Elisabeth Beresford has died

Elisabeth Beresford, creator of the children’s favourite The Wombles, has died.

 

Elisabeth Beresford, creator of the children’s favourite The Wombles, has died. Her family has announced that Beresford died on Christmas at in the Mignot Memorial Hospital in the Channel Islands. The Wombles became a firm favourite with children across generations in book and television form; the creations even spawned a band at one point. The 1970s television series of The Wombles was narrated by actor Bernard Cribbins. Many of the Wombles and other characters within the books were based on Beresford’s own family.

 

Beresford was awarded an OBE in 1998. While The Wombles probably remain her most memorable work she was also a ghost writer for Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio Four and also wrote romantic stories for women’s magazines.