Trivia

Academic and father of political journalist Simon Hoggart and television critic Paul Hoggart.

During WWII, he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery, serving in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he became a staff tutor in adult education at Hull University.

Both his parents died when he was young, and he was raised by two aunts and his grandmother.

After he did poorly on a standard exam that determined whether British 11-year-olds pursued academic or trade school programs, his headmaster persuaded academic authorities to admit him anyway. He earned a scholarship to the University of Leeds, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in English with honors.

He was a senior lecturer in English literature, and the author of an influential analysis of changes in working-class culture in England.

He was called to testify in a London courtroom in defense of Penguin Books. Penguin had been charged with violating British obscenity laws by printing 10,000 uncensored copies of "Lady Chatterley's Lover," D.H. Lawrence's last novel. The book had not appeared in unexpurgated form since 1928. His testimony was widely credited with convincing the jury that the book was not obscene.