My father, Nicol Russel, who has died aged 92, was one of "the Seven", the group of Oxford University friends that also included Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis.
Nick was born in London, son of Hunter Russel, a Royal Navy captain, and his wife, Margery (nee Rees). After Oundle school (where the entertaining Arthur Marshall was Nick's housemaster), he went to St John's College, Oxford, in 1940, to read English. This would include Anglo-Saxon taught by JRR Tolkien ("dreadful mumbler, with terrible cramped handwriting," recalled Nick). Shortly after he arrived, another St John's undergraduate, Larkin, approached Nick to recruit him to a new English Society. They very quickly discovered a shared love of jazz – especially as Nick had a gramophone and Larkin didn't – and dropped the English Society idea. Amis and others (including Edward "Duke" du Cann, later a Conservative minister) soon became friends.
At his 90th birthday, Nick recalled a "lost" poem composed by Larkin one evening at dinner, mocking the then president of St John's: "If approached by Sir Cyril Norwood / Any respectable whore would / Charge double / For her trouble."
Nick interrupted his studies in 1942 to volunteer for war service in the Royal Navy. He took part in Operation Torch, and later in dashing night raids on motor torpedo boats (MTBs) across the North Sea.
After the war, the old Oxford friendships resumed back at St John's (poetry, beer, records, Amis's mimicry) and a core set named themselves "the Seven": Nick, Amis, Larkin, Norman Iles, Philip Brown, David Williams and Hilary Morris.
In 1948 Amis asked to borrow money from Nick to pay for an abortion for his girlfriend, Hilly Bardwell. Nick was unable to help and a few weeks later was the only guest at their hasty wedding. Nick treated them both to lunch; afterwards they all went their separate ways. When the first-born Amis arrived a few months later, he was christened Philip Nicol William.
After a time as subeditor on the Oxford Mail, and marriage in 1952 to Faith Dowley, Nick became chief editor for several innovative London publishers, including the Sunday Times special projects unit (under Harold Evans) and Rainbird. He wrote an authoritative work on the poets laureate, Poets by Appointment (1981).
Nick was gentle and loyal, but always stood up for the underdog. On his MTB once, he protected a rescued German sailor against any attempts at retribution ("he's just a sailor like us").
He was a devoted and loving husband and father. Faith died in 1991. In 1993 Nick married Josephine Sullivan. She survives him, along with four sons, Adam, Andrew, Barnaby and me, and seven grandchildren. Another son, Oliver, died in infancy.
