My own classical education owes much initially to the efforts, encouragement, and inspiration of classics teachers at a grammar school I attended as a boy in the East End of London. Its Headmaster was Dr J.L.Whiteley, a brilliant teacher and prodigious editor of classical texts (often in collaboration with H.E.Gould;   Gould&Whiteley editions are still in active use today).

At Cambridge I was fortunate enough then to come under the influence of eminent scholars like Denys Page, Carl Brink, Patrick Wilkinson, and especially Malcolm Willcock.

My subsequent career has been devoted to teaching the Classics. I have been Head of Classics Departments in various state and independent schools in London and, since 1982, the South-West.

During this time I have led numerous visits to Greece and Italy as well as to Roman sites in Britain.

For a time I was in charge of training future classics teachers in the PGCE programme at St Luke’s in Exeter University.

Some of my former pupils have risen to positions of academic and professional distinction in university departments and elsewhere.

Along the way I also took a degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Education.

My favourite classical authors are Homer and Horace.

Although I am primarily a teacher of the Classics rather than a professional researcher or author, I have contributed to, e.g., a biography of Thomas Glass, physician of Georgian Exeter (whose doctoral thesis I translated from Latin), and an anthology of short stories in Modern Greek published in Athens, as well as producing translations and other items commissioned by individuals and/or for limited circulation.

I have taught Latin at various levels at Exeter University (including adult evening classes in the Foreign Language Centre and Medieval Latin in the History Department). Currently I teach second-level Latin at Exeter.  In addition I teach Latin for the Open University, Classical Civilisation for Exeter Tutorial College, - and early morning Latin to a group of enthusiasts at St Margaret’s School in Exeter.

I am also an examiner for OCR and WJEC.