The experience of reading the Contents in this book might be described as kaleidoscopic. There are many common themes, topics that recur chapter after chapter; the effect of examinations; the problem of set-books for reading; censorship; the literary canon and innovations that depart from it; nationality as a criterion for choosing authors; meeting multicultural needs and demands; dialects are they a problem? 'new grammars' what do they offer us? and so on.
The kaleidoscope suggests itself because in any chapter a number of these items is likely to enter into varying relationships, constitute fresh configurations. A twist to the instrument and a fresh pattern appears.
I find it fascinating to read for indications of the wider context social, political, historical, ideological that promises to explain why the items take up that particular configuration. One factor explicit in some chapters, disguised in others is the economic recession that made the 1970s in many parts of the world an 'age of anxiety'.