Jake Thackray

In terms of a musical career, Jake Thackray was a late starter. Born in 1938, he was educated at the Roman Catholic St. Michael's College before graduating from Durham University as an English teacher. He worked for almost four years in France, teaching English in Lille, Brittany, and the Pyrenees -- he also spent six months working in Algeria, a stint that somewhat unfortunately coincided with the height of that country's struggle to escape its colonial overlords. Back in Lille, Thackray had his first poems published in a local magazine, then returned to Leeds in 1964. There,...