Although a researcher in landscape archaeology (www.southcadbury.org.uk) my principal interests are poetry (www.taborpoet.co.uk), philosophy and music. The philosopher who has influenced me most is Hegel - in particular his Phenomenology of Spirit. I also owe much to Aristotle (surely we all have!), Hume, Marx, Freud, de Saussure, Gadamer and Derrida! In music I tend to favour the Austro-German tradition - Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Schönberg, Webern, Berg, early Stockhausen - although I have a great love of Ives, Debussy and Ravel and much else besides. In english language poetry I owe much Milton, Shelley, Hopkins, Eliot, Dylan Thomas, cris cheek and my old colleague, Richard Hammersley. Politically I lean towards a localised democratic communism, surely the only way we will prevent capitalism from continuing to ravage our planet, concealed behind the parliamentary representationalism which is passed off as democracy. I am also a vegan on ethical grounds.