Olivier Messiaen

Richard D. E. Burton spent most of his career at Sussex University in England, where he was Professor of French and Francophone Studies. His writings embraced both French 19th- and 20th-century topics, including Baudelaire in 1859, Blood in the City and Holy Tears, Holy Blood, and also French and English Caribbean studies, notably in his major work Afro-Creole, published in 1997.He counted cricket, cooking and music among his many interests, and his 2002 volumeFrancis Poulenc demonstrated the wealth of insight that an intelligent musical outsider can bring. He died at his home in France in 2008 at the age of 61.Roger Nichols studied music at Oxford University with the composer Edmund Rubbra and the historian Frederick Sternfeld. After some years teaching in British universities, in 1980 he became a freelance writer, translator, lecturer and pianist, with a particular interest in French music from Berlioz to the present day. His 1975 volume on Messiaen's music was the first in English to be devoted to this composer, whom he subsequently interviewed several times for the BBC. In 2007 he was made aChevalier de la Légion d'honneur and in 2011 Yale University Press published his biography of Ravel.