Dick King-Smith, an internationally popular British children’s author whose best-known book, the amusing and inspiring story of a sheep-herding pig who talks, was turned into the hit 1995 movie “Babe,” has died. He was 88.

King-Smith died in his sleep Tuesday morning at his home near Bath, England, after experiencing poor health in recent years, his publisher, Random House Children’s Books, said in a statement.

A failed farmer who became a teacher, King-Smith was in his late 50s when his first children’s book, “The Fox Busters” — the tale of henhouse chickens who scheme to drive away invading foxes — was published in 1978.

Since then, he had written more than 100 books — many of them what he called “farmyard fantasies” — that have reportedly sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

But his most famous book was his sixth, “The Sheep-Pig,” published in England in 1983 and retitled “Babe: The Gallant Pig” when it was published in the United States in 1985. The book won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 1984, with one judge declaring it “perfect.”

It’s the story of a piglet who is won at a fair by a sheep farmer and adopted by the farm’s mother sheepdog, Fly.

Trained to herd sheep by Fly, the polite Babe puts his own spin on getting sheep to obey.

“If I might ask a great favor of you, could you all please be kind enough to walk down to that gate where the farmer is standing, and to go through it? Take your time, please, there’s absolutely no rush.”

The author, who tapped his years of working with farm animals for his writing, had an affinity for pigs — despite a fondness for eating bacon.

“It’s something I may have to see my psychiatrist about but, yes, I have a real soft spot for pigs,” he told the Daily Telegraph of Sydney, Australia, in 1996.

“I like pigs as friends and for their intelligence. I have always admired them.”

King-Smith, who sold the movie rights to “The Sheep-Pig” to Australian writer-producer George Miller shortly after it was published, was a fan of the Chris Noonan-directed movie.

“Obviously, I was nervous and a bit worried in case the adaptation messed up the original story in any way,” he said in the Daily Telegraph interview.

“But I knew within minutes of taking my seat in the cinema I would not be disappointed. They did a truly marvelous job. I was delighted.”

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, and won an Oscar for best visual effects.