Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor, who died aged 66 after suffering an aneurysm, was a lecturer in sociology at the School of Cultural and Community Studies (CCS), at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. He was a member of PIE, writing many relevant books and articles. It is not known, however, if Taylor was himself an MAP. He may have been a non-exclusive MAP, as he had an adult life partner of 40 years, Brian Barfield. Together, they shared passions for reading, music (Bach, Boulez, and opera in particular), and moved to southern France after Taylor retired in 2001.

Brian Taylor and PIE

As 'Humphrey Barton', Taylor was PIE's Research Director, in which capacity he contributed to its first magazine, Understanding Paedophilia. Taylor/'Barton' then edited the new PIE publication, Magpie, in 1977. Under his own name, he edited and wrote a lengthy introduction to Perspectives on Paedophilia (1986), and had earlier written the first and definitive biography of the Irish author Forrest Reid, whose novels contain intergenerational themes and who may have been a MAP himself.

Taylor also wrote biographies of the late 19th-century nature writer Richard Jefferies, and of James Owen Hannay (who wrote under the pen name George A Birmingham), and co-edited, with Paul Goldman, another volume on Forrest Reid.

Early Life and Later Career

Born in Aberdeen into a Salvation Army family, Brian was the son of Ronald, a bus conductor, and Margaret (nee Guyan). When Brian was 11 the family moved to Bracknell, Berkshire, and he attended Forest grammar school, Winnersh. He studied sociology at the University of London and at postgraduate level at the University of Essex, and in 1976 obtained a DPhil from the University of Aberdeen, where he focused on the subject of religious conversion.

Taylor's teaching career began with a year at Queen's University, Belfast, before his move to Sussex in 1977. There, he initially focused on aspects of deviance and religion, but his main interest was literature, especially Ulster novelists of the early 20th century.

At CCS in Sussex, Brian contributed to the fields of art, literature and society and helped develop the first Sussex degree course in media studies. He was on the editorial board of the journal Theory, Culture & Society and was joint reviews editor of Sociology in the 1990s.

In an obituary for The Guardian, of which much of the information here we have freely adapted from, his colleague Dr. David Harrison described him as "a genuine polymath." A "dependable, [...] reflective and critical thinker", whose "lectures [were] packed and delivered with erudition and humour."

After Brian left Sussex in 2001 he retired to Prades, in southern France, with his partner of 40 years, Brian Barfield, who survived him, as did his sister, Pat. The two Brians met when Brian Barfield, a radio features editor who was planning a programme to mark the centenary of Forrest Reid, received a letter from Brian Taylor, as the writer's biographer, who was subsequently invited to present the programme on Radio Ulster and Radio 3.