www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk Trinity Term 2012 Volume 24 No 3
OX FOR D TODAY THE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
26 | TERRI SEWELL, JIM HIMES, DAVID VITTER, TIM GRIFFIN THE STATE OF US POLITICS 36 | A TALE OF TWO MINIS THE IMPORTANCE OF COWLEY TO OXFORD
22 | SUMMER EXPEDITIONS OXONIANS TOUGH IT OUT AT SEA 42 | UP THE BRIGHT STREAM CHRISTINA HARDYMENT ON ARNOLD’S STRIPLING THAMES HOW TO BE HAPPY... His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa and the scientific defence of meditation
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OX FOR D TODAY
EDITOR: Dr Richard Lofthouse ART EDITORS: Neeta Daly, Victoria Ford, Suzanne Rowley HEAD OF PUBLICATIONS AND WEB OFFICE: Anne Brunner-Ellis SUB EDITOR: Olivia Mordsley PICTURE EDITOR: Joanna Kay DESIGN DIRECTOR: Dylan Channon
EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: Janet Avison Public Affairs Directorate Tel: 01865 280545 Fax: 01865 270178 [email protected] www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk ALUMNI ENQUIRIES, INCLUDING CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Claire Larkin Alumni Offi ce Tel: 01865 611610 [email protected] www.alumni.ox.ac.uk University of Oxford, University Offi ces, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD ROB JUDGES Trinity Term ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: Debbie Blackman FuturePlus, Beaufort Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW 2012 Tel: 01225 822849 [email protected] www.futureplus.co.uk
Oxford Today is published in March, June and October. It is free to Oxford graduates and friends of the University. It is also available on subscription. For further information and to subscribe, contact Janet Avison (see details above). © The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford. The opinions expressed in Oxford Today are those of the contributors, and are not necessarily shared by the University of Oxford. Advertisements are carefully vetted, but the University can take no responsibility for them. Welcome EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Alun Anderson, Summer beckoning Author and journalist Anne Brunner-Ellis, Head of Publications and Web Offi ce, University of Oxford Professor David Clary, A tumultuous boat race saw the event wrecked by a selfi sh President, Magdalen College, Oxford individual who swam in front of the boats (p6). It wasn’t how we’d Michelle Dickson, Director and Chief Executive, Oxford Playhouse envisaged our series of videos, ‘a year in the life of the Boat Race’ Alison Edwards, concluding, but it made for a poignant, unmissable fi nal fi lm which Head of Communications, University of Oxford Alumni Offi ce Liesl Elder, can still be seen at www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk. Audio-visual content Director, University of Oxford Development Offi ce like this has struck a chord with Oxonians and non-Oxonians alike, Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford but it can’t be printed. Such digital opportunities have brought Jeremy Harris, Director of Public Affairs, University of Oxford us to a decision to extend the digital face of Oxford Today, which Alan Judd, includes the website, while still enhancing the print magazine. The Author and journalist Dr Richard Lofthouse, changes are explained on page 8. Editor, Oxford Today Our Michaelmas issue tackled the future of the humanities, while Dr Paul Newman, Reader in Engineering Science, Fellow of New College, Oxford Hilary treated the relevance of Dickens’ world to our own. For Dr William Whyte, Trinity, we have focused on the unexpected consilience emerging Lecturer in History, Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford Matthew Williams, between clinical medicine and Buddhist traditions of meditation. Creative Director, FuturePlus Partly a story of science and partly a story of religion, the resulting Dr Helen Wright, Headmistress, St Mary’s School, Calne ‘secular spirituality’ captures something of our post-everything age,
PUBLISHER: an age in which many feel traditional religion has failed them in Oxford Today is published on behalf of the University of Oxford by FuturePlus, a division of Future Publishing Limited (company no 2008885), their search for a deeper meaning to life. whose registered office is at Beaufort Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Tel: 01225 442244. www.futureplus.co.uk With a summery breeze blowing, we have also surveyed some Jayne Caple, Director, FuturePlus UK of the truly amazing expeditions that are currently underway by Esther Woodman, Head of Operations Clare Jonik, Commercial Director Oxonians, plus sporting events such as the Varsity Cross-Channel Matt Eglinton, Production & Procurement Manager swim, which takes place in July. It might not be the Olympics, but All information contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Neither Future endurance events like this redefi ne human endeavour in ways that Publishing Limited nor the University of Oxford accepts any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur in such information. If you submit material to this even the Olympics do not. magazine, you automatically grant Future Publishing Limited and the University of Oxford a licence to publish your submissions in whole or in part in any edition Finally, don’t miss the creative writing competition winners on of this magazine and you grant the University of Oxford a licence to publish your submissions in whole or in part in any format or media throughout the world. page 45. These short stories are all brilliant, and they’re all online. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and neither Future Publishing Limited nor the University of Oxford nor their respective employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for any loss or damage. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of Future Publishing Limited EDITOR: Richard Lofthouse and the University of Oxford. Printed by Headley Brothers, Ashford, Kent.
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OXF06.welcome.indd 3 5/23/12 5:22 PM oxfor d My oxford Trinity Term The British 2012 ambassador to Mexico recalls her time at Oxford in Today the early Seventies In this issue… 50
Oxonian 6 letters r o d
a 8 University news ss
udges 10 new appointments/awards f amba ob j 12 Discovery esy o t ur 15 Choral videos ina ferry, r rg o 16 Alumni news y/ge
ve ca udery, co 18 student spotlight ico cit ee, d a ex 20 Oxonians at large rd l ssy m nna e mba s, l h e s bi r iti r Features co d b
ress/ 22 All at sea r an o Oxonian explorers sail the world ma p
greg 30 e/zu li 26 Politics fever ith mc erg The US elections through the eyes of ud j es b 22 Oxonian politicians jam 30 What is mindfulness? The head of a Buddhist sect explains the art of meditation 36 A tale of two Minis The big story of the little car 26 42 Finding the river Discovering the Thames above Oxford trinity highlights Arts & Ideas 40 ‘What I’m reading’ by Claire Armitstead 41 Book & CD reviews 45 Creative writing 36 42 18 competition winners A Mini story Taking a punt It’s all Latin 45 Wine offer An improbable story of car Join author and journalist The Oxford students who 4 6 E v e n t s making, Lord Nuffield, two Christina Hardyment as she are teaching Latin for free to Minis and BMW’s revival of discovers the beauty of the children in deprived areas 47 Obituaries Cowley since 1994 “stripling Thames.” as part of the Iris Project 50 My Oxford
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Hedge funds all the possible ways to run a The findings in the piece about banking system, the one we have Dangerous waters research into hedge funds are so today is the worst”, we deserved astonishing I hope that you are nothing less radical. Instead all There is a serious debate to be less advantaged or reduce the considering giving them wider we got was a palliative, which had as to whether Oxford and privileges of the so-called ‘elite’. circulation via the finance when eventually administered Cambridge universities are elitist. What the man did was to put his section of quality newspapers. may anyway prove ineffective, Both are making major efforts to life at risk (his choice) and the Rodney Touche irrelevant, or both. encourage students from state lives of others (certainly not Univ, 1949 Robert Horwood schools and a number of private/ theirs). He also ruined a day of Lincoln, 1955 public schools are also doing innocent amusement for many Changing times good work in conjunction with millions of people. The only relief Belonging as I do to a generation Nuclear reaction their state sector neighbours. is that, in the end, no-one died of Oxonians conditioned to view The assertion by Joanna Bazley But swimming across the Boat and the perpetrator looks All Souls as representing the (Hilary issue) that, “Nuclear Race course does absolutely extremely stupid. acme of effortless intellectual power stations still produce the nothing to raise the level of Harriet Wilson superiority, I approached raw materials for nuclear bombs,” debate, improve the lot of the Somerville, 1969 Richard Lofthouse’s interview is incorrect. Weapons grade y images with the present Warden (Hilary plutonium is obtained from fuel tt issue) in an appropriately which has had only a short e/ge t deferential frame of mind. But residence time in a reactor core. hco
t the conversation afforded no The plutonium by-product in dazzling insights, rather was all power reactors is a mixture of for the best in this best of all isotopes because of the much
richard hea possible worlds. Speaking of higher fuel burn-up needed for intellectual prowess, among the economic operation. Further, the 25 predecessors of David overwhelming majority of Cameron as Oxonian prime reactors as at Fukushima are light ministers (Volume 23, No. 1) was water reactors, which have to be In response to… Sir Robert Peel (Christ Church, refuelled off-line and 1805), who took a double first. depressurized with the reactor Peel it was who set out to reshape vessel head removed. As such, OT 24.2: ‘Down these mean the banking and monetary they are not suitable for frequent quads a man must go.’ system of his own day, in a way as refuelling and the production of far removed in its radicalism as weapons grade plutonium. It is The question of crime fiction... can be imagined from the flaccid possible to operate a power approach preferred by the station with low fuel burn-up in How is it possible to write even a short article on Oxonian crime fiction Vickers Commission, his order to produce bomb material without mentioning Robert Robinson’s magnificent Landscape with radicalism spurred on by – and, it but this would be obvious to Dead Dons? In the same way, I suppose, that the newly-discovered The might be thought, proportionate inspectors from the International Pursued can be commended in isolation from CS Forester’s other two to – the devastation wrought not Atomic Energy Agency! masterpieces of the genre, Plain Murder and Payment Deferred. long before by widespread bank Brian Axcell David Stooke failures and financial Lincoln, 1966 St Catherine’s, 1958 malfeasance (sound familiar?). He proposed nothing less than A touch of class “Murder,” says L C Tyler, “is alive and well in Oxford,” (Hilary issue, p37) the taking-away from the private Naomi Wolf’s article left me and, one may add, in Cambridge too, though why the two university cities banks of the power they had amazed and annoyed! In 1985, should have become the setting for such a plethora of crime fiction acquired to create a significant “there was a very intact class remains a bit obscure. I have no problem with that but what I do find part of the nation’s money. system and a fairly intact curious, looking back over three centuries of Oxbridge fiction, all those Because of certain technical exclusion of women.” As a poor varsity novels, those moralising tales and now all these detectives with shortcomings he failed but his grammar school girl of 1958 my old-time hats and cars, is that almost never will you find what might be aim was breathtakingly biggest joy was the lack of class called a serious intellectual dialogue or anything intellectually worthy of ambitious. Given that today the system, and with women’s only two of the world’s most prestigious seats of learning. Why is this? private banks create no less than colleges (still much in evidence Graham Chainey 97 per cent of what we use as in 1985) we felt perfectly Exeter, 1965 money, and that we have Sir liberated! Our intellectual life Mervyn King’s word for it that “of was highly stimulating, Email your letter to: Write to us at: 6/7 [email protected] Oxford Today University Offices Wellington Square Oxford OX1 2JD
never- ending (often into the bails off. Tiger was the first to visit Britain. Curtis, for his night) and very exciting. It was captain of India to stress the part, had been in secret touch Butterflies also very diverse. The only importance of fielding as an art with German anti-Nazi resisters St Hugh’s has been successful requirement was the scholarship, of importance alongside batting during the war and was keen on in expanding the range of the erudition and love of learning and bowling, and he walked the restoring relations with Brown Hairstreak (thecla found in spades in Oxonians. talk. Back in the High democratically-minded Germans. betulae) butterfly. Just east of Oxford was not “transformed” by Commission bar we would So Curtis persuaded Teddy Oxford is one of the few British 2011 it was ever thus. Maybe, like honour our ringers with a glass Hall to admit Pachelbel and populations of this attractive, Mark Twain’s father, Naomi Wolf or three. Tiger was always a most helped raise funds to pay his way but endangered, butterfly; had learnt a lot in the intervening welcome guest and an intent through Oxford. And as the OU recently a few have been years. Perhaps if she had done listener. And of course he was a United Europe Movement was spotted to the west. We are less chain-smoking at Oriel and fine raconteur himself. India still renamed the Strasbourg Club, keen to understand how it is got out more she would have breeds great batsmen, but none Pachelbel became its president. managing to cross the city. discovered this. will combine this with all his David Shears Brown hairstreaks lay eggs Mary Lynette Moss other accomplishments. Vale St Edmund Hall, 1944 singly on blackthorn (sloe) Somerville, 1958 Tiger, gentleman and cricketer. bushes where they overwinter. Francis King Cover shot In April, caterpillars hatch and Bowled over St Peter’s, 1966 With reference to the cover of the feed on the leaves before I was saddened to read of the Hilary issue, I can see that much pupating in late May. Adults fly recent demise of Mansur Ali A special friendship effort was put into re-creating in August and September, but Khan Pataudi in your latest issue. Thank you for running an obit of Dickens’ pose and posture and they usually fly high up in trees When I was posted to Delhi in my old friend Rüdiger von the whole composition of so we monitor them by the late 1980s with the British Pachelbel in your latest issue. He Maclise’s portrait. However, in counting eggs in winter. Council, I had the honour of was, as you remark, the first Maclise’s painting Dickens In 2009, Dr John Iles of St playing with him. Despite my postwar German undergraduate appears gentle, reflective and Hugh’s agreed to plant a short own cricket being more to study at Oxford. I am proud to compassionate, while in your blackthorn hedge along the Tonbridge Ramblers Thirds say that I had – by extraordinary photograph Robert Douglas- college’s southern boundary. standard, because India is so coincidence – a role in this Fairhurst sports an expression of About 10 locally sourced rank conscious, I found myself, as achievement. studied superciliousness and bushes were duly planted that a First Secretary, made captain of It happened in a milk bar on self-satisfaction. I am surprised autumn. I found no eggs that the British High Commission the High in 1948. He and I found that you elected to use this winter or the next but in cricket team. This team had once ourselves sitting next to each photograph for the cover. It October 2011, I was delighted been strong and boasted a other and fell into conversation. reinforces all the prejudices to find two. If any college or formidable fixtures list, so by I told him I was reading PPE and about Oxford arrogance and anyone with a large garden in mutual consent, our opponents founding an OU United Europe elitism which Oxford graduates the city would like to provide a winked at us inviting ringers onto Movement. (At that time some of like me labour to dispel. similar stepping-stone, do get the side so as to make a game of us were idealists! With Noël Richard Littlejohns in touch with me through St it. Two of our regular ringers Salter of New College and other Keble, 1961 Hugh’s. If you have some were Abbas Ali (Buggy) Baig and European federalists we signed blackthorn, we would be happy Tiger Pataudi. Since the accident up over 700 undergraduate Out of the game to come and search for eggs. which tragically cost him his eye, subscribers to the cause. Lionel I read the Hilary Term issue with Wendy Wilson (née Tiger struggled against bowling Curtis, the redoubtable All Souls great disappointment. On page Walters) any faster than military medium, veteran of the ‘Milner 28 it says, regarding Sir Roger St Hugh’s, 1954 however it was in the field that he kindergarten,’ which created a Bannister, “After missing out on excelled. I was taken aback one federation in South Africa after medals at the Stockholm day, playing wicket-keeper against the Boer War, was my chief Olympics in 1912...” I’m afraid Sir Roshanara club (the idyllic, mentor.) Pachelbel asked me if I Roger Bannister was not at the historic Old Delhi ground which knew where he could find an Olympics in Stockholm 1912, not For full versions featured as a location in the film undergraduate named David even born. He was in Helsinki of these letters Gandhi), to find the ball winging Shears. When I told Lionel Curtis 1952, not bringing home any and to read in to my gloves, just above the about Pachelbel he was medals. Are there more facts further alumni stumps, from the boundary, enthusiastic, and asked me to wrong in the article that the correspondence, without a bounce. The batsman arrange a meeting. Pachelbel at readers don’t spot immediately? visit www. was even more surprised as he that time was lifting potatoes in Proofreading anyone? oxfordtoday. was still two yards shy of his East Anglia – the only way he had BC Hummel ox.ac.uk ground as I gratefully took the discovered for German students Keble, 1987
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Oxford University Press Oxford Thinking celebrated 100 years in Campaign exceeds India at an event in New £1.25 billion Delhi in March The Oxford Thinking Campaign passed its minimum target of £1.25bn this spring, and the running total is now in excess of £1.3bn. Half the money was raised by the colleges, noted the Vice-Chancellor in an announcement. He said that the Campaign has changed the face of Oxford’s landscape with award-winning buildings, enhanced college facilities, expansion into new areas of scholarship and the securing of OUP india existing teaching posts. He added that the OUP India celebrates 100 years Campaign would now turn to its next phase. The VC visits India as Indian student numbers at Oxford reach 354 www.campaign.ox.ac.uk
The Vice-Chancellor Andrew India producing schools resources, publication, Hundred Years of Oxford Hamilton visited India in March to higher education texts, dictionaries, University Press India. During the celebrate relations between India and a range of academic works. same trip the Vice-Chancellor
and the University, which build on There are four regional offices and announced that Oxford will airns c
deep roots exemplified by the 15 showrooms, while the press henceforth allow Indian applicants hn o centenary celebrations of Oxford produces approximately 450 titles to the University to apply on the j University Press India. a year in many languages reaching basis of their CBSE and ISC exams Prestigious prize From its original office in an estimated 10 million students. rather than sit A-Levels or the The Ashmolean Museum Bombay (now Mumbai), which At the centenary celebrations in International Baccalaureate. He has received a grant of opened in 1912, OUP India has New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister also called for more scholarly $1.1m from the Andrew grown significantly. Today there are Dr Manmohan Singh (Nuffield, collaborations between Oxford and W Mellon Foundation to more than 600 OUP employees in 1960) unveiled a special leading Indian institutes. fund a new University Engagement Programme. This will significantly Changing Oxford Today expand the role of the The way that we share information is changing and Museum's collections in Oxford Today is evolving to reflect this. When it teaching within the was launched in 1988, the University magazine was University. The objective purely a print affair; then along came the internet is to improve the use of and an Oxford Today website, and then last summer objects in traditional we launched an iPad version of the magazine. Our subjects such as history, latest readership survey shows a real appetite for archaeology, languages Oxford Today online, but also a continued love and literature. With a of the print issue. We have decided to put more resources into both, making the website (www. collection of more than oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk) a more frequently updated, one million objects, the year-round affair, expanding the length of the print Ashmolean holds the issue to 68 pages from 52, but reducing frequency largest, finest university to two issues a year, Michaelmas and Trinity. collection of art and archaeology in the world. 10 Achievements 13 Insight into 20 Oxonians and awards Shakespeare at large 8/9 All the prestigious new A groundbreaking British A wine connoisseur and appointments and awards Museum exhibition young talent in Hollywood
Ashmolean heads campaign to News in brief save Manet painting for public Time's ticking for Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, 1868
A campaign is underway to save a famous Manet painting for the public. Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus eana op r u
(1868) was originally e bought by painter John Singer Sargent and has Hitler postcard uncovered A previously unknown postcard sent by Adolf Hitler remained in his family as a soldier in the First World War has been uncovered until now. The family has by the University's Dr Stuart Lee during a roadshow in agreed a sale to an Munich, part of a 1914-18 project that the University is overseas buyer but the helping to run. The purpose of the roadshow, which is painting is subject to an funded by the European Union, is to record ordinary export bar by the people's stories. When he realised what it was, Dr Lee government owing to its said he felt a shudder run through him. The postcard outstanding quality and was sent to Karl Lanzhammer, a despatch runner in significance for the study the same regiment, when the 27-year-old Hitler was of French painting. The recuperating from injuries away from the front. Heritage Lottery Fund
t Aung San Suu Kyi visits Oxford r and The Art Fund have Myanmar's (formerly Burma) pro-democracy leader po contributed the majority Aung San Suu Kyi (St Hugh's, 1964) took her first trip of the £7.83m needed to abroad in more than two decades. She came to Oxford finance the acquisition, to receive an honorary degree at Encaenia, on June 20, leaving a shortfall of having first picked up the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. re, media and s tu l £980,000 that must be Bodleian-Vatican digital tie-up f cu found by August. The t o painting is on display in The Bodleian is to collaborate with the Vatican library to digitise a series of ancient texts and make them men
t Gallery 65 until August. available online to the general public. The initiative ar p Video: www.ashmolean. has been made possible by a £2m donation from Dr
© de org/manet/video Leonard Polonsky. The collections will be in three subject areas: Greek manuscripts; 15th-century printed books (incunabula), and Hebrew manuscripts and Humanities boost early printed books. One of the most exciting outcomes will be the virtual re-uniting of previously dispersed A major new graduate materials. The project will span four years and scholarship programme has been encompass 1.5 million pages. made possible by a £26m gift from Mica Ertegun (pictured, left). The University has established The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities, which will be launched immediately with 15 scholarships a dleian libraries dges
year, building to at least 35 graduate o u b b j o r scholarships endowed in perpetuity.
www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 10 university & alumni news
appointments and awards The latest awards and honours from across the University
NEW HEads of HousE Blavatnik school irns
international ca
PRoFessoR ngaiRe n
st Hugh’s College strategy WooDs joh Elish angiolini The RighT hon Dame loRen gRiFFiTh Academic Director of the elish angiolini, DBe, QC Deputy Director of International Blavatnik School of Government, has been elected Principal with Strategy, was appointed Director was appointed Dean of the School. effect from September. Dame of International Strategy. Elish is the former Lord Advocate of Scotland – the highest Electrical aWaRds law officer in the Scottish Engineering legal system. Jong min Kim american academy irns
Samsung Fellow, Senior Dame JessiCa RaWson ca n Vice-President and Director of the Professor of Chinese Art and st Benet’s Hall joh Frontier Research Lab, Samsung Archaeology and former Warden ngaire Woods WeRneR JeanRonD Advanced Institute of Technology, of Merton College, has been Professor of Divinity at the Samsung Electronics, in South elected to join one of America’s University of Glasgow, has Korea, was appointed Professor most prestigious honorary been elected Master with of Electrical Engineering and societies, the American Academy effect from September. became a fellow of St Hugh’s. of Arts and Sciences. She has been elected as a Foreign Honorary Member for her work in NEW appoiNtmENts information Engineering Chinese art and archaeology. sociology and Paul neWman demography Royal society – jessica rawson Reader in Engineering Science fellows FRanCesCo BillaRi at Oxford, was appointed BP Full Professor of Demography and Professor of Information Two Oxford academics have been Vice-Rector of Development at Engineering and became a fellow elected fellows: BocconiUniversityand Research of Keble. Fellow, Innocenzo Gasparini DominiC DaviD JoyCe Professor of Mathematics. Institute of Economic Research, English private Law has been appointed Professor of RoBeRT sTevens ian Walmsley Sociology and Demography and a Professor of Commercial Law, Hooke Professor of Experimental fellow of Nuffield with effect from University College London, was Physicsand Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1 August. appointed Herbert Smith (Research, Academic Services Dominic David joyce Professor of English Private Law and University Collections). informatics and a fellow of Lady Margaret Hall geoRg goTTloB, FRs with effect from 1 August. Professor of Computing Science Chief information and a fellow of St Anne’s College officer at Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Vienna PRoFessoR anne
TReFeThen gEs University of Technology, Austria, jUD
Director of the Oxford e-Research b was appointed Professor of Centre, took up the appointment ro Informatics and became a fellow ian Walmsley of Chief Information Officer (CIO). of St John’s.
OXF06.appts.indd 10 5/24/12 12:54 PM AKADEMIE Mayfair
60 seconds with... UM
Liam mcNamara sE MU n 160 Ea
assistant Keeper, ancient Egypt ol hM
& sudan, ashmolean Museum as
When did you first become to the Ashmolean. By borrowing PH. 1/40s ISO interested in Ancient Egypt? the British Museum statue, AS I became fascinated with the we’ve been able to reunite the civilization of ancient Egypt at an pair and so tell the story about mm f/3.4
early age. I remember when I their original context, excavation 21 was nine or ten working on a and subsequent division school project about the between museums. discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and I was completely How do the new galleries convey enthralled. The new galleries of the original vibrancy of Ancient Egypt and Nubia opened Egyptian art and culture? last year at the Ashmolean. It’s a popular misconception that objects in museums appear as eica M9 with Super-Elmar-M aL How did you become involved they did in antiquity; ancient with the project? Egyptian monuments were I had been a graduate student in actually rather garish and Oxford for some time, brightly painted. We have used researching objects in the the palette of colours favoured Ashmolean, so I was relatively by the Egyptians to provide familiar with some parts of the some sense of the original museum’s collection. I did a brief setting. For example, the gallery Photograph by Brett using stint as a curator at the British entitled ‘Life After Death in Museum, then I joined the team Ancient Egypt’ is painted a rich at the Ashmolean in 2010. green, the colour of rebirth and BE INSPIRED. regeneration. The Egyptians Isn’t being able to root through wanted to recreate an idealized the stores one of the great version of Egypt in which to live At theLeica Akademie Mayfair,wehost avariety of workshops, privileges of being a curator? for the eternity of the afterlife, so training and advice sessions forphotographersand nature lovers Yes, it’s fascinating to explore the colour of the gallery helps to alike. the museum’s reserve tell this story. collections and discover objects Our photographic workshopsoffer youthe chance to experience that can help bring new stories What is your best memory from Leica products in practical, hands-on sessions, as well as more to life. Many pieces in the new working in the field? creative photography-based sessions to enhance your knowledge displays have not been seen by I remember excavating in the and skills. the public for several decades. ‘C-Group’ cemetery at Hierakonpolis in the south of Forspecific workshops, we offerthe use of apersonal Apple iMac Do you have any highlights from Egypt. We were brushing away at workstation, providing the best possible training experience. the new objects on display? the buried skeletons and I came My personal highlight would across an individual’s hand Whatever your level of knowledge, ourprofessional Leica tutors have to be a pair of sandstone bones, including a finger wearing and experts canteach you all you need to know in aone-to-one statues of King Akhenaten, a ring.I think that’s when it really demonstration, or as partofalonger workshop, both in the field of whose religious ‘revolution’ hit home that these were real photography and Leica’sprecision optics products. around 1350 BC had a massive people, with the same hopes, impact on Egyptian society, and wishes and desires as people OurcompleterangeofAkademie workshops can be seen in detail his Queen, the famous Nefertiti. today. Ancient Egyptian culture at www.leica-akademie.co.uk whereyou can choose the one that In the division of finds following was incredibly rich and it’s best suits your needs. their excavation in 1893, tremendously exciting to bring Nefertiti went to the British this to life for our students and Please contact the Leica Akademie Mayfair foravailable workshop Museum while Akhenaten came visitors at the Ashmolean. datesand times, and to reserve your place. to watch an interview with Liam mcNamara, visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk Leica Akademie Mayfair |34Bruton Place |London |W1J 6NR Workshop bookings and enquiries: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7629 1351 /+44 (0) 7514 539566 [email protected] |www.leica-akademie.co.uk
OXF06.appts.indd 11 5/24/12 12:54 PM 12/13
Revolutionary electric motor Discovery design wins award Research breakthroughs across the University
YASA Motors has won £50,000 after being named as the UK’s Best Enterprise in the Lloyds TSB/Telegraph Enterprise Awards. Tim Woolmer, 30, YASA’s founder and chief technology offi cer, invented the motor for his DPhil project at the University, after the University won a grant to construct a motor for electric sports cars. He says: “We started with a completely blank sheet as the University had never designed anything of this sort before...” The YASA (Yokeless and Segmented Armature) motor combines revolutionary redesign of the magnetics in an electric motor, a clever cooling system and mechanical packaging. This results in a motor, YASA says, that is up to 60% KRYCZKA/ISTOCKPHOTO smaller and four times lighter than the 2010 Toyota Greener than organic Prius motor with a 30pc greater power output. An integrated approach might be better than either conventional farming or organic, says a new study
Organic farms are not as good for the both conventional and organic farming, environment as they seem, shows a study the study found that these integrated led by the University. “The main problem systems, “had lower energy use and with organic farming is its low yields,” greenhouse gas emissions than explains Dr Hanna Tuomisto, who led conventional systems, mainly due to use
the study at the University of Oxford’s of organic instead of synthetic fertilisers.” COURTNEYK/ISTOCKPHOTO Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. This study highlights the importance “Organic farming generally has lower of both green fertilisers and high yields negative environmental impacts than in reducing the environmental impact of Oxford leads in conventional farming. However, when food production. “The production of the impacts are compared per unit synthetic fertilisers that are used in p a t e n t fi l i n g s of product, the benefi ts of organic conventional farming is very energy farming diminishes.” demanding,” explains Tuomisto, so Isis Innovation scores highly on a The study compared the conventional farming could reduce its national, comparative basis environmental impacts of different carbon footprint by switching to organic farming methods and found that when fertilisers. By factoring in the Oxford fi led the most patents of all universities in the the low yields of organic farming and ‘opportunity costs’ of land use, which UK in 2011. An analysis by consulting fi rms, PatAnalyse other demands for farmland are taken account for alternative demands and and TechnologiCa, ranked the University fi rst in the into account, organic farming is not the pressures on an area of farmland, UK, with Imperial College and the University of most eco-friendly option. Tuomisto says her team found that, “the Cambridge coming second and third. Instead, integrated farming practices higher yielding systems have higher Oxford’s patents are managed by Isis Innovation, were found to do much better. environmental benefi ts than organic which was founded by the University in 1988 to “Generally, the term ‘integrated farming.” Integrated systems, therefore, commercialise research through technology transfer. farming’ is used to describe farming provide the best of both worlds by On average, Isis Innovation fi les one patent application systems that aim at producing high yields offering the high yields of conventional a week and the company currently oversees 460 licence while using the best practices for farming while using organic fertilisers, agreements. Of Oxford’s 128 patents counted in the reducing environmental impacts,” says providing the “greenest” solution to 2011 analysis, 46% were in the area of pharmaceuticals, Tuomisto. By combining methods from eco-friendly farming. a result of Oxford’s strong life sciences research base.
OXF06.discovery.indd 11 5/24/12 10:25 AM OXF06.discovery.indd 12
THE TRUSTEES OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND Brain sizeBrain indicates friendships objects with Shakespeare Rediscovering were also shaped by what he what by shaped were also plays how of Shakespeare’s question understood less far the explore me led to has on objects, focuses which in which the virtue of women is a major theme. amajor women of is virtue the which in courtesan. This informs our understanding of of understanding our informs This courtesan. fl the alicentious be lift to instead shown sheap is you if except that noblewoman, Venetian well-dressed a depicts (below) which undiscovered previously painting, miniature the of ambiguity playful the day. the in earlier right) (pictured, items very those city.” the You seen have through might him Before / sword bended his helmet and bruised /His borne have to him “desire lords Harry’s how of King speak V Henry of Act Fifth the of start the at Chorus the You Globe. heard have might built newly the at kings those of parts the playing actors see to penny another pay and river the cross you could Then kings. English the of tombs the shown be and Abbey the visit to apenny pay 1599, you could In alive. was Shakespeare University’s Professor Robin Dunbar, Dunbar, Robin Professor University’s Oxford and University Edinburgh University, Manchester University, Liverpool at researchers involving study a in more friendships who have people in bigger be to found been has area brain you This have. friends of number the to linked be –might eyes your above just region brain –the cortex prefrontal orbital your of size the that It appears Prefrontal cortex may be linked to sociability and capacity for friendship World the www.britishmuseum.org November; Staging 19 July–25 Shakespeare: Shakespeare on what been has my of research focus major “The he’s project exciting worked ever most on. the is this says Worcester) (Provost, Bate Jonathan scholar Shakespeare and it has led to unexpected insights about his world and his plays A major Shakespeare exhibition opens on July 19 at the British Museum, Curator Dr Dora Thornton (St Hilda’s, 1981) (St Thornton notes Dora Dr Curator when attraction tourist amajor was Westminster read, ... read, but this British Museum exhibition, exhibition, Museum British but this saw .” .” takes place from place takes somebody else is thinking. is else somebody what understand and perceive to capacity the is ‘mentalising’, which include skills These friendships. maintaining for required be to seem skills aspecifi that suggests cognitive of c set study this in discovered numbers friend and region brain this between link possible The Anthropology. Evolutionary and Cognitive of Institute the of Director Othello,
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COMMOTION DESIGN/ISTOCK PHOTO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF WESTMINSTER
