It is with great sadness that the University reports the passing of Dr Roger Pooley on Sunday 22nd May.

Roger came to Keele from Cambridge in 1973 and taught Early Modern English Literature until his retirement in 2014. A kind, supportive and generous colleague and teacher, Roger was loved and appreciated by generations of Keele students and colleagues.

A lay preacher, he brought his faith gently and undogmatically into his teaching and his research: his third-year module, ‘Mental Fight’, attracted students every year, and he was as willing to engage in discussions about atheism in the Renaissance as he was to have a conversation about faith in that time period. He returned to Keele often until the Covid lockdown prevented such visits, to participate in scholarly discussions and attend invited talks.

Throughout his career, and after he retired from Keele, Roger worked on the writer John Bunyan. In 2008 he published the influential Penguin Classics edition of Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress which is still in print. He was President of the International John Bunyan Society between 2007 and 2010, and brought the Society's triennial conference – that year on ‘Bunyan and the Dissenting Tradition’ – to Keele.

This last year he chaired the awarding panel of the Richard L. Greaves Prize on behalf of IJBS and was due to present the prize at the next triennial conference at Northumbria University. ​​​​​​​

The funeral will take place on Tuesday 7th June, 2pm, at St John the Baptist Church in Ashley, Staffordshire. The family’s chosen charities for donations in Roger’s memory are: Christians against Poverty, Freedom from Torture, and Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA).

Keele sends their condolences to Roger's family.