David Arnold was a schoolmaster for forty-two years. His specialist subject was History, so poetry was light relaxation for him rather than a matter for serious study. He learnt poems for pleasure, both in childhood and retirement. His previous books are Britain, Europe and the World, 1855-1970 (second edition 1871-1971), In the Context of Eternity, a short history of the Christian Church, From Hackney to Horsham, an autobiography, and Education and Politics, a history of unintended consequences. He put this anthology together with the intention of giving a copy to a number of friends and relations, former colleagues and former pupils, and in the hope that anyone in possession of a copy may be encouraged to learn at least some poems. His first wife, Oriel, died back in 1982. He retired in 1999 and lives in Horsham in West Sussex with his second wife, Cathy, who puts up with him reciting poems, either aloud or to himself as they walk in the Sussex countryside.