Ben Knights is Staff Tutor in English Studies and Assistant Director in the University of Durham Department of Adult and Continuing Education. He teaches literature, cultural studies and writing to a wide variety of groups. His particular interest is in the relations between group work and textual study, and in staff development, including the role of counsellors. His two previous books are The Idea of the Clerisy in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge University Press 1978), and From Reader to Reader: Theory, Text, and Practice in the Study Group (Harvester Wheatsheaf 1992).