Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Older used book which has been read but is still in great condition. No notes or highlighting throughout book but back cover page has notes by Patrick Reyntiens. Gift message in front from author to Patrick Reyntiens. Dust cover has a repaired tear on back.

About the book >.>.> THAT does one remember of a friend who has died? The physical W appearance or the voice perhaps? The ideas too and the way in which those ideas were uttered? The attitudes: to people to work to wider issues? When I think of James Auchmuty I see his large face surmounting a large body I recognise his stature. This was more than size and physical presence however more than his projection of his ideas his voice rising in intensity the more serious the argument became it was an awareness of the man’s largeness of spirit an enquiring spirit one driven by immense intellectual energy. And then there was his characteristic laugh that arose out of an innate optimism. That optimism was needed. James did not find his niche early in life and was driven by an ambition to use his talents. He had to make his way true but his way was based upon a sense of loyalty to his pupils to his friends to whatever the institution in which he served. A liberal human- ism gave him a large view of life a respect for individuals: he could be tough but he was also tolerant. You needed to know him to recognise over the years that what could seem to some brashness was but a pursuit of his honesty. He was not very aware always of the effect he produced on others especially those who did not realise he valued directness of speech in return. So he incurred criticism very often unfounded. He could not be ignored. He and his gallant American wife had not had an easy time of it. James’s spell of simultaneously schoolteaching at Sandford Park and lec turing in the History of Education at Trinity College Dublin did not engage his energy fully nor did his subsequent Professorship at Alexans dria. Its abrupt termination in 1952 when the Egyptian Government dismissed its British employees led him to a post in Australia a senior Lectureship at the New South Wales University of Technology. At first the conditions under which the family lived in a Nissen hut for six months. were very disagreeable yet none of them complained. But they enjoyed it