Kenneth Allsop (29 January 1920 Yorkshire, England – 23 May 1973) was a British broadcaster, author and naturalist. He was a regular reporter on the BBC current affairs programme “Tonight” during the 1960’s. He also was Rector of Edinburgh University and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 1958 he wrote what is widely seen as being the definitive account of 1950s British Literature, “The Angry Decade”, particularly remarkable for its closing remarks 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.”
The inquest on his death recorded an open verdict, despite having found that it was brought about by an overdose of barbiturates. He is buried at Powerstock in Dorset.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Sun Must Die (1949)
Silver Flame (1950)
The Daybreak Edition (1951)
The Angry Decade (1958)
Rare Bird (1959)
Question of Obscenity (1960) (with Robert Pitman)
The Bootleggers (1961)
Adventure Lit Their Star (1962) (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize)
Strip Jack Naked (1972)
Harrier Beecher Stowe (1971)
Hard Travellin’: The Hobo and his History (1972)
In the Country (1973)
Letters to his Daughter (1974)
One and All: Two Years in the Chilterns (1991)
