In this entertaining and lively anthology, Jan Morris traces the history of the university from it foundation in the Middle Ages through to 1945, combining extracts from contemporary observers with her own linking commentary. Important events in the history of the University are described and explained ( development of the college system, Magdalen's defiance of James II, Newman and the Oxford Movement), and its life and times are exalted or derided by writers ranging from Anthony Wood to Evelyn Waugh. Unworldly scholars and eccentric dons walk these pages: characters like Benjamin Jowett, Sir Maurice Bowra and William Spooner, who ordered an undergraduate to `leave by the town drain', and coined Spoonerism. This book is intended for general readers interested in anthologies; students (from Oxford or other universities); anyone with an interest in Oxford University or institutional histories.