A.E. Housman's poetry (especially A Shropshire Lad) remains well-known, widely read and often quoted. However, Housman did not view himself as a professional poet, always making quite clear that his proper job' was as a Professor of Latin. Housman's fame as a poet has often obscured the fact that he was the leading British classical scholar of his generation, and a Cambridge Professor. It has also sometimes been suggested that Housman's two areas of activity are the sign of a flawed or divided' personality. A.E. Housman: A Single Life argues that there is no fundamental tension between Housman the poet and Housman the scholar, and his career is presented very much as that of a working academic who also wrote poetry. The book gives a full account of what Housman described as the great and real troubles of my early manhood', and in particular his unrequited and life-long love for his undergraduate friend Moses Jackson. It resists the temptation to classify Housman too exclusively as a melancholic, and is sceptical about Housman's reputed rudeness and misanthropy, pointing out that, though Housman was famously aloof in manner, he was notably loyal and generous, courteous in his daily dealings and generally liked by those who knew him. He also possessed a highly developed sense of the absurd and a ready and often disconcerting wit, features which characterised not only his letters and miscellaneous writings, but also, famously, much of his scholarly work.

This collection of essays - written by experienced practitioners - seeks to define, or at least report on, the current position of Shakespeare in schools, colleges and other educational environments. Its primary purpose is to examine how, where and why Shakespeare manifests himself in the educational experience of school and college students today. The seven contributors address key topics such as making Shakespeare our contemporary, teaching Shakespeare at a comprehensive school and the work of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.>

Which texts do we teach and why? What assumptions - intellectual, cultural and emotional - are involved in teaching these texts? And what can teachers learn from each other's practice? Teaching Literature 11-18 answers these important and ambitious questions through a reflective study of prose, poetry and drama across the age range, including much of the neglected area of teaching students beyond the age of 16. In the process, the essays in this book provide a valuable and lucid outline of the state of literature teaching in schools. They show conclusively that, despite the pressures under which the profession works, there are strong grounds for optimism. Martin Blocksidge is Chairman of the English Association and Director of Studies at St Dunstan's College, London.