A surprisingly mainstream author and Fortean.
(At times, looking through the Forteans, I become so accustomed to investigating people on the fringes I am startled to see someone from the center be not only a Fortean but an enthusiastic one.)
John Alfred Atkins was born 26 May 1916 in Carshalton, Surrey. His father was an insurance agent; his mother would become a teacher. Apparently, he saw his father only rarely. He attended school in Suffolk and then graduated from Bristol University in 1938. He married in 1938. His wife was Joan Grey, an artist, and they would have two daughters. After graduation he went to work for Mass Observation, which was a giant social science project started the year before to record the daily life of Britons and also as an assistant editor for Tribune. (I am not sure if these jobs overlapped or were serial.) Thus began a career devoted to literature, both high and low, sacred and profane.
(At times, looking through the Forteans, I become so accustomed to investigating people on the fringes I am startled to see someone from the center be not only a Fortean but an enthusiastic one.)
John Alfred Atkins was born 26 May 1916 in Carshalton, Surrey. His father was an insurance agent; his mother would become a teacher. Apparently, he saw his father only rarely. He attended school in Suffolk and then graduated from Bristol University in 1938. He married in 1938. His wife was Joan Grey, an artist, and they would have two daughters. After graduation he went to work for Mass Observation, which was a giant social science project started the year before to record the daily life of Britons and also as an assistant editor for Tribune. (I am not sure if these jobs overlapped or were serial.) Thus began a career devoted to literature, both high and low, sacred and profane.