Nigel Glendinning was professor of Spanish at Southampton University when I arrived there, along with two others from my school, in 1969. I remember him with great affection, although he left at the end of my first year.
In our first term we followed a course which introduced us to Spanish painting. It was a course that was run because a university then was concerned with educating its students, not with imparting skills for them to take to the market place. I particularly remember the readings, invariably given by a visiting South American poet at 5pm, a time resonant in Spanish literature from the refrain – A las cinco de la tarde– in a poem by Lorca. After these readings, Nigel and his wife, Victoria, would welcome all of the department to their Arts and Crafts home, where copious amounts of red wine were drunk. Nigel was always interested in the opinions of his students, and his own lectures and conversation were intellectual but never intimidating.
I made my home in Southampton after graduation and think of him fondly when I pass the end of the road where he lived.