Charlotte Hough

Charlotte Hough (24 May 1924 – 31 December 2008) was a British author of over thirty illustrated children's books.

Charlotte Hough
Born
Helen Charlotte Woodyatt

24 May 1924
Brockenhurst, Hampshire
Died31 December 2008
NationalityBritish
OccupationWriter, illustrator
Spouse(s)Richard Hough
ChildrenDeborah Moggach

Early life

Helen Charlotte Woodyatt (or Woodyadd) was born in Brockenhurst, Hampshire. Her father was a doctor in his fifties. Her mother, an actress, singer and pianist, was widowed in World War I with a son. Her parents divorced; Charlotte was raised by her mother.[1] Her older half-brother, Roger Roughton, died by suicide in 1941.[2] She served in the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) during World War II.[3]

Career

Hough's wrote and illustrated over thirty children's books.[1] Her subjects were often stories about children and animals; their titles included Jim Tiger (1956),[4] The Hampshire Pig (1958), The Animal Game (1959), Algernon (1961), Anna and Minnie (1962), Three Little Funny Ones (1962), The Owl in the Barn (1964), The Trackers (1966), Educating Flora and Other Stories (1968),[5] Sir Frog and Other Stories (1968), The Homemakers (1968), Abdul the Awful and Other Stories (1970),[6][7] A Bad Child's Book of Moral Verse (1970),[8] My Aunt's Alphabet (1971), Queer Customer (1972),[9] Wonky Donkey (1975), Pink Pig (1975), Bad Cat (1975),[10] The Holiday Story Book (1976),[11] The Mixture as Before (1976),[12] and Verse and Various (1979).[13] Kirkus Reviews found Hough's Red Biddy and Other Stories (1966) to offer "original fairy tales with a sunny disposition".[14]

Hough also illustrated works by others, including editions of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, M. E. Atkinson's Castaway Camp (1952) and The Barnstormers (1953), Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did (1958), Marjorie M. Oliver's Land of Ponies (1951), April Jaffe's The Enchanted Horse (1953), and several books by Anita Hewett.[3][15]

She wrote one book for adults, a detective novel, The Bassington Murder (1980).[16]

Charlotte Hough appearing on a television discussion programme After Dark in 1987. Others in the photograph are (pictured from left) host Ian Kennedy, Lord Soper, and John Finnis.

Assisted suicide case

In 1985, at age 60, Hough was convicted of attempted murder, for assisting the suicide of a friend, Annetta Harding, aged 85 years, who was depressed, blind, deaf, and in chronic pain from arthritis.[17][18] Hough was sentenced to nine months imprisonment,[19] and served six months at Holloway Prison and Sutton Park prison.[1] Her daughter recalled that, afterwards, "She was always saying, 'When I was in prison' and bringing dinner parties to a shuddering halt."[2]

Personal life

Charlotte Woodyatt married author Richard Hough in 1943;[3] they raised four children, including the author Deborah Moggach.[20] In 1997, Charlotte Hough married Dr Louis Ackroyd, a widower formerly in the Colonial Engineering Service and University of Nottingham.[1] She died in 2008, aged 84 years, after two years of dementia.[2] In 2009, her daughters donated two boxes of her original book illustrations to the Seven Stories Archive in Gateshead.[21]

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References
  1. "Obituaries: Charlotte Hough: children's book illustrator". The Times. London. 7 January 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2009. (subscription required)
  2. Durrant, Sabine (24 January 2009). "I was grateful to her for dying". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
  3. Trease, Geoffrey (1978-11-10). "Charlotte Hough". Twentieth-century Children's Writers. Macmillan International Higher Education. pp. 221, 619–621. ISBN 978-1-349-03648-6.
  4. Martin, Kathleen B. (1959-10-25). "Tiger Jim's Life a Very Good Story". The Central New Jersey Home News. p. 18. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1968). Educating Flora and other stories. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-08680-2. OCLC 18618062.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1970). Abdul the Awful, and other stories. New York: McCall Pub. Co. ISBN 0-8415-2014-3. OCLC 123719.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Winkler, Renee (1970-12-10). "The 8 Tales". Courier-Post. p. 27. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1970). A bad child's book of moral verse;. London: Faber. ISBN 0-8098-1165-0. OCLC 128833.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1972). Queer customer. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-94320-7. OCLC 16193150.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1975). Bad cat. Harmondsworth: Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-030734-6. OCLC 16302306.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1976). The holiday story book. London: Beaver Books. ISBN 0-600-34525-4. OCLC 16362872.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1976). The mixture as before. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-94326-6. OCLC 3167056.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. Hough, Charlotte. (1979). Verse and various. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Limited. ISBN 0-460-06892-X. OCLC 1008311235.
  14. "The Red Biddy and Other Stories". Kirkus Reviews. April 1, 1967. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  15. Hewett, Anita, 1918- (1972). The Anita Hewett animal story book. London: Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-01239-9. OCLC 16246717.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008. (1983). The Bassington murder (1st American pbk. ed.). Chicago: Academy Chicago. ISBN 0-89733-077-3. OCLC 9393875.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. "Writer Gaoled for Aiding Woman's Suicide". The Guardian. 1984-12-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Writer Put Bag Over Head of Woman Who Had Taken Overdose, Jury is Told". The Guardian. 1984-12-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. Cook, Stephen (1984-12-19). "Writer in Suicide Case Must Serve Gaol Term". The Guardian. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. Watts, Janet (1993-03-21). "Following On in the Family Way". The Observer. p. 67. Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Charlotte Hough Collection, Seven Stories Archive". Archives Hub. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
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