Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010)

Well I have read every page that my poor battered old copy has, but that's not all of them. About half the pages have long since detached from the spine, some still glued in little bundles, some loose. Pages 107 and 108 are missing, as is a bundle from pages 153 ti 168. But I think I get the gist.

All is not well on WImbledon Common, the increased heavy lorry traffic is causing the burrow to sink as the earth is being moved by the lorry vibrations. Again, I am struck by how far ahead of show more their time these books are. So the Wombles set out to find an alternative burrow. Bungo & Orinoco set off North and encounter MacWomble the Terrible (who is a lot less terrible once Miss Adelaide gives him the look usually reserved for small wombles in the womblegarten). Tomsk & Wellington explore the gardens at Buckingham palace - and draw a bit of a blank there. But shy, bookish Wellington remembers reading something and so comes up with the idea that provides the solutions. The end of the book sees them leave Wimbledon Common for a new burrow.
I'm not sure how the Loch Ness womble thing resolves itself, as that chapter is in the missing bundle, but as the last page has Bungo back home, I assume it all comes off fairly well.
The edition I read was illustrated, but this time the illustrations were of creatures that matched the TV series, and it all looked a lot more familiar. show less

This was the perfect post gardening bath book. Small enough to hold in one hand, large enough print to not need my glasses. Having re-read these this year, I'm still surprised at how forward thinking they were - yet this was children's TV/reading. It still has a lot of relevance, we're still polluting the planet and it doesn't come with a burrow full of wombles to tidy up after us.

First in what became a series of over 20 books about the creatures living in a large burrow underneath Wimbledon Common, who make a living by collecting and re-using the rubbish left behind by careless humans.

I first met the Wombles in the form of the 1970s BBC stop motion animated series, which so thoroughly burnt itself into my brain that I kept flashing on scenes from the show as I was reading. Thus the otherwise delightful illustrations by Margaret Gordon were a little disconcerting, as show more the tv puppets are significantly different in appearance. Nevertheless, it was most enjoyable re-visiting the Wombles in written format.

The book is written for small children, and thus is on a relatively simple reading level. But it's by no means trite -- the stories discuss human behaviour without heavy-handed moralising, and the Wombles helped start an interest in my generation of children in recycling. Each chapter is an incident in the life of the Wombles, which can work almost as a standalone story, but there's an overall story arc throughout the book, covering nearly a year. It's primarily from the viewpoint of young Bungo, who at the start of the book has just reached the age at which he is allowed to choose a name for himself from Great Uncle Bulgaria's atlas, and then start work as a Womble considered old enough to be allowed out of the burrow on his own. It's an enjoyable quick read for an adult talking a stroll down memory lane. And short though it may be, there's some lovely worldbuilding here, portraying in light but deft strokes a very slightly alien society somewhere just out of sight of our own. show less

This starts with Great Uncle Bulgaria reading a story to the Wombles, only they are getting restless. they've heard them all before and they're all old. And so Bulgaria launches them on a plan for 2 pairs of Wombles to travel around the world and collect stories from other lands in order to write the tenth volume of A Womble History of the World. This gives a chance for younger readers to learn something about other countries, with the Wombles visiting the Black Forest, Tibet, Australis, New show more Zealand, US & Japan. All in clockwork balloons. At times this looks dated, with the Womblex clearly being a version of a fax machine (who has them now?). At others it is ahead of its time with the environmental message, there is even climate change in here. The Wimbledon burrow seems quiet without Tomsk, Wellington, Orinocco & Bungo, with the other Wombles getting tetchy at times and overworked. It concludes with the wanderers returning home to a party, the work of writing the history probably continues after wards. It was interesting that they didn't visit Russia, despite there being a Womble burrow there, we have met Omsk previously, but then this was the 1907s and it was probably politically better to steer clear. It reads as much as a set of short essays with a connected character than a story, but it remains enjoyable, nonetheless. show less