Prolific writer who enjoyed her greatest success with the recycling Wombles
Elisabeth Beresford, who has died aged 84, enjoyed her greatest success with the creation of the Wombles. The family motto of the colourful underground creatures ? "making good use of bad rubbish" ? sprang from a concern of the writer's that chimed with the growing ecological awareness of the next four decades. Famously, the inspiration for the figures came on a Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common, south-west London, during which her daughter, Kate, misnamed it Wombledon Common.
As elsewhere with Beresford's work, the point of departure was real ? here, the place and the characters, largely drawn from uncles, grandparents, siblings and her children: Marcus, her son, genial and interested in food, inspired Orinoco; Kate inspired Bungo, a strong character in the books, though not in the films.
Their underground and above-ground adventures begin simply; in The Wombles (1968) the characters do little more than potter about tidying up, braving humans and dogs when necessary. Gradually, over the next 10 years, the adventures become more ambitious and more far-flung in titles such as The MacWomble's Pipe Band and The Wombles Go Round the World (both 1976).
As often happens, the early home-based books worked best, since their clear message ? the importance of litter collection and recycling that Beresford believed in passionately ? was at their heart. Then in its infancy and largely confined to an alternative lifestyle, the theme transformed what was essentially the story of a spirited and likable but conventional family with old-fashioned values into one with an original and contemporary edge to it. It spread the message of recycling to a wide market and touched a chord with many readers, who went on to set up Womble Cleaning Up Groups on Wimbledon Common and elsewhere.
The combination of the old-fashioned family and the fresh approach to recycling captured the worldwide imagination when the books were adapted for screen. Picked up by the BBC first for Jackanory, they were then turned into a series of five-minute stop-frame animation films (1973-75) for which Beresford wrote the scripts, with puppets by Ivor Wood, voices by Bernard Cribbins, and music, including the bestselling theme song Underground, Overground, Wombling Free, by Mike Batt. The Wombles became a phenomenon entering the language as a byword for certain characteristics and lifestyle choices. Batt reprised them in various songs, including I Wish It Could Be a Wombling Merry Christmas Every Day in 2000.
At the height of Womble mania in the 1970s and 80s ? including merchandising the characters as soft toys and on mugs and stationery, then rarely done ? the books went on to sell worldwide into more than 40 languages, as well as being adapted by Beresford herself into a stage show (1974) and, with director Lionel Jeffries, a screenplay for the live-action film Wombling Free (1977), starring David Tomlinson, Frances de la Tour and Bonnie Langford. Beresford was tireless in promoting these initiatives around the world, as well as supporting the cause of recycling. In 1998 came a cartoon version.
Born in Paris and educated in Sussex, Elisabeth was the daughter of JD Beresford, himself a successful critic and novelist. She was brought up in a bookish and literary world and her godparents included Walter de la Mare, Cecil Day-Lewis and Eleanor Farjeon.
Beresford served as a radio operator in the Women's Royal Naval Service in the second world war and began her freelance writing career soon after training as a journalist and becoming a radio reporter. While at the BBC, she met and, in 1949, married the sports broadcaster Max Robertson, from whom she was divorced in 1984.
Following the birth of Marcus and Kate, Beresford turned to writing fiction. She was prolific: her first book for children was published in 1957, her first for adults in 1963, and she kept up a steady flow of two or even three books a year up to a total of around 100, mostly for children, including 20 Wombles titles. For adults, these were largely what Beresford described as "romantic thrillers" with titles such as Escape to Happiness (1964) and A Tropical Affair (1967). Never hugely successful in this area, Beresford slowed her output for adults after the success of the Wombles until her last romance, A Passionate Adventure (1983).
For children, Beresford's stories were largely adventures, some of which were mixed with a dash of mystery or magic that transformed the everyday into something unusual and exciting. Written mostly for younger readers, her contemporary adventure stories with titles such as Danger On the Old Pull 'n Push (1962) and The Black Mountain Mystery (1967) fitted easily into their market while lacking anything distinctive enough to make her either a great critical or commercial success. In many, including The Hidden Mill (1965), strongly set in the dilapidated landscape of decaying south London, she drew on a real place as the background to something unusual and exciting happening.
She used the same technique of creating a fiction around the reality of place in her more inventive "magic" series ? 13 titles from Awkward Magic (1964) to Strange Magic (1982) ? which included Dangerous Magic (1972), the story of a struggle between good and evil set in central London tower blocks. Beresford described her magic books as being about "children with very ordinary backgrounds to whom quite extraordinary things happen", and the early titles proved popular enough for her publisher to ask her to come up with a new set of characters to feature in a new series. Thus she embarked on a rather different perspective on London life.
In 1998, Beresford was appointed MBE for services to children's literature. Although the books have not remained in print continuously, some have been revived from time to time, including, in autumn 2010, The Wombles and The Wandering Wombles. But the characters have an identity which is independent of the stories.
Beresford went to Alderney, in the Channel Islands, first for holidays in 1965, and then permanently in 1978, giving the Wombles an identity there as well as in Wimbledon; as a result, visitors to the island who came to view the solar eclipse of 1999 were greeted at the ferry by the Wombles, who, then as ever, felt like a cuddly and timeless force for good.
She is survived by her children.
? Elisabeth Beresford, writer, born 6 August 1926; died 24 December 2010
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