Ralf Russell: The Urdu-speaking Englishman was one of the prominent Urdu critic. He was born on May 21, 1918 and died on September 14, 2008 at the age of 90. He led a very principled life. He had close links with noted Urdu poets and writers including Krishan Chander, Ali Sardar Jaffri, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Shaukat Thanvi etc. He had married in 1948 but separated from his wife after 40 years in 1989 due to differences of opinion. He was communist and joined the party around 1936. He had his candid and unique views on various writers and issues. He favoured Urdu ghazal during the height of progressive writers’ movement, which had written off this form of Urdu poetry and said, “tees ki dahai say bahut say logon nay kehna shuru kiya ko ghazal ka koi mustaqbil naheen hai. Main is khayaal say muttafiq naheen hoon. Main samajhta hoon ke Urdu ghazal ek tawanaa sinf hai aur is ko baaqi rehna chahiye.” (For more details: see: http://www.ralphrussell.co.uk/)