Jean Overton Fuller

1915 – 2009

H O M E

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

P O E T R Y   &   E S S A Y S

P A I N T I N G S

N O O R   I N A Y A T   K H A N

I N T E R V I E W S

W R I T E R  -  P A I N T E R  -  M Y S T I C

A   M E E T I N G   O F   M I N D S: Letters to Dr Megs Little

O B I T U A R Y

W Y M I N G T O N   R E M E M B E R S

T H E I R   S T O R Y   C O N T I N U E S . . .

I N T E R V I E W S

Jean Overton Fuller talks to Radio Northampton about her books:

Controversy from the first chapter:

Evening Telegraph article September 2nd 1992

Courting controversy has almost become a way of life for artist and writer Jean Overton Fuller. The 77 year old spinster has written a succession of books throughout her life which have rattled the authorities. Evening Telegraph reporter Nick Tite went to her Wymington home to find out more about her work.

A Very English Genius: How Michael Ventris Cracked Linear B

A BBC documentary transmitted 6th August 2004

Michael Ventris (1922-1956), a prodigy in languages, deciphered the earliest known writing system in Europe. Jean Overton Fuller, a family friend, is interviewed about his unusual childhood and his parent’s separation. Jean would have been 9 years old and Michael 6 at the time of their meeting.

The interview took place at her home, Steep House in Wymington on 21st May 2002.

1992 Radio Northampton Interview about Cats and Other Immortals

The grisly crimes of Jack the Ripper, accounts of injustice during the Second World War and stories of abuse in schools have all flowed from the pen of Jean Overton Fuller. The writing bug she caught while still a teenager and her insatiable desire for the truth have dominated her life.

Her latest book, Cats and Other Immortals, has allied skill with the written word to her talent as an artist. Miss Fuller said she had “art in her blood”. Her mother was an artist and passed on tips to her daughter.

After a spell on the stage, she studied art at the Academie Julien in Paris and ever since, she has painted as a hobby. The walls of her house are covered in paintings of cats and feline creatures have become a focal point of her life. So much so, that after years of writing hard-hitting works, she has turned her skills to writing a book about cats.

Cats and Other Immortals is a true story about the plight of a small, neglected cat she discovered in London. She said: “It was in a terrible state, but strangely enough she appeared to be a pure bred Abyssinian. No-one seemed to want her until I expressed an interest in keeping her. A man she once belonged to demanded £500 for her and although his appeal eventually fell flat, Tiutte became mine after some fierce law suits.”

The book is both amusing and touching and like most of her work, offers something for every reader. Her literary career started just after the Second World War with publication of Madeleine. This was an unsettling account of the disappearance of one of her friends. It was followed by numerous other books on the war.

Miss Overton Fuller said: “People in high places weren’t keen on what I was doing. I spent years researching controversial issues surrounding agents during the war and the way they were treated. The powers that be weren’t very happy, but eventually accepted what I was saying was true.”

Biographies on writers Shelley, Swinburne and Sir Francis Bacon all followed, plus a book on Victor Neuburg, the literary godfather of Dylan Thomas. She struck up a friendship with Thomas at a Young Poets Club and he has been an influence on her career.

One of the books was about Jack the Ripper, a fiend who has stalked the public’s imagination for years. A story told by her mother led Miss Overton Fuller to reveal she believed artist Walter Sickert was The Ripper.

A new book about brutality at the Court Lees School in Surrey during the early 1970s is due out shortly and continues her controversial theme.

Article reproduced with permission from Northamptonshire Telegraph 2014

Steep House, Wymington

Graduation

1995 Radio Northampton Interview about The

Bombed Years

With her kittens

2004 BBC Documentary:

How Michael Ventris Cracked Linear B