Editing Phil Drabble

{{Short description|English countryman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Phil Drabble
|image         = 
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|birth_name    = Philip Percy Cooper Drabble
|birth_date    = {{Birth date|1914|5|13|df=y}}
|birth_place   = 
|death_date    = {{Death date and age|2007|7|29|1914|5|13|df=y}}
|death_place   = [[Abbots Bromley]], [[Staffordshire]], [[England]]
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|education     = 
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|occupation    = [[Author]], [[television presenter]]
|years_active  = 
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|awards        = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]]
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'''Philip Percy Cooper Drabble''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (13 May 1914 &ndash; 29 July 2007) was an [[England|English]] [[wikt:countryman|countryman]], [[author]] and [[television presenter]] (notably ''[[One Man and His Dog]]''). Brought up in the [[Black Country]], he later lived in – and wrote mostly about – the countryside of north [[Worcestershire]] and at [[Abbots Bromley]] in East [[Staffordshire]], where he created a [[nature reserve]].

==Biography==

===Early life===
Drabble was an only child, whose mother died when he was young.<ref name="DogsLife">''It's a Dog's Life''</ref> His father was a [[General practitioner|GP]] and they lived in a terraced house in [[Bloxwich]]. He began work as a factory lad and rose to the board of [[Salter Housewares|Salters]] and membership of the management board of the Midland Engineering Employers Association.

In 1947, he made his first radio broadcast, and in 1952 his first television appearance. At the age of 47 he became a full-time writer, and he and his wife Jess purchased a derelict [[folly]]-styled cottage and {{convert|90|acres|ha}} of neglected [[ancient woodland]] in [[Abbots Bromley]], [[Staffordshire]], a remnant of the [[Needwood Forest]].

===''One Man and His Dog'' and later life===

[[File:Pub sign One Man and His Dog.jpg|thumb|upright|Pub sign]]

Drabble was best known as presenter of the long-running TV series ''[[One Man and His Dog]]'', in which he commentated on [[sheepdog trial]]s for 17 years from 1976 to 1993. At its peak the BBC programme attracted more than 8 million viewers and even the Queen was a fan, asking Drabble for advice after her liberty budgies were attacked by hawks at Windsor. Declared [[Midlander of the Year]] in 1992, and made OBE in the year he retired from the programme, he announced in 1993 that it had become "a bit boring watching dogs chase stroppy sheep round a field."

A [[pub]] very near Drabble's former home in Bloxwich is named "One Man and His Dog" in his honour.

===Later life===
Drabble, who also wrote a newspaper column for the [[Express & Star]], took few holidays, travelled abroad only a couple of times, and was proud to have never lived more than 20 miles from his place of birth.

He and his wife turned the woodland they had bought and lived next to into the [[Goat Lodge Reserve]].<ref>Drabble, Phil - ''One Man and his Conservation Area'' - 1992, {{ISSN|1367-983X}}</ref> After a fight with [[Center Parcs UK and Ireland|Center Parcs]] who wanted to build a centre just outside its borders, it became a recognised [[Site of Special Scientific Interest]].

Predeceased eighteen months earlier by his wife, Drabble died at his home in Abbots Bromley on 29 July 2007, at the age of 93.<ref>{{cite news| title = BBC presenter Phil Drabble dies | publisher = BBC News | date = 2007-07-30| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/6922526.stm | accessdate = 2007-08-04 }}</ref> Having never had any children, he left the majority of his £1,013,523 estate to his PA of 25 years, Ruth Froggatt.<ref>The Standard 12 April 2012 https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/phil-one-man-and-his-dog-drabble-leaves-ps1m-fortune-to-the-secretary-he-loved-like-a-daughter-6656898.html</ref>

==Bibliography==

*''Staffordshire'' (1948) {{ISBN|7-270-00407-2}}
*''The Black Country'' (1952) {{ISBN|7-240-01235-2}}
*''A Weasel in My Meatsafe'' (1957) {{ISBN|0-7181-1635-6}}
*''The Penguin Book of Pets'' (1964)
*''Badgers at My Window'', [[Pelham Books]], (1969) {{ISBN|0-7207-0299-2}}
** reprint, [[Dickson Price]], (1989) {{ISBN|0-85380-186-X}}
*''My Beloved Wilderness'', Pelham Books, (1971) {{ISBN|0-7207-0519-3}}
*''Phil Drabble's Country Scene'', Pelham Books, (1974) {{ISBN|0-7207-0779-X}}
*''Design for a Wilderness'' (1973) {{ISBN|0-7207-0706-4}}
*''Pleasing Pets'' (1975) {{ISBN|0-86002-050-9}}
*''Book of Pets'' (1976)
*''Country Seasons'' (with a [[foreword]] by [[Johnny Morris (television presenter)|Johnny Morris]]) Michael Joseph (1976) {{ISBN|0-7181-1548-1}}
*''One Man and His Dog'' [[Michael Joseph (publisher)|Michael Joseph]] (1978) {{ISBN|0-7181-1668-2}}
*''Of Pedigree Unknown: Sporting & Working Dogs'' (1976) {{ISBN|0-7181-1447-7}}
*''No Badgers in My Wood'' Michael Joseph (1979) {{ISBN|0-7181-1853-7}}
*''Country Wise'' (1980) {{ISBN|0-7181-1952-5}}
*''In the Country'' (The book of the BBC TV series presented by Angela Rippon) by Angela Rippon, Phil Drabble, Bernard Price, and Ted Moult (1980)
*''Four Seasons: The Life of the English Countryside,'' by Sheila Mannes-Abbott and Phil Drabble (1981)
*''It's a Dog's Life'', Michael Joseph (1983) {{ISBN|0-7181-2232-1}}
*''Country Moods'', (A selection of his columns for The [[Birmingham Evening Mail]]) Michael Joseph (1985) {{ISBN|0-7181-2590-8}}
*''What Price the Countryside?'', Michael Joseph (1985) {{ISBN|0-7181-2345-X}}
*''My Wilderness in Bloom'', Michael Joseph (1986) {{ISBN|0-7181-2691-2}}
*''Sport and the English Countryside: The World of John Moore,'' by Phil Drabble, John Moore, and Daphne Moore (1987)
*''A Voice in the Wilderness'', Pelham Books, (1991) - [[Autobiography]]. {{ISBN|0-7207-1908-9}}
*''One Man and His Dog'' (vol.2, 1989)
*''Walking - Britain's Most Beautiful Nature Trails'' (Activity Guides) (1992)
*''My Wilderness Reprieved'' (1993)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930183645/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2823059.ece Anthony Hayward, ''Obituary: Phil Drabble one man and his dog,'' The Independent, 1 August 2007]
*[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/31/ndog131.xml Laura Clout, ''Phil Drabble of TVs One Man and his Dog, dies,'' Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 1 August 2007]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drabble, Phil}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:English nature writers]]
[[Category:English television presenters]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:People educated at Bromsgrove School]]
[[Category:People from Bloxwich]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from Abbots Bromley]]
[[Category:Writers from the West Midlands (county)]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]