John Alfred Atkins (26 May 1916 – 31 March 2009) was a British writer, playwright, poet and novelist.

Career

Born at

Carshalton Carshalton ( ) is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated around southwest of Charing Cross and around east by north of Sutton town centre, in the valley of the Rive ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, to Frank Periam Atkins, a broker, and Dorothy (née Lovell), Atkins graduated B.A. from the

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

in 1938. Subsequently, he worked for

Mass Observation Mass-Observation is a United Kingdom social research project; originally the name of an organisation which ran from 1937 to the mid-1960s, and was revived in 1981 at the University of Sussex. Mass-Observation originally aimed to record everyday ...

and later as Assistant and Literary Editor of the left-wing newspaper ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

'', before his call up for war service arrived in 1943. At ''Tribune'' his place was taken by

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

. After the war, he worked as a critic specialising in analysing the work of 20th-century writers. He taught in different parts of the world, including

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and Poland, and his erudition and breadth of knowledge was immense. He wrote several books for

Calder Publishing Calder Publications is a publisher of books. Since 1949, the company has published many books on all the arts, particularly subjects such as opera and painting, the theatre and critical and philosophical theory. Calder's authors have achieved ...

and other publishers and for the last thirty years of his life was spent quietly in East Anglia. He was the author of many literary bibliographies (including Aldous Huxley,

, J. B. Priestley,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...

and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

), and of ''The British Spy Novel'', an analysis of the genre, and the multi-volume ''Sex in Literature'' series.Joseph W. Slade, "Pornography and sexual representation: a reference guide", ''Pornography and Sexual Representation vol.3'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, , pp. 812, 856.

References

External links

Obituary
''The Guardian'', 18 May 2009 1916 births 2009 deaths Alumni of the University of Bristol British literary critics British male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights British male novelists 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British writers British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from the London Borough of Sutton British Army soldiers People from Carshalton Writers from the London Borough of Sutton {{UK-playwright-stub