Adjudicator – Junior Classes: John Burton
John Burton was a teacher for 30 years, for most of them as Head of English in a Nuneaton school. He has helped to collect and publish anthologies of children’s work and has written short stories and poetry. He has had an interest in local history and photography since childhood and has published a number of books on local history in North Warwickshire and contributed photographs to others.
John was the founder chairman of the Bedworth Society in 1981 and is now president. Since 1998 he has been a leading member of the group running the Parsonage Project, Bedworth’s Heritage Centre, which is part of the Almshouses buildings. In recent years John became chairman of the George Eliot Fellowship. In 2007 there were celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the publication of her first work of fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life. Since then there have been the 150th anniversaries of Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss. John has given lectures, slide shows and walking tours of local places associated with her and organised outings to other areas connected with her work.
Adjudicator – Adult Classes: Cllr Don Navarro