A former teacher who turned to journalism at the age of 50 before becoming an arts critic for a regional daily has died aged 68.

Kevin Berry, left, regarded journalism as his first passion, but only turned to it in later life after a career in teaching.

Born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, Kevin received his very first typewriter at the age of four.

His father Harold, who worked at the Sheffield Telegraph and the Sheffield Star as circulation manager, told his son he wasn’t “tough enough” to become a journalist and so he became a teacher instead.

However in the 1980s he began sending in short stories to the Dalesman magazine, as well as covering races in Yorkshire for Cycling Weekly.

And at the age of 50 became a full-time journalist, covering arts for the Yorkshire Post as well as national publications and sending in reports of shows from across the north of England.

He was one of the first regional reviewers to be admitted to the Critics’ Circle after taking up the editorship of the Stage magazine, and also served as the northern dance correspondent for Dancing Times and Dance Today for many years.

Last year he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and is survived by wife Pat, daughters Katharine and Elizabeth, and grandchildren Jessica, Megan, Connor, William, Lewis and George.