Finished his sport
John McEwen
`BB': A CELEBRATION edited and introduced by Tom Quinn Whamediffe, £18.95, pp. 303 Denys Watkins-Pitchford, or 'BB' (1905-1990), was the last of his kind, a hunter-poet in the tradition founded by Izaak Walton. The last, because the Eng- land he described so well in prose, poetry and pictures, that he shot, fished and hunt- ed over, no longer exists and cannot come again. This fact is all the more poignant because the destruction only really got under way in the last 20 years of his long life. But we should not be depressed, because he certainly was not. He prefaced all his books with some words his father had discovered on a Cumberland grave- stone:
The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades; these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts.
No one could have heeded them better. He shot his last goose at the age of 83, when he was blind in one eye and on dialysis; and he longed to live for at least another 200 years.
That he was able to convey his love of nature and country pursuits in 59 books and a further 32 illustrated for other authors; plus half a century's-worth of jour- nalism, most famously in his 'Country Scene' column for Shooting Times, could have been expected to win him an audi- ence; but not one that spanned the English and Japanese, children and adults, Julie Andrews and the present Duke of Buc- cleuch, as well as inspiring Ranulph Fiennes to explore and the late and leg- endary Richard Walker to fish. Letters from people thanking him for saving them from suicide would arrive at least once a week. How many authors or artists can say the same?
`BB': A Celebration was in progress before he died and it was his wish that it should be an anthology of his writing about the countryside. Much of this first appeared in Shooting Times so it is appro- priate that it should be edited and intro- duced with a short biography by the deputy editor of the magazine during the last decade of `1313"s 50 years as a contributor. The book is designed to dovetail with the The Best of 'BB' (1985) mainly derived from his most famous works of fiction (The Little Grey Men, Brendon Chase, etc). But although this copiously illustrated book is a wonderful introduction to the master, its selections on every aspect of country lore the perfect nightcap, it must also be said it contains mistakes and generally lacks the effort 'BB' followers have a right to expect from such an important memorial volume.
The trouble is that Quinn does not have the required passion for the job. He has, for example, only bothered to include one of the inspiring series of 'Country Scene' columns, stoical and valedictory by turn, that 'BB' wrote in his final, hospital- tortured years. They should be collected, along with all his journalism since Indian Summer (1984), his last selection of assort- ed pieces. And the choice of illustrations, both photographic and drawn, show a simi- lar lack of effort. Not even a snapshot of his beloved son Robin, who died devastat- ingly young, but a whole page of studio portraits of irrelevant uncles and aunts; while most of the illustrations by this master of scraper-board come from his old age, when his eye and hand were less sure.
Minor errors abound: no mention of the first house he lived in as a married man; Red Vagabond was published in 1951 not 1946; Alexander by Basil Blackwell not Eyre & Spottiswoode; his wife did not die at Woodford Lodge but in 1974 at the Round House; his MBE appeared in the June, not New Year, Honours list of 1989 (a great joy at a supremely testing time); he did not die in Northampton but Oxford, and sever- al more. Worst of all there is no mention of `Badger' Walker who, with Angela Watkins-Pitchford (`BB' s daughter), was the mainstay of his old age — gun-bearer, companion and general Mr Fixit, despite full-time employment as a computer engi- neer. It was to 'Badger' that 'BB' dedicated the only previously unpublished work in this anthology — his last, excellent and poignantly entitled short story 'Gone Away!' Shame on Mr Quinn. A further and more affectionate celebratory volume of `BB' is required, and 'Badger' Walker must be its editor. Meanwhile, why have Methuen and others allowed all but two `BB' books, including his masterpiece, Brendon Chase, to go out of print since his death? It is a national disgrace.
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