| Rev W
Awdry |
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| Nationality - English |
Profession - Author |
| Date of birth - 15 Jun 1911
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Date of death - 1997 |
| Place of birth
- Ampfield : Hampshire |
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Creator of Thomas the Tank Engine. Born Wilbert Vere Awdry in Ampfield, Hampshire, in 1911.
The son of a country parson, Awdry spent his boy-hood listening to railway engines "talking" to one another on the old Great Western Railway Chippenham-to-Bath line, 200 yards from the rectory.
He remained a serious student of railways and in 1979 published "The Steam Railways of Great Britain". But it was in 1943, when Awdry's son Christopher had measles, that the parson made up stories about steam engines for him.
The first book was about Edward, who had a sad face on the front of his boiler. Why? enquired the three-year-old. Because, his father extemporised, he hadn't been out for a long time. Why? Because the other engines were bigger and stronger and the drivers always chose them first.
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Awdry scribbled the stories on the backs of parish pamphlets so that his son could not catch him out on details. Thomas himself was invented when Awdry, a skilled model engineer, made his son a little model of Edward, and then decided to make one of a bigger engine. But he found he was short of materials. So he made a little blue tank engine with six wheels, painted the number one on the side, and then asked his son what this engine's name was. Thomas was born.
When Awdry sent three stories to publishers there was no interest, partly through obtuseness in the face of originality, partly because of the wartime paper shortage. But eventually they were published by the retired director of a boot-making firm, Edmund Ward, who wanted material for a small publishing company in which he had an interest.
Though, until his retirement at 65, Awdry put his work as a clergyman first, he found himself writing a book a year, revising painfully and usually going to eight or nine drafts. The titles involved four illustrators and annual sales of 750,000 with a total of some 10 million by the 1990s.
He continued to publicise Thomas after his 26th and final book appeared in 1972. But his son Christopher took up the pen where his father left off. Thomas appeared as toys, in pop-up books, and on videos and television. And Awdry prided himself that everything that had happened to his engines could really have happened to real ones.
In 1938 Awdry married Margaret Emily Wale, by whom he had two daughters as well as his son. |
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Rev W Awdry
bibliography - 5
listed |
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The
Rev W Awdry
books listed below are either first editions,
special editions or noted editions. |
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| Rev W
Awdry books Wee
have for sale |
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All
the Rev W Awdry
books listed below are currently for sale
on our website - we may have some others in
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