| John Moore | |
| Birth Date: | 10 November 1907 |
| Birth Place: | Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England |
| Death Place: | Bristol, England |
| Occupation: | Author |
| Subject: | Countryside, Rural Life |
| Spouse: | Lucile Douglas Stephens (m. 1 April 1944) |
John Cecil Moore (10 November 1907 - 27 July 1967) was a best-selling British writer and pioneer conservationist. He was described by Sir Compton Mackenzie as the most talented writer about the countryside of his generation. His best-selling trilogy, published in the years immediately after the Second World War - Portrait of Elmbury, Brensham Village and The Blue Field - was followed by a series of novels and self-styled 'country-contentments'.[1]
Moore was the author of more than 40 published works, most of which explored themes relating to rural life in the first half of the 20th century. He also wrote the script of the 1957 film The England of Elizabeth, which is noted for its score composed by Vaughan Williams.
From 1943 to 1949 Moore was the organiser of the Tewkesbury Play Festival. He was also the founder and driving force behind the Cheltenham Literary Festival which was inaugurated in 1949. He contributed a weekly column on rural matters to the Birmingham Mail for eighteen years and was a frequent broadcaster on radio.
A talented naturalist from schooldays, Moore was an early campaigner for the conservation of everything connected with the rural scene. Most of his books had a rural setting, and long before the environment came to mainstream media attention, he wrote about some of the negative effects of technological advances on the countryside and rural life. Moore also fought to conserve the architectural heritage of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, his native town.
Moore was born in Tewkesbury in 1907, where he is commemorated by the John Moore Primary School and the John Moore Countryside Museum. In the Second World War, he served as a carrier-based pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, and this experience was reflected in several books including a history of the Fleet Air Arm. While serving in the Royal Navy, he happened to meet Lucile Douglas Stephens,[2] a daughter of noted Australian pediatrician, Henry Douglas Stephens, and they married on 1 April 1944. There were no children born to this marriage. 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. He died in Bristol in 1967.
John Moore and 'Elmbury' are commemorated[3] at a number of locations in the Tewkesbury area, including: