Author Description

First published in 1938 under the title An Oxford University Chest, this volume presents a treasure-house of amusing sketches of university life, lyrical tributes to Oxford's pastoral pleasures, and characteristically pungent architectural judgments. Now reissued as John Betjeman's Oxford, it remains a delightfully irreverent and nostalgic look at Oxford and its University in the 1930s, reproduced without revision or embellishment. Betjeman devotes more than a third of the book to an architectural tour of the town and university buildings, enlivening the factual information with anecdotes and accounts of relevant historical events. Moholy-Nagy's remarkable photographs, Osbert Lancaster's line drawings, and etchings of the town's magnificent buildings complement Betjeman's text.