About
John Kemp, winner of several poetry competitions, with 3 published collections, and a popular speaker in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, was born in Essex in 1936.
In 1939, John, older sister and parents, settled in "metroland ", or alternatively, Northwood, Middlesex.
Soon afterwards, war broke out, and John, a very small "evacuee", was dispatched to Boston, Lincolnshire, bombed out, and promptly returned to sender.
Prep school followed, until, aged 9, he became dangerously ill with meningitis. After a long convalescence, life as a fairly rebellious public schoolboy began, followed by 2 eventful years of National Service.
Various jobs, girls, parties, young manhood in the 50's, soon passed and in 1961, he married his beloved Liz, and for 20 years they worked and adventured their way through England to Scotland.
Here the marriage foundered, leaving John in an emotional wilderness, through which he struggled for some years, at the same time helping to care for his elderly father, and after his death, for his mother, who died in 2001.
Free, finally, to concentrate on the poetry he'd been writing for 40 years, and settled in a small West Dorset town, widowed sister as neighbour, and with many friends, among them, his ex-wife, those wilderness years are over.
But the quest, the restless spirit, and the poetry remain.