Kenneth Allsop
{{Short description|British broadcaster, author and naturalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Kenneth Allsop
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|01|29|df=y}}
| birth_place = Holbeck, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1973|05|23|1920|01|29|df=y}}
| death_place = West Milton, Dorset, England
| occupation = Broadcaster, author and naturalist
| period = 20th century
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Kenneth Allsop (29 January 1920 – 23 May 1973) was a British broadcaster, author and naturalist.
Early life
Allsop was born on 29 January 1920 in Holbeck, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.Mark Andresen: Field of Vision: The Broadcast Life of Kenneth Allsop
He was married in St Peter's Church, Ealing, in March 1942.Field of Vision: The Broadcast Life of Kenneth Allsop He served in the R.A.F. in the Second World War and had a leg amputated after an injury on an assault course, which left him in constant pain.{{cite web |url=http://www.thedorsetpage.com/people/Kenneth_Allsop.htm |title=Kenneth Allsop (1920-1973) |website=www.thedorsetpage.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010108135800/http://www.thedorsetpage.com/people/Kenneth_Allsop.htm |archive-date=2001-01-08}}
Career
In 1958 he wrote an account of 1950s British literature, The Angry Decade,{{cite book|title=The Angry Decade; A Survey of the Cultural Revolt of the Nineteen Fifties|author=Allsop, Kenneth|year=1958|location=London|publisher=Peter Owen Ltd}} at the end of which he remarked that: "In this technologically triumphant age, when the rockets begin to scream up towards the moon but the human mind seems at an even greater distance, anger has a limited use. Love has a wider application, and it is that which needs describing wherever it can be found so that we may all recognise it and learn its use."
Allsop was a regular reporter for the BBC current affairs programme Tonight during the 1960s. He was also Rector of Edinburgh University and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.
He was an obvious choice as a guest in the first series of the long-running naturalist radio programme Sounds Natural on BBC Radio 4 on 24 May 1971.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
Death and legacy
The inquest into his death recorded an open verdict, despite having found that it was brought about by an overdose of barbiturates.{{cite news |title=Open verdict recorded on Mr Kenneth Allsop |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=31 May 1973 |page=4 }} He is buried at Powerstock in Dorset.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}
The Kenneth Allsop Memorial Trust, a registered charity,{{EW charity|270059|KENNETH ALLSOP MEMORIAL TRUST LIMITED}} was launched in 1973 with an appeal for funds, at first intending to acquire and conserve Eggardon Hill in Dorset.{{cite news |title=Dorset hill sought for Allsop memorial |newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=London |date=19 August 1973 |page=5 }} Instead, in 1976 the trust bought the island of Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel for £10,000, and runs it as a nature reserve.{{Cite ODNB |first=Kate |last=Ashbrook |id=103950 |title=Legg, Rodney Frank }} The Sunday Times instituted a Kenneth Allsop Memorial Essay Competition, which took place annually until 1986.{{cite news |title=The Final Competition|newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=London |date=26 October 1986 |page=101 }} The Allsop Gallery, an exhibition space in Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset, is named after him.{{cite news |url=http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2010/08/bridport%E2%80%99s-arts-hub/ |last=Burton-Page |first=Tony |title=Bridport's arts hub |newspaper=The Dorset Magazine - Dorset Life |date=August 2010 |accessdate=18 June 2016 }}
List of works
- The Sun Himself Must Die (1949)
- Silver Flame (1950)
- The Daybreak Edition (1951)
- The Last Voyages of the Mayflower (1955)
- The Angry Decade (1958)
- Rare Bird (1959)
- Question of Obscenity (1960) (with Robert Pitman)
- The Bootleggers (1961)
- Adventure Lit Their Star (1949) (the 1950 winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize)
- Scan (collected journalism) 1965
- Strip Jack Naked (1972)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1971)
- Hard Travellin': The Hobo and his History (1967)
- In the Country (1973 and 2013)
- Letters to his Daughter (1974)
- One and All: Two Years in the Chilterns (1991)
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{{succession box|title=Rector of the University of Edinburgh|before=Malcolm Muggeridge|after=Jonathan W. G. Wills|years=1969–1972}}
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References
- 'Keeping The Barbarians At Bay: The Last Years Of Kenneth Allsop, Green Pioneer' by David Wilkinson (2013)
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External links
- {{IMDb name|1522204}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Barbiturates-related deaths
Category:English male non-fiction writers
Category:English male journalists
Category:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners
Category:Rectors of the University of Edinburgh