Michael Andrew Screech, FBA (2 May 1926 – 1 June 2018) was a cleric and a professor of French literature with special interests in the Renaissance, Montaigne and Rabelais.
[1] In 1943, Screech entered University College London to read French but after a language aptitude test, he was sent to the secret Bedford Japanese School run by Captain Oswald Tuck RN.
He was in the 8th course at Bedford (October 1944 to April 1945), and after completing it he was posted to the Wireless Experimental Centre, Delhi, India, which was an outpost of Bletchley Park.
After the Japanese surrender, he was posted to Japan and was stationed in Kure and Tottori as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force until 1947.
[5] His translation of the François Rabelais novel series Gargantua and Pantagruel was also described by Barbara C. Bowen as "faithful, lively, and readable [...] the best to date; it preserves much of the sheer exuberance of the original, while incorporating essential background information missing from most of its predecessors.