Born near Manchester, V. G. Kiernan was a pupil of the Manchester Grammar School, and then of Trinity College, Cambridge. He then went on to undertake research work in modern diplomatic history, and won a College Fellowship. He was in India for eight years before the Partition, involved in radio broadcasting during the war, and in teaching at the Aitchison College in Lahore. During his time there he got to know Faiz Ahmed Faiz and other Urdu writers, and began his verse translations of Iqbal, who had died recently in Lahore, and of Faiz. In later years he was given a Personal Chair in Mo...