W. D Redfern

Walter Redfern, emeritus professor of Reading University, who has died aged 78, was a renowned scholar of French literature and of the concept and application of humour (his 1984 book Puns is now in its fourth edition). He also published several short stories, a poetry anthology, Loose Connexions (2012), and a novel, A Calm Estate (1987).Born in Bootle, on Merseyside, son of Walter and Lottie, both factory workers, he attended Bootle grammar school before winning a languages scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge. Awarded a double first in 1957, he also spent a year at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, while composing his doctoral thesis on the writer Jean Giono. In 1960 Walter was appointed assistant lecturer in French at Reading and, except for a year spent as visiting professor in the US, he remained there up to retirement in 2001, with a personal chair from 1980.Former students recall with appreciation how he enlivened his lectures with a deadpan humour admired equally by former colleagues, who also recollect the unstinting support he gave them and his unfailing ability to inspire undergraduates.His first monograph, The Private World of Jean Giono (1967), was published on both sides of the Atlantic, the earliest substantial element in a remarkably prolific sequence. His 50 recorded articles appeared in prestigious European journals such as Encounter, Europe and the Nouvelle Revue Française, while his more than 20 books particularly concern French authors of the last two centuries including Paul Nizan, Jean-Paul Sartre, Raymond Queneau, Jules Vallès, Michel Tournier and Louis Guilloux, though Walter's interest in humour, wordplay and puns spawned other volumes, along with media interviews and broadcasts.The most recent publication comprised his own translation into French of his book on clichés and neologisms in the UK, the US and France. Throughout his career he combined a powerful intellect with deep erudition, an uninhibited approach to established theory, and an inventive compositional style guaranteed to maintain his readers' attention.Walter's wide interests included cricket, football and jazz, plus good food and wine (the Redfern parties were a Reading legend) - he was the very antithesis of the stuffy academic.His marriage to Angela lasted from 1963 to his death, and he is survived also by their two children, Kate and Sam, and a granddaughter, Eleanor.