Obituary: Steve Bowles

Steve Bowles

12 January 1950 to 27 March 1991

‘Make sure you write a celebratory piece,’ one of Steve’s closest friends advised us. ‘He gave such a lot to so many people.’ No one will disagree with that. Steve taught in comprehensive schools in Gravesend, Sheffield, Telford, Dagenham and Havering before joining the staff of North Westminster Community School last September. After his involvement with that splendidly spikey and idiosyncratic journal Reviewsheet in the seventies, he became a regular and much respected contributor to BfK. He also wrote two books of his own, The Power of Hoodoo (Evans, 1979) and Jamie (Gollancz, 1981), as well as editing ‘Twisters’ and ‘Choices’ for Collins. Despite intermittent chemotherapy for the last five years, Steve never missed a day’s teaching and most of his friends were astonished to discover how ill he’d been. This was typical of him. So is the fact that he was working on a new anthology right to the end – due from CUP next year with the provisional title of A Stench of Kerosene. He loved kids and books about equally and treated both with flair and integrity. Not a difficult life to celebrate.

Farewell, Steve.