He was born in
Harpenden,
Hertfordshire and studied French and Modern Greek in Oxford. He spent a lot of time in Greece for the purpose of completing his PhD about the Greek novel of the 1930s. In 1973 he was appointed a lecturer of Modern Greek Language and Literature at the
University of London and in 1981 he moved to Oxford University initially as lecturer and then, in 1996, as professor of Modern Greek and Literature until his retirement in 2003. He is well known for his book
The Modern Greek Language, 1985. ==References==