Eccentric Oxford Guidebook
Great British eccentrics in the English university city of Oxford
England's Oxford is known for its dreaming spires, Inspector Morse, Harry Potter film locations, barmy students and batty dons. Eccentric Oxford reveals even more
English university dons, or professors, have a reputation for eccentricity, and nowhere more so than in Oxford. Described by William Morris as ‘a perfect jewel’ of a city, it is also a perfect breeding ground for British eccentrics. Eccentric Oxford could be called ‘a perfect jewel’ of a guide to the city, in the excellent series of ‘Eccentric’ Bradt Travel Guides.
Oxford is known for its literary connections, and many Oxford writers could at the very least be said to be a little bit different, if not quite eccentric. Authors like JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, TE Lawrence and Oscar Wilde were all certainly unconventional, and even today’s writers including Philip Pullman and Colin Dexter are writing books that are both out of the ordinary and, like their predecessors, wildly successful best-sellers.
The author of Eccentric Oxford, Benedict le Vay, chooses three people in particular to illustrate the most eccentric aspects of Oxford – not an easy task given the vast numbers of eccentrics to choose from. But le Vay writes entertainingly about such characters as the historian and author Richard Cobb, who only died in 1996 showing that eccentricity has not been confined to history. Most of Cobb’s life seems to have been eccentric, and he was fond of acting the parts of the principals involved in the French revolution (his subject) on his college balcony in the evenings.
Robert Hawker was an undergraduate at Pembroke and later became the Vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall. The English vicar is often as eccentric as the nutty professor. Hawker dressed up as a mermaid and sat on the rocks, singing under a full moon. Eventually he got tired of it, sang God Save the King and jumped into the water.
Then a top notch Oxford eccentric was Baron Berners, who died in 1950. He built a tower, a folly which served absolutely no purpose, and at the top he stuck a notice saying: ‘People committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk.’ He also had notices nailed to trees at regular intervals around his estate, saying: ‘People throwing stones at these notices will be prosecuted.’
But Eccentric Oxford is not merely a book of essays about eccentric Oxford characters. It is also a pocket-sized but 242-page guidebook to the city and includes sections on shopping, dining, sightseeing and accommodation, but always focussed on the offbeat and bizarre side of Oxford. There are five walks too, practical information on how to get there, eccentric days out from the city, punting and a wonderfully eccentric museum. To find out more, you have to read the book, which is highly recommended if you’re planning to visit Oxford, or if you just have eccentric interests.
Eccentric Oxford is published in the UK by Bradt Travel Guides at £5.95 and in the USA by The Globe Pequot Press at $12.95
