John Kemp

John Kemp was born in Clapham, London, in 1926. His mother came from an old Essex marshland family and his father was a Fleet Street journalist who came from a travelling theatrical family. After serving in the Beds and Herts regiment of the British army during the second world war, he lived in Gloucestershire for a short time. In his late 20s he moved to Maldon, in Essex, where his mother's family had lived for at least 250 years. Soon …