John Kemp

John Kemp was born in Clapham, London, in 1926. His mother came from an old Essex marshland family and his father was a Fleet Street journalist who came from a travelling theatrical family.

After serving in the Beds and Herts regiment of the British army during the second world war, he lived in Gloucestershire for a short time. In his late 20s he moved to Maldon, in Essex, where his mother's family had lived for at least 250 years.

Soon after, he became involved in a campaign to save the old wooden Thames sailing barges from dying out. He spent the last two decades of his life as a sailing barge captain. "A Fair Wind For London" tells the story of these years.

He died on 21st September, 1987, at the wheel of the sailing barge Thalatta, leaving a wife and four children.