TODD, Barbara Euphan.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Worzel Gummidge. First edition, first impression, of the first Worzel Gummidge book. The story of a scarecrow who can talk and walk, famously played by Jon Pertwee on television, was followed by ten sequels. The book was reprinted as the first fiction title published by Puffin in 1941.Barbara Euphan Todd (1890-1976) first developed her idea of a scarecrow for BBC radio's "Children's Hour" in 1935 and 1936. The book followed in 1936 and the jacket blurb notes that the "story.... has become universally popular since the B.B.C. gave it to a wide and enthusiastic public".The scarecrow, with his phrases of "Ooh aye!" and "Stands to reason", became famous to a new generation of children when the ITV series, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, was broadcast between 1979 and 1981. A new series, for the BBC, was broadcast between 2019 and 2021.

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