Brian Cox (as C.B. Cox) co-edited the controversial Black Papers on Education (1969-77) and chaired the National Curriculum English Working Group (1988-9). His book on National Curriculum English, Cox on Cox (1991), became a best-seller. In 1993 he retired as John Edward Taylor Professor of English Literature at Manchester University, after serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1984-6) and Pro-Vice Chancellor (1987-1991). He has published books of literary criticism, an autobiography, and edited anthologies and collections of essays. He was a founder editor of Critical Quarterly. After retirement he chaired the Arvon Foundation for three years and the North West Arts Board for six, including two years as a member of the Arts Council. In retirement he edited a two-volume collection of essays, African Writers, for Scribners, and wrote a second book on the National Curriculum (The Battle for the English Curriculum, 1995). He remains an associate poetry editor of Critical Quarterly. His collection, My Eightieth Year to Heaven, was published by Carcanet in August 2007.