Denys James Watkins-Pitchford (1905-1990) was a British naturalist, an illustrator, art teacher and a children’s author under the pseudonym “BB”. He won the 1942 Carnegie Medal for British children’s books. Written on the eve of the Second World War, the novel follows the life of a young fox named RufusÑand while it does stick to the conventions of the genre in this regard, it does so quite capably, painting a beautiful picture of the idyllic pre-industrial English landscape and its wild inhabitants.