Traveller's History of Oxford

A Traveller's History of Oxford by Richard Tames, 298 pages

There are a number of great universities in the world - at least two in England alone - but Oxford has a mystique all its own.  A great deal of this derives, of course, from its nine centuries of accumulated history, the people who studied and taught there and the traditions they fostered or defied.  This is the focus of A Traveller's History of Oxford, an introduction to both the university and the city presented as a journey through time a well as space.

The author, Richard Tames, is a proud graduate of the other university, which gives him an outsider's objectivity.  Unfortunately, while his snarky tone is amusing for a time, it sours and becomes tiresome long before the end.  This is aggravated by inconsistencies and basic errors - claiming, for example, that the putative author of The Screwtape Letters is Satan himself instead of Uncle Screwtape, or implying that Latin was a language unknown beyond the clergy before referring to it as "universally accessible" a few pages later.  Still, for those looking for an unconventional guidebook that focuses on the development of the place rather than whatever tourist spots happen to be hot at the moment, this book may be indispensable.