Joe Bain (1928-2011) taught English, French and German at Stowe and Winchester, and is remembered affectionately at both schools for his remarkable productions of opera and drama. He played the piano well and after retiring to his native Wales took up painting; betwixt and between he wrote poetry. The Book of Bain gathers together his surviving verses: playful limericks and crafty clerihews, other shorter pieces along with a few fine translations, thoughtful homilies on some of his colleagues and lively orations for Winchester. Overall, this body of work captures not only his famously exuberant humour but also his more personal feelings. By contrast, the book ends with five measured but perceptive dictionary essays on Browning, Housman, MacNeice, Rostand and Yeats.
(Editor) was educated at Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, and lives in London. His many books include Furious Interiors: Wales, R.S. Thomas and God (HarperCollins, 1996) and Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi (Hutchinson, 2007). He is also editor of New Makers of Modern Culture (Routledge, 2007).