Author of “Get Carter”

Ted LewisTed Lewis in Barton upon Humber, George Street and King Street. ©David Lee Photography

A Trail of his Work, Life and Times

Hull trained North Lincolnshire Novelist, Graphic Artist and Jazz Musician 1940 – 1982

Published by Ted Lewis Group, 1 Soutergate, Barton upon Humber, DN18 5HGfrankiesatthirtyfive@gmail.com

Take the trail in Ted Lewis’s wordsThe Trail is best begun where Ted Lewis arrived in Hull to attend Hull College of Art and Crafts (as it then was)

The Pier “I stood on the top deck of the ferry watching the sunset over the wolds to the west of the city… The night was quiet apart from the churning of the paddles and the rattling of the flag at the stern of the ferry. I went down the buffet and ordered a cup of tea.” “We ended down on the pier… the tide was running high. The river lapped energetically a few feet away from us. The curve of the river away to our left revealed the main docks...Suddenly heavy rain swept down on us.”

The Minerva “Standing on its own, on my immediate left, was a pub, its presence creating narrow street between itself and the other block … I entered the warm pub …Two men drank up and said that they were going to get on the ferry … When I boarded the ferry, I decided to have another drink…. I ordered a large dark and was just about to drink it when two men from the Minerva”

Route to and from the College “I walked down the empty dockside. It’s hazy street-lights and brilliant railway lines set in the rain slick cobbled surface of road made a perfect surrounding for the feelings that were in me. Old fruit and dirty vegetables in the gutter. The water in the black dock licked limpidly at the greasy sides.”

The College “I found myself walking up the steps outside the college... the building was a Victorian hotchpotch of Dutch-Elizabethan and half-moon upwards through the two high stores of the building. The well soared up to a huge skylight.”“We put our arms round each other, sway back and forward…… I get up and stagger from the stand. Rudge is at the ticket table… I push past him and up the stairs…. I can’t see Janet…. I turn and start running down the stairs…. I am almost overbalancing forwards as I run…. My arm catches the frame of a print lent by the V & A Museum… the second picture crashes…. At the bottom of the stairs, the Mayor and his Wife….”

Cinemas “At two o’clock the following Saturday afternoon I was waiting outside the Cecil Cinema”

The Picadish (now unused at the House of Fraser) “The Picadish was a self-service restaurant on the top floor of a big department store across the road from where we were standing. All the mob met up there on Saturday, screaming and shouting in the corner of the restaurant, finding out about the parties that were going to take place in the evening.”

Queens Gardens “We were sitting in Kings Gardens. They were near the docks, the gardens themselves had been built on top of a dock that had been filled in after it had somehow become redundant. We could see the Art Gallery next to masts of unseen ships in the neighbouring dock.”

The Black Boy “So Harry and Paul and Hamish the bass player and Don and Paul’s girl and me went out of the Kelvin, into the cool of the night, across the market and past the skeleton stalls over to the old Black Boy.”– Kevin was a ballroom very near the Blue Bell where Unity Jazz Band Played in the top room

Back to the Pier “He wanted to take me to the Ferry Boat dance … The pubs round the pier were jam-packed with mobs of people waiting to go on the Ferry … -at half-past nine the boat was like a floating beer bottle.”

