John Avery (1935-2015) studied French and Spanish at Bristol University, 1956-1959, where he acquired an interest in the Romansch language from his professor, Geoffrey Robertson-Mellor (1921-2008). He took a post-graduate teaching qualification at Exeter and began teaching modern languages at Bishop Ullathorne Roman Catholic High School in Coventry in 1960, remaining at the school for the rest of his career. He began an MA in Romansch in 1962 and first travelled to Switzerland the following year, where he met Paul Casanova (1933-2017), a Catholic priest and Romansch speaker. In the same year he began to translate The Lord of the Rings into Romansch. In 1966 he was introduced to Father Paul's sister, Blanca Casanova, and they were married in 1968. They settled in Coventry and had three children. Avery completed his MA in 1975. He retired from teaching in 1993 and completed his translation in 2006.