Arnold Charles Kettle (17 March 1916 – 24 December 1986)[1] was a British Marxist literary critic, most noted for his two-volume work An Introduction to the English Novel (1951), and academic pro-vice-chancellor of the Open University.
His one-time student (and later lodger, friend and fellow Communist Party member) Jim Walsh recalled his second-year tutorials in 1949–50 as "very, very good.
[1][4][5] Influenced by F. R. Leavis in his academic writings, he was a man of the left politically and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1936, remaining a member for the rest of his life.
[1] Jim Walsh recalled visits to the Arnold household in 1951–52 by J. D. Bernal, Hyman Levy, Jack Lindsay, Brian Simon, Doris Lessing, George Matthews and John Gollan.
[3]: 163 Kettle was bisexual, appreciating the lack of prejudice from Communist Party members, but according to John R. Turner "throughout his life he never fully came to terms with his situation".