My father, John Donovan, who has died aged 83, was an artist and writer. His novella Anne, a lyrical work in a stream-of-consciousness style, was published in 1972 by John Calder and Marion Boyars in their new writers series and admiringly reviewed by Robert Nye in the Guardian. Over the ensuing decades, John laboured over a longer-form autobiographical novel, but was unable to complete it to his satisfaction.
He was born in the family pub in Cowlinge, Suffolk, the fourth child of six. His parents, Constance (nee Sparkes) and Cornelius, were working-class Londoners who moved several times before and after the second world war, with unsettling effects on John’s education.
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