Evan Jones (writer)

Evan Jones was born in 1927 in Portland, Jamaica, the son of a Fred M Jones, a farmer, and Gladys, a Quaker missionary and teacher. One of seven children, Jones grew up in rural Jamaica and was educated locally, then at the prestigious boarding school Munro College, and subsequently attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania. After Haverford, he went to the Gaza Strip in Palestine in 1949, with the American Friends Service Committee, which organized the refugee camps there under the auspices of the United Nations; his experiences became the basis of his first television screenplay, The Widows of Jaffa.[4] He graduated from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1952 with a BA (Bachelors of Arts Honours) degree in English literature.[5] Jones taught at the George School in Pennsylvania and Wesleyan University, Connecticut. In 1956, he moved to England and earned his living as a writer of documentary drama, television plays and feature films.

His works include the television documentary series The Fight Against Slavery and several films directed by Joseph Losey, including Eva (a collaboration with Hugo Butler, 1962), King and Country (1964) and Modesty Blaise (1966). Other screenplays by Jones include Funeral in Berlin (1966), Escape to Victory (1981) and A Show of Force (1990). He is also notable as the author of Madhouse on Castle Street (1963), a now lost BBC television play, which featured the acting début of Bob Dylan.[6] Jones's poem, The Song of the Banana Man (1956), is taught in schools throughout the Caribbean and published in anthologies worldwide. He has also written biographies, and textbooks and novels for children.[7]

His wife, Joanna Vogel, is an actor and his daughters Melissa and Sadie are both novelists.[1][2]

• Evan Jones at IMDb