Book excerpt: E. Allison Peers was Professor of Spanish in the University of Liverpool from 1922 until 1952 and he achieved an international academic reputation for his work. In Britain, he also acquired fame as "Bruce Truscot", the provocative analyst of the newer "civic" universities in a series of books published in the 1940s; to describe these universities, Peers coined the term "redbrick university", now part of the language of British higher education. This book presents, with an analytical introduction, commentary and extensive notes, the autobiographies of Peers and of "Truscot". The first is a straightforward account of the author’s early life; the second is a creatively disguised version of the same events presented as the memoirs of "Bruce Truscot", Professor of Poetry at Redbrick University, written stylishly and with humor. This autobiographical "roman à clef" will entertain and interest readers of the earlier "Redbrick" books. Based on direct observation and experience, the documents presented here provide evidence of the shifting attitudes and changed conditions which influenced British universities during their critical period of development between the two world wars.