 In those years he would visit European countries to view great works of architecture, always with "the relevant volumes of Pevsner" in hand.With much of the art book trade based in Paris, a fluent knowledge of French was essential for publishers and booksellers of art books and so he attended the University of Besançon for a year, after which he returned to London and studied art history at the Courtauld Institute under Anthony Blunt.During World War II he was called up and was posted as an army officer to the North-West Frontier Province, the Lebanon and post-war Germany.