It was a brave vision, and one which has left its mark, despite the much changed circumstances of academic life in 1990s.Gransden devised and taught a wide range of courses in classical and English literature, from Virgil and Horace, through Spenser and Donne, to Auden and Greene, a range which is also reflected in his publications. When the joint School of Classics was set up in 1976, largely through the efforts of Tom Winnifrith and Donald Charlton, Gransden served as Chairman, and played an active part in teaching for the degree in English and Latin Literature. Forster, who came down from Cambridge to talk about his work, read Babar stories to Gransden’s young daughter. Gransden kept up the connection with Forster, and later wrote a book about him, E.M Forster, which Forster himself read in typescript. Another publication from this period was his study of Tennyson’s In Memoriam (1962).After such a dazzling early career it was fortunate indeed for the then new Warwick University that Gransden was persuaded, in 1965, to become one of the four founding members of the Department of English and Comparative Literature.

With his classical training, his deep knowledge and love of English literature, and his experience outside the narrow confines of academic life, he was the perfect person to help create an interdisciplinary department, in which English would be studied in conjunction with other European literatures.All English students were expected to study a foreign language, whether classical or modern, and a core course on the Epic Tradition (Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton) ensured that students were not ignorant of the primary influence of classical culture on the literatures of Europe. When he was invited to become literary editor of the Listener, he left the museum to immerse himself wholeheartedly in the vibrant life of literary London in the late 1950s and early 1960s.There were numerous visits to the theatre (this was the period of Look Back in Anger and the revival of the British stage), glamorous parties, and the opportunity to meet and entertain the leading literary figures of the day Edith Sitwell came to tea, and E.M. After military service he went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took a double First in Classics. One of the brightest young graduates of his day, he was approached by the spy service, but declined, preferring instead to take up the post of assistant keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum, where he worked from 1951 until 1957. In these austere surroundings (like a monastery but without the consolations of religion, as it was once described) he met Antonia Harrison, whom he married in 1956.
He was simultaneously pursuing his literary interests, writing poems, reviews and occasional pieces; his first book, John Donne, was published in 1954, and a collection of his poems, Any Day, appeared in 1960.

Ken Gransden was born in 1925 at Herne Bay in Kent, and educated at the City of London School. K W. GRANSDEN, poet, scholar and literary critic, was a man of many and varied talents, whose life no official title can encapsulate. Emeritus Reader in English and Comparative Literature at Warwick University is part of the story, but he was more than that. It is a recognition in which his many friends will take particular pleasure.Jim BennettHumphrey Derek Howse, naval officer and historian of astronomy and navigation: born Weymouth, Dorset 10 October 1919; DSC 1945; MBE 1954; Assistant Keeper, Department of Navigation and Astronomy, National Maritime Museum 1963- 69, Head of Astronomy 1969-76, Deputy Keeper and Head of Navigation and Astronomy 1976-79, Keeper 1979-82, Caird Research Fellow 1982-86; married 1946 Elizabeth de Warrenne Waller (three sons, one daughter); died London 26 July 1998..