Born in 1948, he thinks of himself as the same age as the NHS and West Germany and South Korea and India. He read languages at Cambridge and has spent a lifetime teaching French, German and English in Scotland, England, Germany and Africa. A citizen of Europe, and particularly Germanophile, he has found himself travelling recently in China and USA. The answer to this period of parochialism in world history is to be found in travelling and broad horizons and communication. His books reflect a love of language and history, of travel and meeting new people.