Painter, teacher and writer, born in Smallthorne, Staffordshire, son of a bricklayer. At 13 Berry left council school to attend Junior Art School, at Queen Street, Burslem, in the Potteries. He became a student there in 1940, going to Royal College of Art in 1943. In 1946 Berry began part-time teaching at Manchester College of Art; in 1952 took on same role at Burslem College of Art and Chelsea School of Art, becoming full-time lecturer in Burslem in 1963. He was later principal lecturer in painting at North Staffordshire Polytechnic. In the mid-1940s Berry met Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, whose work had a great influence on him, and saw L S Lowry’s paintings for the first time. In the mid-1970s Berry began writing stage plays, and in 1980 a talk broadcast on Radio Stoke won the Pye Award for the best scripted talk of the year.