Dick was born in 1922 and brought up in Gloucestershire. He served with the Grenadier Guards during World War II. He then spent twenty years working as a farmer and a short period teaching in a primary school before becoming a full-time writer.

Dick has written many well-loved stories, many of which have animal characters for the simple reason that, “I like them, I’ve always kept a lot of pets, and because it’s fun putting words in their mouths.” His farming years were the inspiration for many of his books, and pigs have featured in several of them because they are his favourite animal. Dick won the 1984 Guardian Fiction Award for The Sheep-Pig, which was later turned into an Oscar-winning film, Babe.