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Mann was born in [[Madras]], India,<ref name=grove>Sadie, Stanley. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/17651 "Mann, William S."], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 2 March 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> the son of Gerald and Joyce Mann.<ref name=who>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U166800 "Mann, William Somervell"], ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 2 March 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> He was educated at the [[Dragon School]] and [[Winchester College|Winchester]],<ref name=times>[http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:LTIB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F91033772CAB79B&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "William Mann – Obituary"], ''The Times'', 6 September 1989</ref> after which he took lessons in London, studying the piano with [[Ilona Kabos]] and composition with [[Mátyás Seiber]].<ref name=grove/> He was at [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]] from 1946 to 1948, studying with the composers [[Patrick Hadley]] and [[Robin Orr]] and the organist [[Hubert Stanley Middleton|Hubert Middleton]].<ref name=grove/>
On leaving Cambridge in 1948 Mann joined ''[[The Times]]'' in London. In the same year he married Erika Charlotte Emilie Sohler with whom he had four daughters.<ref name=who/> He remained at ''The Times'' for 34 years, first as assistant music critic (1948–60) and then as chief music critic (1960–82).<ref name=who/> Although the paper in the post-war decades was generally conservative and traditional, Mann was, as a colleague described him, "markedly progressive, even iconoclastic, in outlook."<ref name=grove/> He achieved notoriety for his assertion that the [[Beatles]] were "the greatest songwriters since [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]" — an assertion [[Tony Palmer]] would echo at the start of his review of [[The Beatles (album)|''The Beatles'']], "if there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest songwriters since [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]..."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/938571596|title=Shout! : the Beatles in their generation|last=Norman|first=Philip|date=1996|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=|isbn=0684830671|location=|pages=346|oclc=938571596}}</ref> — and, most unusually for a serious music critic, appeared as a panellist on the television pop music programme "[[Juke Box Jury]]".<ref name=times/> As a broadcaster, however, he was better known as a regular contributor to the [[BBC Third Programme]] (later [[BBC Radio 3]]).<ref name= times/> He contributed reviews to ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|The Gramophone]]'' for many years.<ref name=grove/>
In 1985 Mann was director of the [[Bath International Music Festival|Bath Festival]] in succession to [[William Glock|Sir William Glock]].<ref name=times/>
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