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1907-1967
Born on November 10th, 1907, in Tewkesbury, Moore was educated at Malvern College. Leaving there at 16, he first worked for an auctioneer in Tewkesbury, where by his own admission he began writing his novels "in the office". His first work was published in 1930, and he then moved down to London, where he continued writing, as well as reviewing and other "hack" jobs.
Moore's writings cover a wide range of interests: novels, short stories, topography, language, country essays and calendars, and (in 1943) a history of the Fleet air arm, in which he served. His first major success was with Portrait of Elmbury (1945), a fictionalised 'biography' of Tewkesbury. Brensham village (1946) described rural life in a state of transition, with Brensham itself based to some extent on Bredon. Moore explains his fictional geography in the introduction to the book.
In Portrait of Elmbury I told the story of a market town in England's 'Middle West' during the period between the wars. Inevitably some of the neighbouring villages..came into the tale; and one of them was called Brensham. Like Elmbury, Brensham is real in the sense that I have built upon a ground-plan and framework of truth: but I have purposely played fast and loose with chronology and topography…Brensham is a synthesis of the villages which lie about Elmbury and its biography is a synthesis too.
In Moore's final book The waters under the earth (1965) Doddington Manor symbolises England, playing a similar role to that of Howard's End in E M Forster's novel. You English words (1961) is a testament to Moore's delight in language.
Beginning in 1943, Moore spent six years as organiser of the Tewkesbury Play Festival, and in 1949 helped to inaugurate the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, of which he continued to be a guiding spirit for many years.
Moore died in Bristol, at the age of 60.
Selected works by the author. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are included in the West Midlands Creative Literature Collection.
Dixon's cubs (1930)
The Welsh Marches (1933)
Country men (biography) (1935)
Clouds of glory (1938)
Life and letters of Edward Thomas (ed) (1939)
Fleet air arm (history) (1943)
Escort carrier (1944)
Portrait of Elmbury (1945)
Brensham village (1946)*
The blue field (1948)*
Dance and skylark (1951)*
Midsummer meadow (1953)*
Tiger, tiger (short stories) (1953)
The white sparrow (1954)*
Come rain, come shine (1956)*
September moon (1957)*
You English words (1961)
The waters under the earth (1965)
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