Tom Ingram (b. Spaxton, England, 26 July 1924; d. reg. Bath, England,
January 2007)
Thomas Henry Ingram was the son of John Markham Ingram, an
officer in the armed forces, and his wife Grace Williams. He served in the Royal Artillery of the
British Army from 1942-45, and was educated at Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge (B.A. 1948;
M.A. 1957). He worked for a few years as
a teacher, and for several subsequent years as a researcher and writer, before
lecturing in the United States
for the Netherlands Office of Overseas Students in 1957-58, and as an
instructor (1958-60) and assistant professor of English (1964-65) at Long Island University. Returning to England he held
positions at the City of Bath Technical College (1960-64; 1965-67) and the
British Polytechnic, West England College of Art (from 1967). He married Marie Robbins-Vona in April 1958;
they had three children, two daughters and one son.
All his books are published as by “Tom Ingram.” His first,
Bells in England (1954), is nonfiction, and it includes two
appendices written for the book by Robert Aickman, on Henry Irving in “The
Bells” (five pages) and “The Bells of Bealings House” (also five pages). With
Douglas Newton he compiled
Hymns as
Poetry (1955), and
Banns of Marriage (1955) was his first novel.
Ingram turned to writing juveniles in the 1970s, and the
first of these, The Hungry Cloud
(1971; retitled Garranane in the 1972
U.S. edition), is a compelling fantasy (with excellent illustrations by Bill Geldart) of an evil lady named Fenrir who can
destroy a person by drawing a likeness, threatening Kai and his sister Flor as
well as their entire kingdom. It was followed by two other juveniles, The Night Rider (1975), a time-slip
fantasy, and The Outcasts (1977),
where in response to murderous attacks by eagles on a village, three people are
driven away.
 |
| UK dw |
 |
| US dw |
 |
| UK dw |
 |
| US dw |
 |
| UK dw (no US edition) |
All his books are published as by “Tom Ingram.” His first, Bells in England (1954), is nonfiction, and it includes two
appendices written for the book by Robert Aickman, on Henry Irving in “The
Bells” (five pages) and “The Bells of Bealings House” (also five pages). With
Douglas Newton he compiled Hymns as
Poetry (1955), and Banns of Marriage (1955) was his first novel. 
Great work. Lovely to see a well researched summary of the work of someone you knew so well. In this case, my father!
ReplyDeleteIt's worth a hat tip to his collaboration with his long time partner Barbara Jones, whose work in the 'popular arts' has been well noted.
Thanks for writing in, Patrick. The Aickman ties are strengthened by your father's association with Barbara Jones, who illustrated a children's book Timothy Tramcar (1949), written by Edith Ray Gregorson, Aickman's wife and partner as literary agents in the Richard Marsh Agency. I wonder, considering Aickman's contributions to Bells in England, whether Aickman and his wife might have represented your father as literary agents for his early few books.
DeletePatrick Ingram, what a great pleasure to see your name in here. I just posted a brief Google review of your father's book, "The Hungry Cloud", which was the best book I read as a teenager, and I read a LOT of books, including Alan Garner's excellent series - another favourite. "The Hungry Cloud" is a totally mesmerising gothic tale, and the illustrations are sublime. I also still have my original, somewhat timeworn, copy of "The Outcasts", another terrific book.
ReplyDeleteFascinated to see this. My father, Richard Young, knew Tom and Barbara Jones. Dad contributed some of the photographs that weren't by Tom. I have Dad's copy of Folkies in front of me, with a letter from Barbar dated 1957.
ReplyDelete