IN some pseudo-sophisticated London literary circles, J L Carr was seen as something of a provincial.

The capital is mentioned just once in his novels but, as Byron Rogers points out, York-born Carr is "probably the only late 20th century English novelist to have circumnavigated the Earth without catching a single plane".

Few fiction writers can have used their experiences so comprehensively. Carr, who died in 1994, did this with every episode of his life: from teaching in South Dakota, to wartime service in Africa, to a season as a footballer with a freakishly successful village team.

His eight novels, including one masterpiece, the Booker-shortlisted A Month In The Country, were so different in tone and style that each one could almost have been written by a different person. They were all published after Carr was 50. He had only then, following a working life as a teacher and primary school headmaster, turned to writing novels and a second career publishing small books and maps.

J L (Jim) Carr's was a life both conventional and extraordinary. In a highly engaging biography, Byron Rogers captures this perfectly, as well as the contradictory impulses in Carr's character.

Updated: 08:51 Wednesday, November 12, 2003