| Pictures of Chiang Mai, 1964-1966 |
Victor Canning, novelist (1911-1986) |
Schubert Institute |
| A voyage to Australia, 1852 |
David Cargill (Fiji missionary, 1809-1843) |
Wordscapes: Words as art |
This was the home page of John and Muriel Higgins. Sadly Muriel died on 18 November 2020, but her work lives on and she is remembered fondly by family, friends, colleagues and students.
Between 1963 and 1986 we lived and worked in Thailand, Norway, the USA, Tanzania, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia, teaching EFL. John joined the British Council in 1971. Muriel published several textbooks with Longman and a book on patchwork with Batsford. In 1980 we became involved in CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and put together a number of innovative pieces of software, including the first versions of a program later released as STORYBOARD, ECLIPSE, RHUBARB, and (in an uncredited version) DEVELOPING TRAY. See the Software page if you want to try your hand at these and other exercises. John wrote or co-wrote (with Tim Johns) three books on CALL and numerous articles — see the Publications page.
In 1986 John left the British Council and taught in the School of Education of Bristol University, and from September 1993 to August 2000 taught the M Sc in CALL and TESOL at CELT (the Centre for English Language Teaching) in the University of Stirling. In 2005 we moved from Scotland to Shaftesbury in Dorset. Then in August 2021 John moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he now lives. He recently took part in a celebration of Chiang Mai University's sixtieth anniversary, where he and Muriel had been on the staff from the first day.
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And the family remembers our daughter Ana, born in Chiang Mai, 20 March 1965, died in London, 20 July 1997.
Meanwhile John enjoys the blessing of regular visits from our second daughter, Imogen, born in Oslo, 5 March 1967, and occasional visits from grandchildren, Clementine, Laetitia and Louis.