

His Mr Majeika series of children's books were adapted for television.


His encyclopaedic work, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (1984), written jointly with his wife, Mari Prichard, has become a standard reference source. He also wrote histories of BBC Radio 3 (on which he had regular stints as broadcaster), the British satire boom of the 1960s, Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s (2002), and a centennial history of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1985. He also authored Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (1987), and his last book The Seven Lives of John Murray (2008) about John Murray and the publishing house of Albemarle Street, was published posthumously. Auden (1981), Ezra Pound (1988 winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize), Evelyn Waugh (1989), Benjamin Britten (1992), Robert Runcie (1997), Dennis Potter, and Spike Milligan (2004). Tolkien), The Inklings: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and their Friends (1978 winner of the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award), W. Tolkien: A Biography (1977 also editing of The Letters of J. He was educated at the Dragon School Oxford, and Marlborough College and then read English at Keble. As a child, he lived in the Warden's Lodgings at Keble College, Oxford, where his father served as warden until his appointment as Bishop of Oxford. His mother was Urith Monica Trevelyan, who had training in the Fröbel teaching method. His father was Harry Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings.Ĭarpenter was born (and lived almost all of his life, and died) in the city of Oxford. He is known especially for his biographies of J. Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.
