One of the scarcest 'B.B' titles to find

B.B. (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford, Illus.) ~ The Whopper : With The Elusive Wrapper

Ernest Benn Limited. 'A Moorhen Book', London: 1967

The First UK printing published by Ernest Benn Limited. 'A Moorhen Book', London in 1967. 8vo., green publisher's boards, spine lettered in silver; together in the unclipped pictorial wrapper (11s 6d); With 31 B/W line drawings in text, those full-page are captioned; all by Watkins-Pitchford; The BOOK is in near Fine condition, with slight scattered spotting to the endpapers and prelims, and light toning to the page edges due to the quality of paper stock used ; A previous owner's initials stamped and their name written in ink to the front paste-down (obscured by the front flap of wrapper); The WRAPPER also in exceptional near Fine condition, a little rubbed to extremities with the odd tiny spot to the lower panel. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. The story of Tigger Thomas and his battle with a huge carp is one of BB's scarcest children's books, with the vast majority ending up in the library system. In many ways reminiscent of Hemingway's famous work 'The Old Man and the Sea', the book is part fishing tale, part children's story. The plot follows Hoppy and Tigger as they set off, in a home-made raft and under the cover of darkness, onto a forbidden lake. There, they go to enormous lengths to battle and capture the fish which they name Pickle Barrel. The English naturalist, artist and author Denys James Watkins-Pitchford was influenced by the natural world from a young age, and studied at the Northampton School of Art from just fifteen years old. Counting among his hobbies both shooting and fishing, he adopted the pen-name 'B.B.' for his writing - named after the type of shot used to hunt geese - but kept his true name for his illustrations. Here, the sketches show the two boys on and by the water's edge, along with very animated depictions of the fish itself, and other characters such as Tom the boatman and a meddling policeman. In many ways, they epitomise everything the writer loved about the rivers and countryside he called home. B.B. is perhaps best known today for his story 'The Little Grey Men', which won him the Carnegie Medal in the year of publication. Though 'The Whopper' was one of his later works, the vast majority ended up in the library system. Extremely scarce indeed with the wrapper in such collectible condition.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine