Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox.

Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox (1938) is the second book by Denys James Watkins-Pitchford (1905–1990), the British naturalist, author, and illustrator who wrote under the pseudonym "BB" — a name derived from the size of lead shot he used for shooting geese — and who over a career of more than fifty years produced approximately sixty books of his own and illustrated at least thirty more by other authors. The story follows the struggle and survival of a motherless fox cub in the Pytchley country of Northamptonshire, tracing his life from vulnerable cubhood through the full arc of his existence against the hunted landscape of the English Midlands — the novel having been inspired by an actual fox who outwitted the Pytchley hounds for many years, with an introduction by Sir Charles Frederick. Illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Watkins-Pitchford himself, the book was praised by The Observer as "a complete picture of the wild life of a preserved and sporting landscape, with adventures and hairbreadth escapes, fighting and mating, making a story which is exciting without upsetting the balance of natural probability." Watkins-Pitchford went on to win the Carnegie Medal for British children's books in 1942, cementing his reputation as one of the most beloved nature writers of his generation.