Dick KingSmith served in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, and afterwards spent twenty years as a farmer in Gloucestershire, the county of his birth. Many of his stories are inspired by his farming experiences. Later he taught at a village primary school. His first book,The Fox Busters, was published in 1978. He wrote a great number of children's books, includingThe SheepPig (winner of the Guardian Award and filmed asBabe),Harry's Mad,Noah's Brother,The Queen's Nose,Martin's Mice,Ace,The Cuckoo Child andHarriet's Hare (winner of the Children's Book Award in 1995). At the British Book Awards in 1991 he was voted Children's Author of the Year. In 2009 he was made an OBE for services to children's literature. Dick KingSmith died in 2011 at the age of eightyeight. Discover more about Dick KingSmith at: dickkingsmith.com