Philip John Purser (28 August 1925 – 1 August 2022) was a British television critic and novelist.

Life and career

Purser was born in Letchworth,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

on 28 August 1925. His mother had been the first female student of an art school in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, and later worked as a postcard artist in the style of

Mabel Lucie Attwell Mabel Lucie Attwell (4 June 1879 – 5 November 1964) was a British illustrator and comics artist. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and fi ...

. After service in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, his father eventually worked for

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from 1934 when the family settled in the

Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to ...

. Purser had an older sister, Rozanne. A contributor to the ''

News Chronicle The ''News Chronicle'' was a British daily newspaper. Formed by the merger of '' The Daily News'' and the ''Daily Chronicle'' in 1930, it ceased publication on 17 October 1960,''Liberal Democrat News'' 15 October 2010, accessed 15 October 2010 b ...

'' in the 1950s, he was television critic of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid ...

'' from its launch in 1961 until he was sacked in 1987 by Peregrine Worsthorne, the then editor. Purser co-authored two editions of '' Halliwell's Television Companion'' (1982, 1986, originally ''Halliwell's Teleguide'' 1979) and wrote a TV film '' The One and Only Phyllis Dixey'' (''Peek-A-Boo'') on the wartime erotic entertainer for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

in 1978. A biography of Dixey (co-authored with Jenny Wilkes) was published in the same year. Purser contributed obituaries to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''. He was married to the crime writer Ann Purser; the couple had two daughters and one son. Purser died from Alzheimer's disease on 1 August 2022, at the age of 96.

Bibliography

Fiction * ''Peregrination 22''. Jonathan Cape Books 1962 * ''Four Days to the Fireworks''.

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publishe ...

1964 ** other edition: Sphere Books 3/1970, * ''The Twentymen''. Hodder & Stoughton 1/1967, * ''Night of Glass''. Hodder & Stoughton 12/1968, * ''Holy Fathers Navy''. Hodder & Stoughton 6/1971, * ''Lights in the Sky''. Severn House Publishers 11/2004, Non Fiction * ''Friedrich Harris: Shooting the Hero''. Quartet Books 5/1990, * ''Poeted: Final Quest of Edward James''. Quartet Books 2/1991, * ''Done Viewing'', Quartet Books 1992,

References

External links

*
''The Guardian''
profile page and articles 1925 births 2022 deaths British male journalists People from Letchworth {{UK-journalist-stub