John Moat

John Moat (born 1936) is an English poet, novelist, and painter.

Life
Moat was born in India in 1936. He won an art prize sponsored by John Piper at 15. At 18 he studied for a year under English draughtsman Edward Kapp. He then decided to become a writer, and studied English the University of Oxford. After leaving university, he worked as a teacher for 4 years, before becoming a full-time writer.

At 24 he bought an isolated property on the Atlantic coast of North Devon. He has lived there ever since, since 1965 with his wife, Antoinette. They have two children, Elspeth and Ben.

In 1968, with poet John Fairfax, he founded the Arvon Foundation, which has become one of Britain's premier creative writing enterprises. He is also the founder of Tandem, a teachers' and writers' alliance, and the Extension Trust, an art and education charity. For more than 20 years he has been a columnist for the alternative magazine, Resurgence.

He began painting again around age 30, giving occasional exhibitions, and illustrating his own books.