Charlotte Hough Explained

Charlotte Hough
Birth Name:Helen Charlotte Woodyatt
Birth Date:24 May 1924
Birth Place:Brockenhurst, Hampshire
Death Date:31 December 2008 (aged 84)
Occupation:Writer, illustrator
Spouse:Richard Hough
Children:Deborah Moggach

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

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.

Career

Hough's wrote and illustrated over thirty children's books. Her subjects were often stories about children and animals; their titles included Jim Tiger (1956),[3] 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),[4] Sir Frog and Other Stories (1968), The Homemakers (1968), Abdul the Awful and Other Stories (1970),[5] [6] A Bad Child's Book of Moral Verse (1970),[7] My Aunt's Alphabet (1971), Queer Customer (1972),[8] Wonky Donkey (1975), Pink Pig (1975), Bad Cat (1975),[9] The Holiday Story Book (1976),[10] The Mixture as Before (1976),[11] and Verse and Various (1979).[12] Kirkus Reviews found Hough's Red Biddy and Other Stories (1966) to offer "original fairy tales with a sunny disposition".[13]

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.[14]

She wrote one book for adults, a detective novel, The Bassington Murder (1980).[15]

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.[16] [17] Hough was sentenced to nine months imprisonment,[18] and served six months at Holloway Prison and Sutton Park prison. Her daughter recalled that, afterwards, "She was always saying, 'When I was in prison' and bringing dinner parties to a shuddering halt."

Personal life

Charlotte Woodyatt married author Richard Hough in 1943;[19] 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. She died in 2008, aged 84 years, after two years of dementia. In 2009, her daughters donated two boxes of her original book illustrations to the Seven Stories Archive in Gateshead.[21]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Obituaries: Charlotte Hough: children's book illustrator. 7 January 2009. The Times. London. 26 June 2009.
  2. Web site: I was grateful to her for dying. Durrant. Sabine. 24 January 2009. The Guardian. 5 June 2015.
  3. News: Martin. Kathleen B.. 1959-10-25. Tiger Jim's Life a Very Good Story. 18. The Central New Jersey Home News. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  4. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. Educating Flora and other stories.. 1968. Faber & Faber. 0-571-08680-2. London. 18618062.
  5. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. Abdul the Awful, and other stories. 1970. McCall Pub. Co. 0-8415-2014-3. New York. 123719.
  6. News: Winkler. Renee. 1970-12-10. The 8 Tales. 27. Courier-Post. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  7. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. A bad child's book of moral verse;. 1970. Faber. 0-8098-1165-0. London. 128833.
  8. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. Queer customer. 1972. Heinemann. 0-434-94320-7. London. 16193150.
  9. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. Bad cat. 1975. Puffin Books. 0-14-030734-6. Harmondsworth. 16302306.
  10. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. The holiday story book. 1976. Beaver Books. 0-600-34525-4. London. 16362872.
  11. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. The mixture as before. 1976. Heinemann. 0-434-94326-6. London. 3167056.
  12. Book: Hough, Charlotte.. Verse and various. 1979. J.M. Dent & Sons Limited. 0-460-06892-X. London. 1008311235.
  13. Web site: The Red Biddy and Other Stories. April 1, 1967. Kirkus Reviews. en. 2020-05-01.
  14. Book: Hewett, Anita, 1918-. The Anita Hewett animal story book. 1972. Bodley Head. 0-370-01239-9. London. 16246717.
  15. Book: Hough, Charlotte, 1924-2008.. The Bassington murder. 1983. Academy Chicago. 0-89733-077-3. 1st American pbk.. Chicago. 9393875.
  16. News: 1984-12-15. Writer Gaoled for Aiding Woman's Suicide. 3. The Guardian. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  17. News: 1984-12-13. Writer Put Bag Over Head of Woman Who Had Taken Overdose, Jury is Told. 4. The Guardian. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  18. News: Cook. Stephen. 1984-12-19. Writer in Suicide Case Must Serve Gaol Term. 3. The Guardian. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  19. Book: Trease, Geoffrey. https://books.google.com/books?id=_DBdDwAAQBAJ&dq=Hough&pg=PA619. Twentieth-century Children's Writers. 1978-11-10. Macmillan International Higher Education. 978-1-349-03648-6. 221, 619–621. en. Charlotte Hough.
  20. News: Watts. Janet. 1993-03-21. Following On in the Family Way. 67. The Observer. 2020-05-01. Newspapers.com.
  21. Web site: Charlotte Hough Collection, Seven Stories Archive. Archives Hub. 2020-05-01.