Eccentric English map-maker earning praise as writer of fiction

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 15

Eccentric English map-maker earning praise as writer of fiction

Eccentricity was once the hallmark of the British — the mad dogs apd Englishmen who went out in the mid-day .sun, the Chestertons and the Bellocs. Today, England bewails the fact that fewer of such individualists exist — characters with unusual ideas of their own, determined to carry them through regardless of the reaction of their contemporaries. One who survives is J. L. Carr, a former teacher turned author and publisher, a runnerup in 1980 for the prestigious Booker Prize and chosen by the “Guardian” newspaper as its Fiction Writer of the Year for his novel “A Month in the Country.” ' ; < Jim Carr loves life. Born in Yorkshire, northern England, he now lives in Kettering, a small manufacturing town in the English Midlands where he retired as headmaster of a local primary school 14 years ago. He was then 53 and had already produced two books. He gave himself two years to exist on his savings of CI6OO and see whether he could earn a living as a writer. A holiday in Venice reduced his budget at the end of the first year to <£6oo. But his future was saved, not by books initially, but by maps. With the maps came publish-

ing and- between times, novels. They all had a hallmark of their own, not just eccentricity but the stamp of his strong and unusual personality. His set of 40 maps of English counties, coloured by his wife, Sally, was embellished with footnotes which were of intense interest to him — indeed many pf themcame from a series of notes which he had built up throughout his life and which, he hoped, might be of interest to his readers (although one has a strong feeling that, as a Yorkshireman, he was not particularly bothered about how his readers felt). Dick Turpin, for example, one of England’s most notorious highwaymen, is reduced to “a thief from the south who rode his Yorkshire mare to death," He dismisses Shakespeare as succinctly, observing “he was so satisfied with his native land that there is no evidence that he left it, even for a week-end.” In 1980 Carr sold £5OOO ■worth of maps. He still has £6OOO worth in stock, selling steadily through his own publishing house. His chief publishing success, however, has been his series of tiny books (“microtomelets” they were dubbed by “The Times Literary Supplement”) which come out in

one standard size —127 mm by 95mm containing . 16 pages. They are small enough to fit into a normal envelope and can be mailed at the minimum postal rate. The tomelets include a quartet comprising biographies of William Cobbett and Thomas Hardy, Chaucer’s "Reeve’s Tale” and his own volume "Carr's Dictionary of Extraordinary English Cricketers.” The latter not only deals with famous cricket players (mostly now dead) but, as he stubbornly insists, “five women, two dogs and a horse.” The book was widely reviewed by critics who were delighted by its freshness and eccentricity. Booksellers who until then had shunned his work, were forced by public demand into stocking it; within a month it had sold 10,000 copies. He not only Wrote, illustrated and published it. but sent out review copies, travelled round Britain selling it and dealt with all inquiries which came by post to his home — which is also his office, publicity organisation and warehouse. His sole helper is his wife. He keeps most of his files in shoeboxes — Kettering is a great centre for shoemaking and boxes are readily available. His printer. Richardson, is also a: Kettering firm, whose

main trade is in the production of shoebox labels. Yet its work on “Joan Hassall’s Picture Book,” a delightful series of wood engravings, was judged by experts to be 1 better in quality than some by leading specialist printers. Carr’s small books’ steady success continues. Publications include such collectors’ > gems as "Carr’s Dictionary of English Kings. Consorts, Pretenders, Usurpers, Unnatural Claimants and Royal Atherlings,” in. which he reduces the subject to a minimum, as with Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor: "He reigned 325 days and was never crowned, abdicating to become the third husband of Mrs Simspon, an American. Some 1500 years of British history are condensed into 15 pages as neatly as in his “Dictionary of British Queens” in which Queen Victoria is noted simply to have “married Albert of SaxeCoburg and had nine children. She gae her name to an Age.” Tucked away in his tiny home office, Jim, Carr work, on at his maps, his minitomes and his books. His The "Spectator” calls him “a many splendoured figure.” But the "Guardian” Literary • Editor, Bill Webb, says simply: “He is a true.eccentric, as English as brown ale."