About the author
A distinguished critic, reviewer and broadcaster and one of the country's best-known and respected academics, John Carey was born in Barnes in 1934. He was evacuated to Nottingham during the war and then, on returning to London, went to a grammar school in East Sheen and then on to St John's College, Oxford. After national service and a period as Senior Scholar at Merton College, he held academic posts at Christ Church, Balliol, Keble and St John's before being appointed Merton Professor of English Literature in 1976. He retired in 1999. His literary critical works include The Violent Effigy: A Study in Dickens's Imagination (1975), Thackeray: Prodigal Genius (1977) and John Donne: Life, Mind and Art (1981). His other books include The Intellectuals and the Masses (1992), three anthologies for Faber: The Faber Book of Reportage (1987), The Faber Book of Science (1995) and The Faber Book of Utopias (1999), and Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most Enjoyable Books (2000). His latest book, What Good Are the Arts?, was published in June 2005.
