The Author

In 1979 Rainer Triller started studying English, History and Social Sciences at the universities of Bielefeld, Paderborn, Coventry and Nottingham. During and after his studies he spent much time with his English friends in Bedfordshire picking up a lot of the British sense of humour and gaining a deeper insight into the idiosyncrasies of the traditional way of British life. Especially Jill Hickling did her best to familiarise her young protégé with the English habits and customs. During 1981/82 while studying in Coventry and Nottingham Rainer Triller took the opportunity to travel to many regions, towns and historic sites in Britain he had not previously visited. He regularly watched the plays of the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon and started preparatory work for his thesis on the unity of Shakespeare’s popular play "The Merchant of Venice" adding some original viewpoints to the discussion of this complex play.

In 1984/85 Rainer Triller spent an eventful year in London teaching German at the City and East London College. He thoroughly enjoyed the life of Britain's great metropolis roaming through its streets, squares and alleys, chatting leisurely to people in the pubs and visiting the museums, theatres and opera houses. He listened attentively to the rather astute verdicts of senior citizens in and outside the Old Bailey, frequently attended the constitutionally controlled slanging matches at question time in the House of Commons and occasionally  absorbed the splendid and more peaceful atmosphere of the House of Lords.

From 1988 to 1992 Rainer Triller  taught  English,  History  and  Civics  in what was then West Germany's homely capital of Bonn trying to come to terms with the harsh realities of everyday school life. 

Between 1992 and 1997 he commuted to the historic German border town of Aachen to teach at what seemed to be a typical German comprehensive.  Spending half his week in rather monastic rented accommodation and lacking the comforts of his own home in Bonn Rainer Triller started to fill the long eventless evenings  by occupying his mind with painting illustrations for a  friend's CD as well as writing poems and satirical stories in English, thus partly counterbalancing his strenuous yet intellectually undemanding work at school. Many of his ideas were thought up in the cafés of the neighbouring Dutch town of Maastricht and the Belgian town of Liège which he frequently visited with a sympathetic colleague to recover from the daily turbulence of teaching.

Rainer Triller  now  lives  in  Bonn  and teaches in the nearby town of Hennef. In co-operation with the County Officer for International Education of Bedfordshire,  he  plans  and  organises  international work experiences and school exchanges for English and German students (www.satirebonn.com/homaus/start.htm). He is a member of  the Oxford Club in Bonn (www.oxford-club-bonn.de), where  he  first introduced  his satirical stories and  poems,  which were  warmly received by British and German audiences. Encouraged by this success he published a book called Apprecihated World in January  1998. This  book   not  only includes satirical  stories  like ‘The British Revolution’ and ‘The Anglo-German Pig War’,  but also a variety of entertaining poems, some of which have been set to music  by his friend and composer Uwe Gronau and were released on CD. Since the publication of his first book Rainer Triller has written and published more poems and stories focusing on life’s shortcomings as well as on Anglo-European / German relations.