Chance Encounters

'I have had the great good fortune to have been able to live an almost entirely private life with a small circle of friends and colleagues...' With this modest disclaimer A. D. Hope, poet and teacher, embarks on a brief account of his life, a story fashioned around encounters and incidents which retain their importance to him after many years. As his path crosses those of Christopher Brennan an J. R. R. Tolkien, James McAuley and Kid Orey, Ern Malley and F. R. Leavis, the poet sets down what made the moment 'interesting and amusing in itself'. The result is an affectionate memoir, plain tales which reveal aspects of the life of a man whose poetry, teaching and criticism have made a unique contribution to Australia's literature.