Book description
The Wombles
is the first ever Wombles book and introduces the stern but kindly
Great Uncle Bulgaria; Orinoco, who is particularly fond of his food and
a subsequent forty winks; general handyman extraordinaire Tobermory, who
can turn almost anything that the Wombles retrieve from Wimbledon Common
into something useful; Madame Cholet, who cooks the most delicious and
natural foods to keep the Wombles happy and contented; and last but not
least, Bungo, one of the youngest and cheekiest Wombles of all, who has
much to learn and is due to venture out on to the Common on his own for
the very first time . . . Â Over 40 years after the original book,
The Wombles
is reprinted, their recycling ways more relevant than ever' Elisabeth
Beresford first came up with the idea for the Womble characters when
walking on Wimbledon Common with her two children. She started sketching
out the characters that day: Great Uncle Bulgaria was based on her
father-in-law, Tobermory on her brother (an inventor), Orinoco on her
son, and Madame Cholet on her mother. She hoped that the Wombles stories
would encourage children to fight pollution and to think up ways of Â
making good use of bad rubbish . In fact, the Wombles so charmed the
nation that they were chosen as the mascots for the Tidy Britain
campaign. Since then they have had their own television series, first
broadcast on Jackanory.
Elisabeth Beresford was awarded an MBE for her services to children s
literature in 1998.
