Peter Parsons, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford and Student (i.e. Fellow) of Christ Church, was one of the most eminent Greek scholars of his generation and a master of the techniques of papyrology. His work on the massive collection of texts salvaged from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt gained him worldwide recognition. Some of the new texts he edited changed the face of Greek literary history. Late in life he opened many people’s eyes to the fascination of his field through his prize-winning book City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish (2007), a work based on deep scholarship which can be read with pleasure by any interested reader.
Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 23