Home > J. L. Carr

1 Life

Carr was born in Yorkshire, into a family of Wesleyan Methodists. His father Joseph was the eleventh son of a farmer, who rejected farming as a career and went to work for the railways, eventually becoming a station master for the North Eastern Railway Co. Carr's early life was shaped by failure. Having attended the village school, he failed the Eleven plus exam, and on finishing his school career he also failed to gain admission to teacher training college.

He worked for a year as an unqualified teacher - one of the lowest of the low in English education - at South Milford Primary School, where he became involved in a local amateur football team which was startlingly successful that year. He then successfully applied to a teacher training college in Dudley. In 1938 he took a year out from his teaching career to work as an exchange teacher in the Great Plains of South Dakota. Much of the year was a struggle to survive in what was a strangely different culture to him, in which his English salary converted into dollars was pitifully inadequate to meet American costs of living.

At the end of the year Carr continued his journey westward, and found himself travelling through the Middle East and the Mediterranean as the Second World War loomed. He arrived in France in September 1939 and reached England where he volunteered for service in the Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF is the air force of the United Kingdom. History Formation and Early History The Royal Flying Corps was formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912 superseding the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. The Royal Na. He was trained as an RAF photographer and stationed in West Africa, later serving in Britain as an intelligence officer.

At the end of the War he married Sally (Hilda Gladys Sexton) and returned to teaching. He was appointed headmaster of Highfields School in KetteringThis is an article about Kettering in England. For other uses see Kettering (disambiguation). Kettering is a town in Northamptonshire, England. It is the main town in the borough of Kettering. It lies on the Midland Main Line, roughly halfway between Lond, a post he filled from 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada. to 1967Events January January 4 British motorboat racer Donald Campbell dies while attempting a water speed record in Coniston Lake. January 4 Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid. January 6 Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch " Operatio in a typically idiosyncratic way which earned the devotion of staff and pupils alike.

In 1967Events January January 4 British motorboat racer Donald Campbell dies while attempting a water speed record in Coniston Lake. January 4 Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid. January 6 Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch " Operatio, having written two novels, he retired from teaching to devote himself to writing. In order to gain some income he began to work as a publisher, producing first a series of maps of English counties, which were designed to be read, rather than to provide navigational information. He also produced a series of 'small books' designed to fit into a pocket: some of them selections from English poets, others brief monographs about historical events, or works of reference. When larger publishers rejected or remaindered his own novels, he also published them himself.

He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the

threatened with redundancy. Carr, who appointed himself its guardian, came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice, and higher church authorities, in his attempts to save the church. The building was saved, but his crusade was also a failure in that redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre.