Jeffrey John Dixon

I was brought up on Downham, a council estate in South East London where many of the streets, for reasons which remain obscure, were named after characters from the Arthurian legends. I lived in Pendragon Road, which was encircled by Roundtable Road: nearby were streets named after Launcelot, Galahad, Tristram and other knights, as well as Merlin Gardens, which was just by the bus stop! These evocative names may well have kick-started my lifelong passion for all things Arthurian although, growing up, I also loved Norse mythology and Marvel Comics: especially Dr Strange and, of course, the Mighty Thor... I spent a lot of my twenties backpacking around Western Europe and North Africa; and it was at this time that I came under the spell of C.G. Jung, the therapist of soul, after a friend lent me a paperback copy of his autobiography that I could carry in my rucksack. I eventually settled down in Powys, in the green heart of Wales, where I found gainful employment in social care, while experimenting with writing poems, short stories and a novel. I also started writing studies in comparative mythology after coming under the influence of the circle of thinkers connected with Jung at the annual Eranos conferences in Switzerland. Their example of serious, scholarly exploration of esoteric ideas inspired me to embark on the in-depth study of the Arthurian and Grail legends which led to the publication of my first book in 2012. In this and subsequent works I have explored the clash between religious literalism and the spiritual imagination which has created the contemporary Waste Land. Moreover, the championing by the Eranos circle of the importance of myth-making in the modern world has enabled me to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to my continuing love for Sixties and Seventies Marvel Comics; and to my enthusiasm for Tottenham Hotspur, those Knights of the Premier League Table, still in search of football’s Holy Grail...