Blackadder was fifty-four and had come to editing Ash out of pique. He was the son and grandson of Scottish schoolmasters. His grandfather recited poetry on firelight evenings: Marmion, Childe Harold, Ragnarok. His father sent him to Downing College in Cambridge to study under F. R. Leavis. Leavis did to Blackadder what he did to serious students; he showed him the terrible, the magnificent importance and urgency of English literature and simultaneously deprived him of any confidence in his own capacity to contribute to, or change it. The young Blackadder wrote poems, imagined Dr Leavis's comments on them, and burned them.
At fifty-four, Blackadder found himself editing a magazine primarily due to personal grievances. His familial background consisted of educators, with both his father and grandfather being schoolmasters. His grandfather nurtured a love for poetry during evenings, while his father facilitated his education at Downing College, where he encountered the influential literary critic F. R. Leavis. This experience profoundly affected Blackadder, instilling in him a recognition of English literature's immense significance.
However, this awakening also eroded his self-assurance, leaving him feeling inadequate in his own creative pursuits. Despite his aspirations, Blackadder was haunted by the notion that he could never contribute meaningfully to literature. His attempts to write poetry were met with an inner critic, leading him to destroy his work out of fear and disappointment. This internal struggle reveals both his passion for literature and the deep-seated insecurities stemming from his educational experiences.