Brian Yorke Deakin, geboren am 13. Mai 1923 in Manchester, führte nach seinem Masterstudium in English and Literature ein bewegtes Leben in Frankreich, England und Italien bevor er Mitte der 70-ger Jahre nach Augsburg kam, um von 1979-2011 an der VHS in zahlreichen Kursen Englisch zu unterrichten.
For the entirety of his life Brian
remained a prolific writer, publishing a variety of works and it was important to him that he was able to foster in his students a passion for the English
language and its literature.
So he wrote:
„Writers who are not teachers rarely take the trouble to be clear. They have never seen the dead fish look in the eyes of a
bewildered class. If Browning, Ezra Pound and Virginia Woolf had been teachers, they would have thrown a lot of their work into the dustbin“.
(Aphorisms oft he Revolution)
As a teacher, all of his students will
remember Brian like a brilliant actor on stage, quick-witted and never short for an answer when he encouraged them with his famous quote:
„Questions are a sign of intelligence“
