Authors

Ken Pearson was born at Kirton, near Boston, in 1922 and has lived there ever since. He served in the RAF, where he trained as an aero-engine fitter working on Kittyhawk fighters and Wellington bombers in UK, Egypt, Palestine and Aden.

Leaving the village school at 14, he was quickly aware of having missed the bus as far as education was concerned, and has spent much of his life running after it. He clocked up nearly 250 night-school attendances in the four years before enlisting in the RAF, then an innumerable number in spare-time classes run by the service. Returning home he became a member of Pilgrim College, Boston's adult education centre, and for about 30 years studied subjects as diverse as archaeology, folklore, current affairs, economics, philosophy, literature and history. Since retirement he has completed 2 one-year Open University courses on history, and is currently working through a list of GCSE and A-level courses with the National Extension College. He has also attended the one-week Writers' Summer School on six occasions.

His working life was almost as varied as his studies: office boy, insurance clerk, bookkeeper, machine assistant, printer's engineer, AA Patrol, tractor mechanic, maintenance fitter, technical clerk, workshops inspector, stock controller, engineering administrator and factory timekeeper.

He was married in 1948, his wife being also a Kirton native; they had three daughters, and there are now five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The youngest daughter, Enid Pearson, has poetry published nationwide in several popular magazines. Ken's wife Muriel died in 2004; he now lives alone.

Ken's active interest in music began at age 12, when he joined the Kirton Band. In the RAF he wore a Voluntary Musician badge and played in three different station bands. He was offered a term of service as a full-time bandsman, but opted to return to Kirton. After a spell as Solo Euphonium player he became conductor of Kirton Band, but finally retired from musical activities in favour of freelance writing and study.

About 150 of Ken's magazine and newspaper articles have been published in UK, some of which were translated to appear in German and Swiss publications. A radio play was broadcast on Radio Telefis Eireann, and he took part in a BBC broadcast on the subject of written humour in the Radio 3 series "Working with Words". en's glossary of dialect words and phrases, Tairtyville Talk, was published in 1995.

For relaxation, Ken cycles around the remote lanes in Kirton area with his camera, taking shots which he later transforms into watercolour landscapes.