John Moore was a best-selling British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and pioneer conservationist

Conservationist

Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

.

He was born in Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury is a town in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon, and also minor tributaries the Swilgate and Carrant Brook...

, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 in 1907 and died in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 in 1967. During the latter part of his life, he lived in the village of Kemerton

Kemerton

Kemerton is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire in England. It lies at the extreme south of the county in the local government district of Wychavon. Until boundary changes in 1931, it formed part of neighbouring Gloucestershire, and it remains in the Diocese of Gloucester...

 on the slopes of Bredon Hill

Bredon Hill

Bredon Hill is a hill in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Evesham in the Vale of Evesham. The summit of the hill is in the parish of Kemerton and it extends over parts of eight other parishes...

, which he popularised as 'Brensham Hill' in a number of his writings.

His most famous work was Portrait of Elmbury, published in 1945, about life in Tewkesbury in the early 20th century. This work, along with Brensham Village and The Blue Field, formed part of the 'Brensham Trilogy'.

Most of his books had a rural setting and long before conservation came to mainstream media attention he wrote about the effect of technological advances on the countryside and rural life.

From 1943 to 1949 Moore was the organiser of the Tewkesbury Play Festival.

In 1949 he helped to inaugurate the Cheltenham

Cheltenham

Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

 Festival of Literature and continued to be involved with the festival for many years.

Moore wrote the script of the renowned 1957 film The England of Elizabeth

The England of Elizabeth

The England of Elizabeth is a 1957 documentary about the Elizabethan age, directed by John Taylor for British Transport Films. It is particularly noted for its score composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams...

, read on the soundtrack by Alec Clunes

Alec Clunes

Alexander "Alec" Demoro Sherriff Clunes was an English actor and stage manager.Among the plays he presented were Christopher Fry's famous play The Lady's Not For Burning. He gave the actor and dramatist Sir Peter Ustinov his first break with his production The House of Regrets. His film career was...

.

Works

• Dixon's Cubs (1930)
• The Book of the Fly-rod (ed, with Hugh Sheringham) (1931)
• Dear Lovers (1931)
• Tramping Through Wales (1931)
• English Comedy (1932)
• King Carnival
• The Walls are Down (1933)
• The Welsh Marches
  Welsh Marches
  The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
  
  (1933)
• The New Forest
  New Forest
  The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
  
  (1934)
• Country Men (Biography) (1935)
• The Angler's week-end Book (ed, with Eric Taverner) (1935)
• Overture, Beginners! (1936)
• The Cotswolds
  Cotswolds
  The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
  
  (1937)
• Clouds of Glory (1938)
• A Walk Through Surrey
  Surrey
  Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
  
  (1939)
• The Countryman's England (1939)
• Life and Letters of Edward Thomas
  Edward Thomas (poet)
  Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914...
  
  (ed) (1939)
• Wit's End (1942)
• Fleet Air Arm (history) (1943)
• Escort Carrier (1944)
• The Navy and the Y Scheme (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 Season of the Year (1954)
• The White Sparrow (1954)
• The Boy's Country Book (ed) (1955)
• Come Rain, Come shine (1956)
• September Moon (1957)
• Jungle Girl (1958)
• Man and Bird and Beast (1959)
• You English Words (1961)
• The Elizabethans (1962)
• The Year of the Pigeons (1963)
• Best Fishing Stories (1965)
• The Waters Under the Earth (1965)

Memorials

John Moore and 'Elmbury' are commemorated at a number of locations in the Tewkesbury area, including:

• The John Moore Countryside Museum, near Tewkesbury Abbey
  Tewkesbury Abbey
  The Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tewkesbury in the English county of Gloucestershire is the second largest parish church in the country and a former Benedictine monastery.-History:...
  
  
• The John Moore Nature Reserve, created and managed by Kemerton Conservation Trust
  Kemerton Conservation Trust
  Kemerton Conservation Trust is a registered charity which aims "to conserve wildlife and places of beauty in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and adjoining counties for the public benefit." Much of the Trust’s activity takes place in the area surrounding Bredon Hill in south...
  
   on land in the village of Kemerton once owned by the author.
• the name 'Elmbury' was given to the new Secondary Modern School for Girls on Ashchurch Road in the 1960s, which later became the nucleus of today's Tewkesbury School
  Tewkesbury School
  Tewkesbury School is a comprehensive school in the English town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. The Head Teacher is temporarily Martin McLeman before Gary Watson takes the post in January 2012.- History :...
  
  
• "The John Moore Primary School" built on the Wheatpieces estate in September 2000
• the "Elmbury Suite" opened at Tewkesbury Hospital in January 2001
• a public house called "Elmbury Lodge", near Junction 9 of the M5 Motorway, opened in 2004
• The Tewkesbury branch of the Embroiderers' Guild is called the "Elmbury (Tewkesbury) Branch"

External links

• John Moore Countryside Museum website
• Kemerton Conservation Trust website