BAMLOU/ISTOCKPHOTO JANICE CARR BLIZNETSOV/ISTOCKPHOTO t a specifi drug. of c type or mood by explained not be could patterns so used, were drugs of arange medication on patients schizophrenia stable clinically of study a In patterns. sleep and schizophrenia between link fi to helped has Foster nd a Russell professor Oxford sleep Disturbed function in fear responses. responses. fear in function that brain and system nervous autonomic the of parts the blocking by biases racial subconscious reduces drug disease aheart that found have department Psychiatry and Psychology Experimental Practical Ethics and the for Centre Uehiro Oxford’s at Researchers drug Racism treatments. future tailor to right’, help doctors it may ‘just or much, too little, too is response the if it decides as ‘Goldilocks’ Named TB. to response immune their infl astrong has on uence possesses patient aTB that agene of version the found have Vietnam, and USA the in researchers and scientists, London College University and Oxford Gene TB ≥ notes 5/24/12 10:25 AM
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choral notes The May Morning tradition of choristers behind the scenes of an Oxford choir. Video singing from the top of Magdalen Tower clips will cover everything from vocal training continues much the same as it did when to the psychology of music. To accompany Holman Hunt painted it in 1890. As one of the video series, we’re also giving Oxford Oxford’s four choral foundations (along with Today’s online readers the chance to vote for Merton, New College and Christ Church), their favourite pieces of choral music, with Magdalen’s choir helps to maintain the the winning selections being performed in University’s reputation as one of the great New College Chapel, by members of the choir. global centres for choral music. From now The music will also be available as a free until Christmas, Oxford Today online will go download on the Oxford Today website. lady lever art gallery, national museums liverpool/the bridgeman art library
May Morning on To see the videos and vote for your Magdalen Tower by favourite piece of music, visit William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/voice
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OXF06.hunt.indd 15 5/30/12 9:52 AM 16 [email protected] Alumni news Oxford Alumni Weekend 2012 Alumni Board Do you have a professional interest in education? The University Alumni Board plays an important role in the Then you might be interested in strategic planning for Oxford’s joining the new Oxford alumni relations programme. Education Society, supporting its The Board meets three times a historic mission to contribute to year – twice in Oxford and once the field of public education. in London – and its membership is composed of eight University ∫ For details, visit www.oxes.org.uk members and eight alumni. We are inviting nominations to fill a Other new groups vacancy for an alumni member. If Oxford Alumni Weekend, after Oxford, particularly in you, or someone you know, is • OUS Northern Ireland (email: 14-16 September relation to careers advice and interested in joining the Board, [email protected]) How difficult is it to translate professional development. find out more on our website. • OUS Three Shires (Beds, ancient papyri? Can you help If you’re coming back to Bucks and Northants) (email: find Homer? Who will be the Oxford that weekend for your ∫ Visit www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/ [email protected]) next US President? Why should college gaudy, you might be board2012 • OxCam Seattle (email: you donate your brain to Oxford? interested in our ticket bundles. [email protected]) This year’s Alumni Weekend will £40 gets you access to four answer all these questions and sessions over the three-day Alumni groups ∫ If you’re interested in starting a more – we’ll challenge you to event. Or why not get a group new group, contact the Alumni think about global issues from a of friends to come back for the New regional, subject and interest Office,[email protected] new perspective and learn about Weekend and enjoy some of groups for alumni: ∫ See the full list of alumni groups at recent developments across a our more interactive sessions? www.alumni.ox.ac.uk range of academic disciplines, as Key dates: Calling all Oxbridge alumni well as showing you why Oxford Booking opens: 18 June in Myanmar (Burma) continues to be at the forefront of Booking closes: 31 August JSTOR life-changing research. You’ll see Weekend: 14-16 September If you live, work, or plan to travel behind the scenes at some of to Myanmar, Suriya From July, Oxford will be Oxford’s foremost (and most ∫ View the programme and book Rudarakanchana (Brasenose, participating in a pilot project to hidden) institutions, visit a range online at www.alumniweekend. 1969) of the new Cambridge and give alumni free access to JSTOR, of Department Open Houses and ox.ac.uk or request a brochure Oxford in Myanmar Group, the online research and experience a selection of tastings ∫ Follow @OAWeekend and search would be glad to hear from you. e-journals platform. from tea to Royal Tokaji. This for hashtag #OAW12 on Twitter year we’re also offering a range of ∫ Save the date: our 2013 European ∫ Please contact him at ∫ Find out more at sessions to showcase how the Reunion will be held in Madrid on [email protected] www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/jstor University can support you in life 26–28 April Alumni resources
You need the number on your Alumni Bodleian Readers card Find a friend Card to register for events, the email www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley Register for the alumni website and service and Oxford Alumni Online. The All graduates are eligible for a free you can search the directory for other Card gives you access to colleges and Bodleian Readers card for use when you users. Still can’t find who you’re has a range of associated discounts. Find out more are in Oxford. Please note that cards can only be looking for? Complete our ‘find a friend’ form and at www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/card issued in person –contact the Admissions Office we’ll see if we can help. www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/oao on +44 (0)1865 277180, or at admissions@bodley. ox.ac.uk, to arrange a time to visit. Graduation and MAs A list of Local groups e-Pidge forthcoming degree days can be To find your nearest alumni group, just Our monthly e-bulletin keeps you found on the University website at check our UK or International alumni up-to-date with alumni news, events and www.ox.ac.uk/students/ network directories at www.alumni. benefits. You can subscribe to it via our graduation/ceremonies/dates but whether you ox.ac.uk/branches and if you’re based in London website at www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/epidge still need to graduate for your first degree or want and a graduate of the last decade, you might want to get your MA, booking is via your college. to consider joining our Oxford10 group too, at www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/oxford10
Oxford Today online Don’t forget you can get a more regular fix of your favourite alumni magazine by visiting www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk. You can also opt to stop receiving your hard copy of Oxford Today in favour of an email alert when each issue goes online – just complete the form available via the website.
