henry arthur kamen was born in rangoon in 1936, the son of maurice joseph kamen, an anglo-burmese engineer working for shell oil, and his wife, agnes frizelle, by descent half anglo-irish and half nepalese. kamen was educated at chislehurst and sidcup grammar school, from where he won a major scholarship to study at the university of oxford, earning his doctorate at st antony's college. during national service he studied russian, and his first book was a translation of the poems of boris pasternak ("boris pasternak in the interlude poems 1945-1960").