My wife’s grandmother, Jackie Moore, who has died aged 82, was a senior examiner of A-level English who also edited student texts published by Oxford University Press.
She was born in Bromborough, Wirral, to Vera (nee Jones), who ran a small chain of clothing shops, Davies Fashions, and her husband, George Davies, who was a maintenance worker at Lever Brothers in Port Sunlight.
Straight after leaving Rock Ferry convent school Jackie got married in 1959, at the age of 19, to Peter Johnson, who at the time was helping to run his family’s butchers firm. She gave birth to their only child, Susan, in 1960, and although they were divorced in the mid-1960s, Jackie and Peter (who eventually became chairman of Everton football club) remained close throughout their lives, often holidaying together with extended family.
As a young housewife who also ran a babywear shop in Hoylake, Jackie’s academic ambitions had been stifled, and she longed to go to university. Eventually she studied English at the University of Manchester as a mature student, graduating with a first in 1974, and in 1979 completed a PhD there, focusing on literary theory. By then she had moved to the Peak District, and in 1980 she married Michael Moore, an artist and art teacher.
She taught English at Loreto college in Manchester (1978-80) and then Marple Ridge high school in Stockport (1980-85), followed by St Damian’s RC high school in Ashton-under-Lyne (1985-90). In 1990 she assumed a senior examining role at the Joint Matriculation Board (now known as AQA), remaining in that post until she retired in 2016. In her spare time she helped Mike, providing refreshments and insightful conversation for those who passed through his studio learning to paint.
She edited a number of books in the OUP’s Oxford Student Texts series for A-level students that were published between 2006 and 2017, helping to guide readers through the works of Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde and Thomas Middleton, among others. After undergoing a surgical procedure in 2021, she became friendly with her surgeon, Aali Sheen, and then edited his memoir, The Painted Surgeon (2022).
A loving, wise and sometimes pleasantly eccentric woman (other people’s ailments fascinated her), Jackie had a small circle of close friends. She was devoted to them and her family, and is survived by Mike, Susan, four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and her sister Ronni.
