Colin Larkin (writer) - Background and Education

Background and Education

Colin Larkin was born in Dagenham in 1949 in an area of Essex that was largely populated by workers in the car industry. Although the post-war years proved lucrative for the Ford motor company, Larkin was raised in relative poverty in the largest area of council housing in the United Kingdom, in the suburbs that surrounded the Ford plant. The Becontree estate in Dagenham began as a conglomeration of 27,000 "homes for heroes", and had no recognisable town centre.

Larkin spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music, and a taste for exotic pattern and vivid colour, which would re-surface in later years in books on Islamic Art and Architecture, and Oriental rugs.

In the 1950s Larkin attended the South East Essex County Technical High School following which, under his own initiative he obtained an apprenticeship as a commercial artist, enabling him to take a sandwich course at the London College of Printing (now the London College of Communication). There he studied typography and book design. and was influenced by the typeface designer Eric Gill, who is associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.