Christopher Shorley (1948–2007)

Chris Shorley, who died on 20 July 2007, was a member of the French department at Queen's University Belfast for thirty-four years and served on the Executive Committee of the Society for French Studies from 1997 to 2003. Born in Kettering on 21 January 1948 he attended Kettering Grammar School (1959-1966) before being admitted to read Modern Languages (French and German) at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was taught by J. A. (Jim) Hiddleston. Awarded a First in 1970, he began research under the supervision of Peter Hoy. This culminated in a doctoral thesis on 'Critical Approaches to Queneau's Fiction' (warmly received by his examiners Rhiannon Goldthorpe and Malcolm Bowie), which was later published in a substantially revised and updated form as Queneau's Fiction: An Introductory Study (Cambridge University Press, 1985). The sub-title was classic Shorley modesty, for the book constituted the first full-length study of Queneau in English and is, for all its lucidity and accessibility, far from being merely 'introductory'. Meanwhile Chris had left Oxford to take up a Lecturership in French at Queen's University Belfast in October 1973. He threw himself into the life of the department, and into the educational and cultural life of Northern Ireland. From 1974 to 1990 he occupied various positions within the Northern Ireland Schools Examination Council, and from 1989 to 1992 acted as his university's representative on the Board of Examiners of Belfast's teacher training colleges. For four years he was the regular presenter of an arts magazine on BBC Radio Ulster, and in the 1980s he served on the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and as a Trustee of Belfast's Old Museum Arts Centre. He had a rich 'hinterland' and could talk easily and knowledgeably about film, sport, music (rock and folk) — and, of course, books, which he read, read about and collected with a passion. Regular visits with his wife Debby (a librarian!) to their small retreat in northern Burgundy gave time for this reading and kept his immaculate spoken French in trim. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1987, he was then head of department from 1992 to 1996, maintaining a full teaching programme throughout this period. He subsequently remained an active member of the School's Management Board. Recently, as Chair of the University Council for Modern Languages (Northern Ireland), he helped to secure a six-figure grant from the Northern Ireland Department of Education to produce a languages strategy for the province. Despite this heavy administrative load, he continued with his research into twentieth-century French literature and culture, giving conference papers, publishing a steady stream of articles (on Queneau, Gide, Malraux, Céline, Duhamel, Louis Malle, etc.) and reviewing regularly for French Studies. He had recently completed a commissioned chapter on Simenon and was working on a translation of La Condition humaine (a favourite novel of his, which he considered ill-served by existing English translations). His lifelong interest in the interwar years culminated in 2006 in the publication of A Time of Transition in the French Novel: 'Les Années tournantes' 1928-34 (Edwin Mellen Press), a shrewd and richly documented interdisciplinary account of the myriad socio-political and cultural currents of that period: 'film, photography, finance and fiction', as Professor David H. Walker puts it in his preface, praising 'Shorley's impressive achievements'. However, Shorley was characteristically dismissive of such 'achievements'. He begins his 'Conclusion' by quoting Henri Peyre: 'Il n'est pas mauvais qu'on nous rappelle périodiquement que tous nos efforts aboutissent surtout à opérer des déplacements d'ombre', and ends it with witty humility by quoting the passage from Queneau's Les Enfants du limon where Astolphe meticulously sweeps a garden shed but cannot quite get rid of all the dust. Throughout his published work Chris Shorley constantly placed his expertise at the service not of his own reputation as a scholar but of his readers' enjoyment and understanding. Literature and culture mattered enormously to him as an expression of what is most valuable in human experience, and he wanted to share his own excitement and his own commitment with other...