View source for Dick King-Smith

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[[File:Dick King-Smith.jpg|thumb|350px|Dick King-Smith in 2002]]
'''Dick King-Smith''' (1922 – 2011) was a prolific English author of children's books, mostly about animals. His single most famous book is ''The Sheep-Pig'', which was the basis of the film ''[[Babe]]''.

He also wrote a sequel to ''The Sheep-Pig'', ''Ace'', which was ''not'' the basis of the sequel to ''Babe''.

Another of his books was the basis of the film ''The Water Horse''. ''Harry's Mad'' was the basis for a live action TV series, as was ''The Queen's Nose'' (one of his few books ''not'' about animals) and ''The Foxbusters'' had an [[Animated Adaptation]].

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* [[Animal Jingoism]]: Principally between sheep and sheepdogs in ''The Sheep-Pig''.
* [[Animal Talk]]: In many Dick King-Smith books, animals of different species can speak to each other (but usually not to humans). ''The Sheep-Pig'' is an obvious example. ''The Foxbusters'', in which hens, foxes and rodents each speak distinct languages, is an exception.
* [[Cute but Cacophonic]]: ''The Guard Dog''
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: As mentioned above, in ''The Fox Busters'' different animals speak different languages, while in his other books they can all communicate with each other.
* [[Elmer Fudd Syndrome]]: Fweddy from ''Harry's Mad''. 
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: It's certainly not his fault, but nowadays his name looks like a parody of a forum troll's handle.
* [[Heroic Albino]]: In ''The School Mouse''
* [[The Highwayman]]: ''The Toby Man''.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: In ''Ace'' the titular pig and his owner go on "''That's The Way It Goes'', with Hester Jantzen", a parody of the real-life programme ''That's Life'' hosted by Esther Rantzen. 
* [[Polly Wants a Microphone]]: Madison the African Grey Parrot in ''Harry's Mad''.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: ''The Fox Busters'' is ''[[The Dam Busters]]'' but with animals. 
* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]: In ''Smasher'', the eponymous puppy asks whether his father was like this. His mother says yes, and that Smasher is going to be just like him. However Smasher is actually really ugly and described as looking like the offspring of the [[Sherlock Holmes|Hound of the Baskervilles]].
* [[Theme Naming]]: Madison the parrot from ''Harry's Mad'' was so called because he was his original (American) owner's fourth parrot. "Washington died in his sleep, Adams caught pneumonia and Jefferson tangled with the cat."
* [[The Tooth Hurts]]: This plays a part in ''The Stray'', since the main character has a fear of dentists but starts developing tooth pains partway through the book.
* [[Xenofiction]]: Sometimes his work falls into this, but it depends very much on the individual setting. 
* [[Your Tomcat Is Pregnant]]: Fweddy the parrot in ''Harry's Mad''.
** And Tom (later renamed Tomboy) the cat from the ''Sophie'' series. 
* [[Ugly Cute]]: Smasher is described as being incredibly ugly but the fact that the farmer finds him cute is the reason that he manages to avoid being sold and punished several times.

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[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Dick King-Smith]]