My father, Teddy Thomas, who has died aged 89, was a prominent figure in adult education both nationally and internationally, publishing and editing numerous books and articles (as JE Thomas) and serving as the Robert Peers professor of adult education at the University of Nottingham from 1989 until his retirement in 1996. He was also head of the department of adult education and dean of the faculty of education, and in 1990 was appointed senior pro-vice-chancellor of the university. In 1982 he co-founded the International Journal of Lifelong Education, which he co-edited for its first 15 years.
Teddy wrote 16 books on such diverse topics as the last invasion of Britain, the definitive history of English prisons, a biography of the Victorian writer and clergyman Sabine Baring-Gould and a social history of modern Japan. His final book, The Grandest Larceny, an account of the creation of the state of Israel, will be published posthumously this month.
