Frating days, Irene Palmer, was instrumental in obtaining a rented Georgian house at 14 St John Street, in the centre of Newport Pagnell. There Common spent hours working on books for film treatment reviews in the 'garden' (a cemetery), walking with Connie in the countryside they both loved, and reading to his children. His daughter Sally later recalled listening to Shelley and Omar Khayyam in the translation of Edward FitzGerald, whose atheistic stance Common was at pains to emphasise. He had always been interested in astronomy (his Uncle Robin was a flat-earther), and Fred Hoyle's theory of an endlessly self-renewing universe, which dispensed with a creator, was attractive. Though not a tactile person, Common was not a stern parent and never struck his children. He had small, feminine hands, badly stained with nicotine, and left domestic work to his wife. He was not a joiner or an activist, nor did he encourage his children to be so. He did, however, blossom in the right setting, often in pubs (a favourite was The Bull in Newport Pagnell), where he enjoyed political arguments with self-taught thinkers like himself. Another favourite haunt was the nearby working men's club on Silver Street, where he took his slippered ease at the bar. He was a connoisseur of beer and was described by his friend Tommy McCulloch as 'fairly jolly' at this period, though he retained his hatred of the 'bulky bourgeoisie' – and kept his Newcastle accent. He died of lung cancer in 1968, leaving a mass of unpublished material, which forms the Jack Common Archive, now held in Special Collections at Newcastle University Library. In popular culture Sculptor Laurence Bradshaw used Common's brow as a model for his bust of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, saying that he found there a similar patience and understanding. The folk singer/songwriter Jez Lowe has an album entitled Jack Common's Anthem, containing a song of the same name. In 2009, North-East poet and scholar Keith Armstrong published Common Words and the Wandering Star, about Jack Common and his work. He has drawn extensively on the archive. North East folk band, Kiddars Luck, formed by John Dixon, Colin McLelland and Alan Beadle have a track on their album, Where the Red Kites Fly, called "Jack The Lad" dedicated to Jack Common. References External links For a selection of articles by Jack Common, further biography and a photograph: Jack Common