Dick King-Smith

Dick King-Smith was born and raised in Gloucestershire, England, surrounded by pet animals. After twenty years as a farmer, he turned to teaching and then to writing children's books.

Dick writes mostly about animals: farmyard fantasy, as he likes to call it, often about pigs, his special favorites. He enjoys writing for children, meeting the children who read his books, and knowing that they get enjoyment from what he does.

Among his well-loved books is Babe, The Gallant Pig, which was recently made into a major motion picture, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Dick currently lives with his wife in a small 17th-century cottage, about three miles from the house where he was born.

New!

Titus Rules! is a book about a young Pembrokeshire corgie that learns the ins and outs of the royal household. Full of the humorous anecdotes and endearing characters audiences have come to expect, Dick King-Smith will once again enter the imaginations of new readers, filling them with not just a love for young Titus, but a love for reading.

Another recent book, Chewing the Cud, is an insightful memoir that recounts the joys and failures of his life, and the colorful cast of animal characters that has inspired his fiction. Chewing the Cud was recently named a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book for 2002.

The Roundhill, now available in trade paperback, is a charming ghost story about a lonely boy who meets the real Alice in Wonderland—two years after she's died!