He married Ellen Healey, a Wapping receptionist, and had four children, John, Karen, Suzanne and Richard.
Carr, a fiend for detail, worked on the books of, among others, a car security firm called Autolock, a damp-proofing company and Pedigree Dolls, the company that launched the Sindy doll. There followed years of accountancy, accompanied by cigarettes smoked in ever greater numbers. He also discovered a way of stitching a permanent crease into his trousers so he would not have to iron them every day. He had, he said, discovered a way of spitting on the shoes to make them shiny in double-quick time. He set up a small business, polishing other recruits' shoes for a fee. But he broke the vow, and by the age of 18 was a confirmed smoker.ĭuring national service in the RAF, he smoked roll-ups and became a drill instructor, proud of his glassy boots and banshee howl on the parade ground. Carr made a vow: he would never buy or accept cigarettes again. One day, holed up in the offices of a firm in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, with an accountant named Ron Gazy, he accepted the older man's proffered cigarette. Soon he was an articled clerk, helping qualified accountants with audit work. He found it just as dull as school, if not worse. So, aged 15, Carr started work as an office boy at the accountancy firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company.
The truth was that they did not think they could afford the fees. His parents told him the school did not consider him university material, but this, he found out later, was a lie. But he ploughed on grimly, and passed 6 GCEs, two with distinction. Another thing he did not like was academic work. He hated the sport but persisted with it, he later said, to attract the attention of girls. He was short, ginger-haired and ordinary looking, but good at boxing. When the young Allen tried to intervene, "he had his hands round my throat and there was murder in his eyes".Ĭarr, who described himself as "a typical street urchin" - he was sent to juvenile court for petty theft - unexpectedly passed his 11-plus exam, and found himself in the top stream at Wandsworth grammar school. One of Carr's early memories was of his father drunkenly threatening his mother. Carr described him as self-employed not out of choice, but because nobody would employ him he was moody and aggressive - "not so much a person as a zombie". His father, a self-employed builder, was also a boozer and gambler - and, of course, a chain-smoker. The second of four children, he grew up in a poor part of Putney, west London. "Once they realise that cigarettes are the cause of their stress, and not its remedy," he would write, "they can no more believe in their need to smoke than they can kid themselves the Earth is flat."īefore inventing the Easyway, Carr's life was hard. He smoked up to 100 cigarettes a day, then quit in 1983, at the age of 48, using the method he would come to call "the Easyway" - and went on to become a multi-millionaire.Īccording to Carr, his method entails no willpower, but something much simpler - the realisation on the part of the smoker that nicotine addiction is a type of illusion or confidence trick. Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement | Please visit for our worlwide activities.Allen Carr, possibly the world's most successful anti-smoking guru, has died of lung cancer at his home in Spain, aged 72. We are dedicated to help smokers quit easily. Allen Carr's Easyway in India - To Stop SmokingĮasyway has proven success stories in helping smokers to quit
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