FERENSW

AYOSBORNE STREET

PORTER STREET

OSBORNE STREET

WATERHOUSE L

ANE

CASTLE STREET

MYTONGATE

HESSLE ROAD

HUMBER DO

CK STREET

HUMBER STREET

WELLINGTON STREET EAST

BLANKET ROW

WELLINGTON STREET WEST

GARRISON ROAD

QU

EEN

STR

EET

MAR

KET

PLAC

E

LOW

GATE

ALFRED GELDER STREET

WHITEFRIARGATE

MAN

OR STREET BOWLALLEY

SILVER ST

CHAPEL LANE

BISHOP LANE

SCALE LANE

LIBERTY LANE

HIGH

STR

EET

PRIN

CES

DO

CK S

TREE

T

DAG

GER

LAN

E

POSTERNGATEN CHURCH SIDE

S CHURCH SIDE

GUILDHALL ROAD

HANOVER SQUARE

WILBERFO

RCE DR

GEORGE STREET

KING EDWARD STREET

JAMESON STREET

PARAGON STREET

ANLABY ROAD CARR LANE

WEST STREET

KINGSTON STREET

ENGLISH STREET

COM

MERCIAL RO

AD

QUEENS DOCK AVE

DOCK STREET

QUEENS DOCK AVE

RIVER HUMBER

HULLMARINAHULL MARINA

VICTORIA PIER

MINERVA PIER

RIVE

R H

ULL

NELSON STREET

MYTO

N STREET

5

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8

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Ted LewisNovelist, Artist, Musician

Monty Martin

“Ted” Lewis, (1940 to 1982) revived the British “noir school” tradition

of crime novels after the genre became neglected after initially

emerging in the 1930s, particularly in USA. He is principally known

for Get Carter a fi lm based on his second published novel, Jack’s

Return Home featuring his famous creation, criminal enforcer, Jack

Carter. Lewis’s breadth and quality as an artist does not rely on that

work of literature alone. He wrote 8 further novels, including two

also featuring Carter and two clearly semi-autobiographical ones

which gave insightful glimpses of a young man growing up in the

1950s. Lewis also wrote television scripts and short stories.Ted Lewis was a fi lm buff from an early age who developed into a

talented professional graphic artist, ultimately being selected as

animation clean up supervisor on that innovative cartoon based fi lm,

The Beatles Yellow Submarine.Appreciating jazz throughout his life, Lewis distinguished himself as

pianist with Hull’s Unity Jazz Band, continuing to entertain others

throughout his life.His colourful life was brought to an early tragic end at the age of 42,

Lewis’s life, experiences and observations provide a fascinating story

to match many of his no holds barred accounts of subjects that many

dared not deal with.

Hard or Soft BoiledA biographical monograph of a boy from the small Lincolnshire town of Barton upon Humber who, as an adult, changed UK criminal noir literature forever.

£4.99/$7.99

Sh

ort

bio

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f T

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by

Mo

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Mart

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© Montagu John Martin 2017Monty Martin lives in Ted Lewis’s Home Town of Barton upon Humber. He is Chairman of the Ted Lewis Group which has produced Ted Lewis Trails around Barton and Hull, two Jazz Festivals and has mounted three comprehensive exhibitions on the work, life and times of the author.The Group has been offered premises for a Ted

Lewis Memorial and Study Room at Joseph Wright Hall in Barton in conjunction with the Trust running that historic property.Monty, past Chairman of Barton Arts also writes

poetry, organises Barton Muse poetry group and publishes his and others’poetry as well as the fi rst edition of Ted Lewis, Hard or Soft Boiled.

