The Oxford Book of Oxford by Jan Morris (Editor)

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Synopsis

In this entertaining and lively anthology, Jan Morris traces the history of Oxford University from its foundation in the Middle Ages through to the twentieth century, combining extracts from contemporary observers with her own informative commentary.

The reader is invited to view the development of the college system, the creation of the Bodleian, Magdalen's defiance of James II, Newman, and the Oxford Movement. The life and times of Oxford are exalted or derided by writers ranging from the antiquarian Anthony Wood to Evelyn Waugh, Dr. Johnson and Mr. Gladstone, Hilaire Belloc and Thomas Hardy. Unworldly scholars and eccentric dons walk the pages, accompanied by the great characters of Oxford such as Benjamin Jowett, Sir Maurice Bowra, and William Spooner.

Biography

Jan Morris, who is Anglo-Welsh by parentage, divides her time between her library house in North Wales, he dacha in the Black Mountains of South Wales, and travels abroad. She is an Honorary Fellow of the University College of Wales.

Of her work Paul Theroux has remarked, 'I don't think that there is a writer alive who has Jan Morris's serenity or strength'. Her many publications include: Venice (1960), Oxford (1965), the Pax Britannica trilogy (1968), and The Matter of Wales (1984). She has also published a novel, Last Letters from Hav, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, as well as books on Hong Kong, Manhatten, and Sydney.