John
Leonard Beevers was born on 18 October 1911 in Gildersome, Yorkshire,
to John Leonard Beevers, a police inspector, and Esther Schofield
Beevers. Restless as a boy, he led a small gang that engaged in
delinquent behavior and petty theft. His youthful hysteria and arrogance
continued through his time at Queens College, Cambridge, where he
took an M.A. in English with first class honors in 1933.
Beevers
married Marjorie Pollard in 1934. He published his first book,
World Without Faith, a defense of free thought over structured
ideology, the following year. Beevers also began his journalism
career at this time with stints on several newspapers. He worked
exclusively for the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1941
to 1969.
John
Beevers embraced revolutionary Communism in the 1930s, but converted
to Roman Catholicism sometime in the 1940s. Although nominally
a Catholic, Beevers had an ambiguous relationship to the church.
While he admired its theology and the lives of Catholic saints,
Beevers’s critical and lascivious nature prevented him from
fully committing to the faith, particularly in its moral elements.
Marjorie Beevers demonstrated a greater devotion to Roman Catholicism
than her husband.
John
Beevers aspired to write fiction and poetry, but never had much
success in these genres. He privately printed a volume of poetry,
The Dark Emperor, under the pseudonym John Clayton in 1947, but
failed to publish any more imaginative literature. Instead, Beevers
turned to writing biographies of Roman Catholic saints, beginning
with Storm of Glory: St. Therese of Lisieux (1949). John Beevers
is best known for his 15 works on saints’ lives, Marian
apparitions, and translations of Catholic theological treatises.
He has been credited with presenting balanced accounts of his
subjects, avoiding both brusque skepticism and unquestioning piety.
John
and Marjorie Beevers had one daughter, Susan Jane. Marjorie Beevers
died in 1962. John Beevers married his mistress, Marjorie Broadbridge,
the following year. He continued writing until his death on 13
September 1975. |