Patrick Parrinder is an academic, currently Professor of English at the School of English and American Literature at the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

, having been educated at Leighton Park School

Leighton Park School

Leighton Park School is a co-educational Quaker independent school for both day and boarding pupils. It is situated in the large town of Reading in Berkshire, in South East England...

 before going on to King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

. He has written books of literary criticism on James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

 and H.G. Wells. He is associate editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, focusing on literary authors in the period 1890-1920. He is an editor of H.G. Wells texts published recently by Penguin Classics.