He was born on 15 January 1932 at Eaglesfield near Cockermouth, to WM and PM parents , both of whom were local preachers. The early death of his father ended his hopes of a medical career and he trained for the ministry at Handsworth College, followed by a year on a World Council of Churches scholarship at Strasbourg. He obtained a London MTh in 1959 and a PhD for a study of 'Living wirth Guilt', published in 1970. In 1959 he was appointed lecturer in Old Testament Studies at Nottingham University, moving to Bristol to become principal of Wesley College, Bristol in 1987. Throughout his ministry he took a particular interest in the training of local preachers. He was involved in Sunday School teaching and contributed to the Conference report on 'The Child in the Church'. He wrote commentaries on Jeremiah and Ezekiel and on several of the 'minor prophets'; also God and the Future (1974) and a textbook on Studying the Old Testament (1979). In 1990 he gave the Peake Memorial Lecture on 'Sin and Forgiveness in the Old Testament'. He retired to Winchcombe in 1995 and died there on 1 April 2005.