Available on Amazon £6.99 plus p&p

FERENSW

AY

OSBORNE STREET

PORTER STREET

OSBORNE STREET

WATERHOUSE L

ANE

CASTLE STREET

MYTONGATE

HESSLE ROAD

HUMBER DO

CK STREET

HUMBER STREET

WELLINGTON STREET EAST

BLANKET ROW

WELLINGTON STREET WEST

GARRISON ROAD

QU

EEN

STR

EET

MAR

KET

PLAC

E

LOW

GATE

ALFRED GELDER STREET

WHITEFRIARGATE

MAN

OR STREET BOWLALLEY

SILVER ST

CHAPEL LANE

BISHOP LANE

SCALE LANE

LIBERTY LANE

HIGH

STR

EET

PRIN

CES

DO

CK S

TREE

T

DAG

GER

LAN

E

POSTERNGATEN CHURCH SIDE

S CHURCH SIDE

GUILDHALL ROAD

HANOVER SQUARE

WILBERFO

RCE DR

GEORGE STREET

KING EDWARD STREET

JAMESON STREET

PARAGON STREET

ANLABY ROAD CARR LANE

WEST STREET

KINGSTON STREET

ENGLISH STREET

COM

MERCIAL RO

AD

QUEENS DOCK AVE

DOCK STREET

QUEENS DOCK AVE

RIVER HUMBER

HULLMARINAHULL MARINA

VICTORIA PIER

MINERVA PIER

RIVE

R H

ULL

NELSON STREET

MYTO

N STREET

1

2

3

4

10

11

12

13

Unity Jazz Band painted by Ted Lewis

Ted Lewis Trail – Places in Hull

1 Pier Head/Victoria pier where the Humber Ferry docked, well used by Ted Lewis 1956 to 1960.

2 The Minerva, a symbol for trawlermen that they had arrived in port. Drinking hole for Ted Lewis.

3 The Fruit Market, referred to in All the Way Home and All the Night Through.

4 The cobbled streets. Route taken by Ted Lewis to college.

5 The Cecil Cinema (no longer a cinema, part of Ted Lewis’ cinema habit.

6 Hull College of Arts and Crafts, changed to Hull College of Art and Design, now School of Performing Arts.

7 The Tower Cinema.

8 The Regent Cinema, now a bar, part of Ted Lewis’ cinema habit.

9 At the top floor of Hammonds department store was the Picadish. A meeting place for students.

10 Hull College of Art and Design, Ted Lewis Exhibition weekdays 8 to 26 May 2017.

11 The Black Boy, watering hole of Ted Lewis.

12 Ye Olde Blue Bell where Ted and the Unity Jazz Band played.

13 The Oberon (now no longer a pub) from which the Unity Jazz Band borrowed a piano to play in the Humber Ferry, Riverboat Shuffle.

Humber Ferry ceased 1981

Hull College of Arts and Crafts

The Minerva

The Black Boy The Oberon Sign

The Stairs at the College down which Ted Lewis

tumbled, drunk, falling at the Feet of the Lord Mayor

Lewis’ novel about college days in Hull

Riverboat Shuffle on which Unity Jazz band played

The Cecil cinema

Edward Alfred (Ted) LewisEdward (Ted) Lewis, sometimes called “Ed” or “Lew” was born in the Manchester suburb of Stretford in 1940. Moving to Barton upon Humber in 1946, from an early age, he developed his natural talent for sketching. He then became fascinated with the cinema, particularly action and later dark or noir films such as Lee Marvin in Shack Out on 101. He attended Barton Grammar School where his

talents were recognised by writer, poet and Head of English, Henry Treece who encouraged him to study at Hull College of Arts and Crafts an Anlaby Road.

Ted Lewis was in Hull from 1956 to 1960 studying for his diploma in art and design playing piano with the Unity Jazz Band and polishing up his ability with the opposite sex. These experiences enabled his literary talent to bloom and which he described in his first novel, All the Way Home and All the Night Through (1965).

In 1961 Lewis left Hull for a career in graphic art including advertising also illustrating children’s books until his talents led into film graphics, notably The Lone Ranger series (1966) and as animation clean-up supervisor in The Beatles Yellow Submarine (1968).

It was his second novel, Jack’s Return Home (1970) which brought him fame. The film rights were sold by his agent, Hon Toby Eady to Michael Klinger who produced the dark criminal, action movie, Get Carter directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine. He went on to write Plender (1971), Billy Rags (1973), Jack Carter’s Law (1974), The Rabbit (1975), Boldt (1976), Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon (1977) and GBH (1980).

As a novelist, Ted Lewis broke new ground being amongst the first to revive the “hard boiled” or “noir” novel in the UK of which Raymond Chandler had been master in the USA. In this way, Lewis had a towering influence on British criminal, noir literature with a realistic, acerbic, pithy, unrelenting style which pulled no punches.

Ted’s early adult life was in London and Essex but after Get Carter he moved with his wife and two daughters to Framlingham in Suffolk. However his marriage to Jo in 1966 sadly foundered in 1974 when Ted Lewis returned to his roots in Barton upon Humber. There he continued to write, sketch and play piano for fun. He socialised with a glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Although often unwell from an early age, both drink and smoking contributed to his premature death aged 42.

Ted Lewis (second from right) as he would have appeared as a student in Hull