B. S. Johnson was born in 1933 in Hammersmith, west London, into a working-class family. His childhood and education were disrupted by the war. He attended Flora Gardens Primary School in Hammersmith, but, as with many London children during the German bombing, he was evacuated to the countryside, an experience which left many cruel legacies of personal trauma as the relocation was performed with scant regard for the psychological consequences of tearing up the child's relation to family, friends and locality. Johnson himself was relocated to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, and would later move back to Barnes in west London, studying at the County Modern Secondary School and then at the Kingston Day Commercial School.
On leaving school he worked in a number of menial clerical posts, the
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Citation: Tew, Philip. "B. S. Johnson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2376, accessed 27 November 2024.]
