Obituary: Elisabeth Beresford, Children's writer who created the Wombles

Published on Sunday 26 December 2010 18:36

Elisabeth Beresford, Children's writer who created the Wombles. Born: 6 August, 1926, in Paris. Died: 24 December, 2010, in Alderney, Channel Islands, aged 84.

ELISABETH "Liza" Beresford was the creator of the Wombles, the furry, burrowing, pointy-nosed creatures from Wimbledon Common who were ahead of their time in recycling "things that the every day folks leave behind". The author of 24 Wombles books, she saw her loveable creatures reach worldwide fame after their adventures appeared in a 35- episode television series in the mid-1970s featuring the voice of actor Bernard Cribbins and the costumes of puppeteer Ivor Wood.

Its theme tune, The Wombling Song, written by composer Mike Batt, topped the UK charts for many weeks, the first of many hits after the Wombles metamorphosed into a pop band. Not only children but also adults around the country, indeed the world, were singing: Underground, overground, wombling free, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we, Making good use of the things that we find, Things that the every day folks leave behind.

Beresford's furry creatures were way ahead of their time in teaching children, and grown-ups, to help the environment by recycling with their motto "Make good use of bad rubbish". Before long, Wombles products - from cuddly toys and T-shirts to mugs and dish cloths, dominated shop shelves, and schools were organising Womble Clearing-Up Groups.

Beresford, at the time married to well-known radio and TV broadcaster Max Robertson, was a reasonably-successful scriptwriter, political speech writer, journalist and author of a few childrens' books when she took her young children Marcus and Kate to Wimbledon Common on a Boxing Day in the early 1960s. They had heeded her request to keep relatively quiet on Christmas Day because their grandparents were visiting. "The three of us ran backwards and forwards screaming at the top of our voices, and my daughter Kate said to me: "Oh, Mum, isn't it great on Wombledon Common!" Spontaneously, Beresford replied "Yes, that's where the Wombles live" and the idea was born.

She based her main characters on her family: The highbrow, Times-reading Great Uncle Bulgaria was based on her father-in-law; Orinoco on her son Marcus (she chose the name by sticking a pin in a map of South America); and the royalty-obsessed Madame Cholet Coburg-Womble on her mother. Beresford's brother, who was an inventor, became the inspiration for the engineer Tobermory, named after the Mull town that itself would later enchant children as Balamory. Hence the line in the theme song: Pick up the papers and take them to Tobermory - the character, not the town.Beresford featured several Scottish characters and themes in the books: there was Cousin Cairngorm McWomble the Terrible, the McWombles Pipe Band and, of course, the Loch Ness monster, whom Beresford revealed to be nothing more than a clan of water wombles.

She published the first Wombles book in 1968. After it was featured on the BBC children's programme Jackanory, the head of BBC children's programming, Monica Sims, decided to turn the books into a TV series. Helped by Mike Batt's clever music and lyrics, Beresford and the BBC began receiving fan mail from around the world by the sackful. She took part in live phone-ins with children from as far apart as Australia and South Africa. She went on to write 24 Wombles books, translated into more than 40 languages, and saw her creation turned into a West End stage show.

Elisabeth Beresford was born in Paris, where her father JD (John Davys) Beresford, a successful writer of supernatural and other stories, and of book reviews, had fled the British taxman. As a child, she was surrounded by books and writers including DH Lawrence, Rudyard Kipling, HG Wells, Hugh Walpole, John Galsworthy, George Bernard Shaw and Somerset Maugham. Her godfathers were the poets Walter de la Mare and Cecil Day-Lewis, her godmother the children's writer Eleanor Farjeon.

In a house often full of writers, young Liza was usually kept away from them. "Children were seen and not heard. I was brought in to see my parents for an hour at teatime, that was it," she once told the Times. Her father had suffered polio as a child and needed crutches all his life but, she said, "he was over 6ft, good-looking and very good with the girls". And so, when she was still a child, he "ran" off with another woman. Her mother took her back to Brighton, where they took in lodgers to pay the bills.

Having served for 18 months at the end of the war as a Wren (Women's Royal Naval Service) telegraphist, she trained as a journalist and found herself writing speeches and scripts, as well as reporting for BBC radio. In 1949, she married the BBC radio reporter Robertson and joined him on his assignments around the world, all the while writing her own childrens' books.

He would go on to become one of the best-known voices of BBC radio, the first presenter of Panorama on TV and "the other voice of Wimbledon" alongside the great Dan Maskell. (They divorced after more than 30 years' marriage) .

Unlike many writers, Beresford enjoyed publicising her books and she did so around the world. She once addressed 100 Zulu warriors in South Africa. "At the end, they gave their traditional applause, which was to chant and pretend to throw spears. My guide said it was time to retreat, one step at a time."

When invited to Belfast in the 1970s, during the Troubles, she insisted she would only address joint audiences of protestant and catholic children. Her PR people had to find different "safe houses" for each appearance.Beresford became an MBE in the 1998 New Years' Honours List. When she went to pick it up at Buckingham Palace, she was astonished to hear the Queen chat to her "nonstop" about the Wombles. "She knew more about the Wombles than I did! She went on and on and I just sat there saying 'yes, Ma'am, no, Ma'am.'"

As well as the Wombles, Beresford wrote many other books of mystery or adventure for children, often set on the island of Alderney in the English Channel, where she lived for many years in a Georgian cottage in the town of St Anne. The major publisher Bloomsbury recently reprinted the Wombles books to be enjoyed by new generations.

Elisabeth "Liza" Beresford, who died of heart failure, is survived by her son Marcus and daughter Kate.