Chris Alton. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Alton.
The Swarthmore lecturer interview: Chris Alton
The 2018 Swarthmore lecturer Chris Alton talks to Ian Kirk-Smith about his background, faith and art
Could you talk about your family background?
My Mum taught at a primary school and the head teacher was a Quaker. She had lost her own mother when she was in her teens and the head teacher took her ‘under her wing’, so to speak, and they started going to Croydon Meeting together. This was where she met and later married my Dad.
They divorced around twelve years later. My Dad has since remarried – a woman called Beauty. They live in Zambia eight months of the year and are in the process of setting up an orphanage. So, I’ve grown up within Quaker circles. When my Mum died in early 2016 I found solace in my relationship with Quakerism; which had been a vital aspect of my Mum’s life.