Together with Eamonn "Spud" Murphy,
Jeremiah Scanlon is the author of the novel "4-4-3". Jeremiah Scanlon
was born in Shepherd’s Bush in 1954, both of his parents having emigrated from
the west coast of Kerry a couple of years earlier in search of work. The family
moved to Hanwell in 1959 where they still retain a presence to this day. After
a very Catholic, and fairly mediocre school career in Greenford, (it was Jerry
that was mediocre, the schools tried their best) he moved on to a just as
Catholic teacher training college in Birmingham in 1972. This move was made in
an attempt to stave off the need to go out to work to earn a living rather than
as part of any well planned and structured career move. Back in the early
seventies the country was short of teachers and basically let any fool enrol to
train, therefore, as he was too thick to go to university (yes, you could be
back then), this seemed the ideal solution for someone looking for the easy
life. After completing the course of study a move back to Ealing in 1975 saw
Jerry actually take up a post in teaching and brought to an early end his
search for the easy life. Fortunately, for the students of the UK the job
itself has a built in safety net to weed out the less than committed and
academically inept and in 1979 he saw sense and left the classroom to become a
sales rep. in the glamorous world of office and social stationery. This change
of career had the effect of immediately increasing his salary, whilst at the
same time reducing his workload and stress levels, improving his golf handicap and
bestowing upon him a car. The next twenty six years have seen Jerry trying out
many other careers, brewer, time & motion man, trade union official,
haulage contractor, customs officer, financial adviser (insurance salesman),
pop promoter (together with Eamonn he put seventies teeny bop idols Mud on at a
local theatre, unfortunately this was in the eighties), publisher and drinks
wholesaler, before finally discovering that he doesn’t really like work at all.
Actually, he discovered this fact at the tender age of fifteen when he got a
summer job in a sherry-bottling factory in Isleworth and decided then that he
would spend his life
avoiding work if at all possible. In fact the only real
highlight of his working career was when he gave up work for two years to
travel around the world, the lifestyle was fantastic but the pay was
non-existent.
http://www.4-4-3.co.uk -
visit the "4-4-3" webpage
