Margaret Howell was born in Exeter, Devonshire, and educated privately there. Afterwards she graduated from Indiana University, in Bloomington. During a very varied career, she has taught English a...view moreMargaret Howell was born in Exeter, Devonshire, and educated privately there. Afterwards she graduated from Indiana University, in Bloomington. During a very varied career, she has taught English at the Universities of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia and was for twenty two years a popular teacher of English and History in Vancouver. Her special interests are English literature and the study of texts, including the Bible, the history and the writings of the English-speaking people, and also the history of the Arab peoples, particularly the current problems in the Holy Land. She was for sixteen years Book Editor for Middle East Perspective. She has published articles on various subjects, two pamphlets of poems, and two books, one on Byron’s plays, Byron Tonight, an entertaining account of the nineteenth century theatre; and a history of the Byron family, The House of Byron, with Violet W. Walker, late archivist of the City of Nottingham. The Spirit of Understanding was written in response to the removal of literature and history from curricula, a deletion which has caused confusion and poverty of spirit. She likes walking, painting in oils, and reading. She is a member of the Society of Authors.view less