competitions and so forth" was futile. Some quotes include: Art does not begin in a test-tube, it does not take its origin in good sentiments and clean-shaven, upstanding young thoughts. Leave the people free to make their own mistakes, to suffer and to discover. Authority must leave us to fight even that deadly battle over whether or not to enter a place of entertainment wherein lurks a juke-box, and whether or not to slip a coin into the machine. The following day, Enright was summoned by the Ministry for Labour and Law regarding his foreigner work permit, and was handed a letter by the Minister for Culture, S. Rajaratnam, which had also been released to the press. The letter admonished Enright for "involv[ing] [himself] in political affairs which are the concern of local people", not "visitors, including mendicant professors", and said that the government "[has] no time for asinine sneers by passing aliens about the futility of 'sarong culture complete with pantun competitions' particularly when it comes from beatnik professors". There was also some criticism that Enright had been insensitive towards Malays and their so-called "sarong culture". With some mediation from the Academic Staff Association of the university, it was agreed that to put the matter to rest, Enright would write a letter of apology and clarification, the government would reply, and both were to be printed in the newspapers. Although the affair was "essentially dead" after that, according to Enright, it would still be brought up periodically in discussions of local culture and academic freedom. Enright gave his account of the incident in Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor (pp. 124–151). Timeline 11 March 1920: Born in Warwickshire 1947–50: Lecturer in English, University of Alexandria 1950–53: Organising Tutor, Extra-Mural Department, Birmingham University 1953–56: Visiting Professor, Konan University, Japan 1956–67: Visiting Lecturer, Free University of Berlin 1967–69: British Council Professor, Chulalongkorn University 1960–70: Professor of English, University of Singapore 1970–72: Co-Editor, Encounter 1974–82: Director, Chatto & Windus 1975–80: Honorary Professor of English, University of Warwick 1981: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 1991: OBE 31 December 2002: Died in London Bibliography Poetry Collections The Laughing Hyena and other poems (1953) Bread Rather than Blossoms (1956), poems The Year of the Monkey (1956), poems Some Men Are Brothers (1960), poems Addictions (1962), poems The Old Adam (1965) Selected Poems (1968) Unlawful Assembly (1968) Daughters of Earth (1972), poems Foreign Devils (1972), poems The