Jack's Return Home

Ted Lewis was born in Manchester, England on January 15th 1940. After a difficult post-war upbringing and a few dead-end jobs he turned his hand to writing and illustrating, after studying for four years at Hull Art School. He also worked in television before writing, including doing animation on cartoons and on the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine.

In 1965, Hutchinson, a major UK publisher accepted his first novel entitled "All The Way Home And All The Night Through". The story centers around an art school romance and is partly autobiographical. Then in 1970 after several attempts to find a publisher, Michael Joseph, part of the Penguin group, finally accepted Ted's manuscript for "Jack's Return Home".

This proved to be the highlight of Ted's career. It introduces the character of Jack Carter. Tough and gritty, this crime thriller was reminiscent of Raymond Chandler at his best. The Sunday Times described the book as beginning 'quietly and convincingly' and going on 'to increasingly violent scenes.....Ted Lewis can write tersely and well'. The regional paper the Doncaster Evening Post summarises Lewis' book as 'completely believable' and the dialogue being 'true to life'. American Publishers Weekly also praised the book arguing the book 'introduces us to a vivid parade of wildly vulgar and foul-mouthed people'.

Film rights were quickly snapped up and the now renamed "Get Carter" went into production. Unfortunately, Ted wasn't given the chance to write the screenplay, even though he dearly wanted to. That honour went to Mike Hodges. Many changes were made for the film but they were all approved by Ted, who was present at much of the filming.

After the success of "Get Carter" another novel was on the cards. This turned out to be "Plender" and was published in 1971. This is another crime novel concerning sex and revenge. Lewis also penned another Carter adventure in 1974 called 'Jack Carter's Law', which the original copies are still easily available to buy. This one was, obviously, not as popular as the original. A further book, 'Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon' was also written.

By Mark and Jules Burt