John Moore

Who was John Moore?

John Moore was a best-selling British author and pioneer conservationist.

He was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire in 1907 and died in Bristol in 1967. During the latter part of his life, he lived in the village of Kemerton on the slopes of Bredon Hill, which he popularised as 'Brensham Hill' in a number of his writings.

His most famous work was Portrait of Elmbury, published in 1945, about life in Tewkesbury in the early 20th century. This work, along with Brensham Village and The Blue Field, formed part of the 'Brensham Trilogy'.

Most of his books had a rural setting and long before conservation came to mainstream media attention he wrote about the effect of technological advances on the countryside and rural life.

From 1943 to 1949 Moore was the organiser of the Tewkesbury Play Festival.

In 1949 he helped to inaugurate the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and continued to be involved with the festival for many years.

Moore wrote the script of the renowned 1957 film The England of Elizabeth, read on the soundtrack by Alec Clunes.