measure wrote on the back “To Ray W, from BB, 3rd June, 1990” . Next to that he drew two skeins of geese flying in formation over the gullies of the Wash. Then he handed it over.

It must be said that Badger is good at keeping a secret. Those of us who knew him, through the BB Society, had no idea that this holy relic even existed. Then Badger alerted me to the fact that, 20 years on from the death of his old friend he was going to share BB’s Confessions of a Coastal Gunner with the rest of us. A book that no one except Badger Walker knew existed is now published, with dozens of evocative scraperboard illustrations by the author.

I have a copy of the first chapter of Confessions of a Coastal Gunner on the table in front of me – the written manuscript, not the printed edition – and it is difficult not to be moved by BB’s opening lines: “This is the last book I shall write,” he scrawls. “My time is running out and the body which contains me is wearing out, too. It has served me well for over 80 years. But before this happens I must recall once more my experience as a wildfowler over half a century.”

As his life drew to a close, BB would talk of the changes that had affected the countryside; the fact that all too many of the woodlands and hedgerows of his youth had been grubbed up. He was particularly saddened by the disappearance of so much bird life, saying that there was fewer than half the number of birds around than when he was a child. He made the restoration of the iridescent purple emperor butterfly to the Fermyn Woods near his Northamptonshire home a personal crusade.

One can almost hear his lament as a new threat emerges for the high-flying butterflies in the shape of proposed wind turbines on land owned by the Duke of Gloucester close by.

Badger Walker had accompanied BB on a number of his epic annual trips to the Wash, and latterly to the Solway Firth and the Northumberland Coast in search of their quarry – the pink foot and greylag geese that overwinter in these islands.

In his foreword to the new book, Badger writes: “It is well known that BB was an old-time hunter-gatherer and shot for the pot, not the size of the bag. He would never waste anything edible, and had his own recipes for serving up a meal.”

BB referred to wild geese as “heaven’s hounds”, and his novel Manka the Sky Gypsy, the story of the life and times of an albino goose, puts to bed any notion that the man did not deeply respect and understand his quarry.

Here is BB in Confessions of a Coastal Gunner: “Then I heard a sound far away, which was to become familiar and exciting over the years – a sound which moves me still after half a century. The mingled baying of a skein of geese which sounded not unlike a pack of hounds running on a full scent.”

Anyone who has stood and heard the distant baying and honking of wild geese migrating south as the northern winter beckons will understand exactly how BB would have been affected.

I once had the chance to go punt-gunning in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, a landscape which has almost vanished in the intervening years. I remember being as excited as BB by the adventure that lay aheadof me: the stalking and the waiting, paddling along until at last our quarry came into sight. I didn’t manage to shoot a goose, although the wigeon that I did kill ended up in the pot.

I can’t see this miraculous literary time capsule, which has emerged after all of these years, without thinking of BB, out on the water face set against the sky, eyes narrowed. Confessions of a Coastal Gunner is much more than a snapshot from a different time; it is a welcome reminder of the very special bond that BB had with the natural world, and a chance for some of us to share his enthusiasm and love of it once again.
If any forum members meet Badger he has a wealth of knowledge of the life of BB he is a delight to talk to.As some 15 years ago had many a chat at the many fairs that I use to stand as a full time book dealer.

User avatar
Shaun Harrison
Zander
Posts: 3561
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:34 pm
11
Location: Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire Border
Contact:

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Lovely words to read. Thank you. :Hat:

User avatar
Hannay
Perch
Posts: 403
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:27 am
11
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Hannay »

Hear hear. Thanks for taking the time to post that.

User avatar
Hoppy-Doffton
Perch
Posts: 448
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:31 pm
10
Location: Norfolk

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Hoppy-Doffton »

Wow that is interesting I been a fan of "BB" since I was 12 and never knew about this book. Must find a copy!
To enjoy our sport as it should be enjoyed, our surroundings must be beautiful, for your true angler enjoys nature as much as he enjoys fishing. "BB"

Alaudacorax

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Alaudacorax »

Damn! Missed this thread yesterday. I enjoyed a very nice half-bottle of wine yesterday evening, too - I should have been dedicating a glassful and reading a favourite chapter.

User avatar
TraditionalAngling
Brown Trout
Posts: 1457
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:55 pm
12
Location: Derby
Contact:

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by TraditionalAngling »

Hoppy-Doffton wrote:Wow that is interesting I been a fan of "BB" since I was 12 and never knew about this book. Must find a copy!
The place to order a copy is Rosewood Productions call 0121 704 1002, and ask for Bryan Holden, or send an email to enquiries@roseworldproductions.com.

User avatar
Shaun Harrison
Zander
Posts: 3561
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:34 pm
11
Location: Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire Border
Contact:

Re: Raise a glass to BB

Post by Shaun Harrison »


Post Reply

Return to “BB (Denys Watkins Pitchford)”