The Reverend Wilbert Awdry was best known for creating and writing the first twenty-six books in the Railway Series. The first stories were originally devised to amuse his son, Christopher while he recovered from measles in 1942. With encouragement from his wife, Margaret, Wilbert sent these stories to a publisher. Due to shortages of paper during World War II, the stories could not be published until 1945. In 1946, Wilbert wrote the second book in the series titled "Thomas the Tank Engine", about a little blue tank engine who wanted to see the world.

Wilbert wrote a new book each year until 1972. The Railway Series was resurrected eleven years later in 1983, when Christopher started writing his own installments in the series, with his last entry coming in 2011.

Although the Railway Series books were immensely popular in their own right, the popularity sky-rocketed in 1984 when television producer Britt Allcroft bought the rights to turn the stories into television episodes under the title "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" (later shortened to Thomas & Friends (1984)). Wilbert was happy with the first two series as they adapted his stories relatively faithfully and he even struck up a friendship with the show's storyteller, ex-Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, but in 1991 the relationship between Awdry and Allcroft soured with the release of Series 3. For this series, Britt Allcroft and the show's director David Mitton started writing their own stories (many of which were actually adaptation of stories written for the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends comic book series by Andrew Brenner) and Awdry was not at all happy with the lack of realism; almost all of Awdry's stories were based on real-life events and adhered to the rules and regulations of real railways. One episode in particular, Henry's Forest (1992), Awdry was very vocal about due to Henry stopping in the forest to admire the trees. He stated during an interview for [tt6619024[, that the trees were too close to the railway, Henry stopped without alerting a signalman and that an engine should have no interest in trees. He also lamented that the producers thought they could write his stories better than he could.

Affectionately known as Granpuff by his grandchildren due to his heavy pipe smoking, Wilbert was bedridden for a number of years with osteoporosis prior to his death at home (in a house he had named Sodor after the fictional British isle where his stories were set) from bronchopneumonia and chronic bronchitis on March 21st 1997. The legacy and popularity of Thomas the Tank Engine and his colourful cast of friends remains at the forefront of English culture.

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Wilbert Awdry

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