John Took graduated in 1968 with a first class degree in Italian language and literature and in 1971 with a Doctor of Philosophy on Dante and the second generation Thomist John of Paris, both from the University of Leeds. Lecturer 1972-1976 at Birkbeck College in the University of London and from 1976-2018 Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Dante Studies at University College London. Author of several books on Dante including L'Etterno Piacer: Aesthetic Ideas in Dante (Clarendon Press Oxford, 1984); Dante: Lyric Poet and Philosopher: an Introduction to the Minor Works (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990); Dante's Phenomenology of Being (Glasgow University Press, 2000); A Translation of Dante's Il Fiore with introduction, text, translation and commentary (The Edwin Melon Press, 2004); Dante (Princeton University Press, 2020); and Why Dante Matters: an Intelligent Person's Guide (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2020), together with numerous articles and reviews in the area of Dante scholarship.

You may like to read this interview with him in the Church Times from 2021.