He was an authority on the politics of Utopian socialism and his 1982 book on the subject, "The political ideas of Utopian socialists", is still regarded as one of the key modern works on the topic.
He was an authority on the politics of Utopian socialism and in the early 1980s convened a study group on Utopian thought when the area was of little academic interest in Britain. His 1982 book, "The political ideas of Utopian socialists", is still regarded as one of the key modern works on the topic.