OXF06.alum.indd 16 5/23/12 5:11 PM
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Student Hannah Clarke Student (Univ, 2008) teaching Latin to a primary spotlight school class ROB JUDGES
OXF06.student.indd 17 5/24/12 10:42 AM
Iris Project Free Latin lessons are helping to open doors and create a brighter future for underprivileged primary school children, reports Judith Keeling
A boisterous debate on Roman ceremonies was in full swing fees trebling, students today realise that they need to make when one bright spark spotted a mistake in a throwaway themselves employable,” says Dr Robinson. comment made by his teacher. “They have also got a lot out of going outside what can “You’re wrong, Miss!” piped up the ten-year-old boy, quick as sometimes be a student bubble, getting involved in the a flash. “It would have been Jupiter not Zeus – Zeus was a community and realising that there are bits of the city that are Greek god!” nothing like the dreaming spires.” Interestingly, however, this quick-fire exchange did not take Dr Robinson, whose parents both grew up on a council part in a privileged prep school classroom (where children estate, began her own education in the state system. She only automatically learn classics along with their times tables) but in embarked on the study of classics after her parents switched a noisy state school in one of Britain’s most deprived areas. her to a private school when the family moved to live in Indeed, Hannah Clarke (who was taking the class) is not Northamptonshire. a fully qualified teacher but an Oxford University classics “I love the logic and order of Latin and I also grew to love the student who has been regularly giving up her time to help literature. I’ve often thought that I would have missed out on it introduce Latin to primary school children at Pegasus primary entirely if I hadn’t moved schools,” she says. “I feel lucky that I school, on the city’s Blackbird Leys estate. got to learn Latin, but I have a deep sense of responsibility and “The gratifying thing about that little boy’s remark was that it guilt about my luckiness, and that’s why I have a drive to showed how engaged he had been with all the Roman myths promote Latin in state schools.” we had been talking about and he’d gone away and done some Dr Robinson also describes how children respond well to research of his own,” says Hannah (University College, 2008). the myths and legends of the classical world, especially to the Pupils engage in varied “As time has gone on the kids have become interested in the and lively activities as stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (which tells the history of the grammar and the work on Roman life and have started bringing part of the Iris Project world from the beginning of all time to Ovid’s own time, things into class. The work we’ve done with them will stand learning experience through a string of mythical stories). them in good stead for learning modern languages at Children attending Pegasus come from an area classified as secondary school and the analytical skills they’re picking up will being in the bottom six per cent nationally in terms of social help them with any facet of life,” says Hannah, one of 50 deprivation. students volunteering to teach Latin as part of the Iris Project. Latin classes are offered to the brightest ten-year-olds in A charitable educational scheme, it has introduced around Year 5 as teachers acknowledge that the classes are not the 5000 state school children from underprivileged and inner city best way of spending classroom time for children who need backgrounds to the classics since 2006. more support with reading, writing and arithmetic. The brainchild of Dr Lorna Robinson (Lady Margaret Hall, “We owe it to the children to challenge and push them – 1996), the Iris Project offers free Latin lessons with the aim to learning Latin and not seeing it as something elitist is one of improve children’s general literacy and confidence and raise the ways in which we can help them to believe that they can their aspirations. It also offers courses for adults. The project is achieve anything they want if they are prepared to work hard named after the Roman messenger goddess Iris, as it enough,“ says deputy head Francis Murphy. He also notes that represents a transportation of messages between old and new. many children at his school were – until recently – unaware The project started with Dr Robinson herself giving Latin that they were part of a city with a global reputation for lessons to pupils in schools in east Oxford and Hackney. In academic excellence. 2007 she extended the scheme, recruiting students from “The clever thing about the programme is that the children Oxford University, University College London and King’s don’t realise it is helping their English. They’re constantly College London. It’s since been extended further to Swansea, referring to grammatical terms: noun, verb, subject, object... and schools in Reading and Glasgow are also scheduled to join It’s reinforcing their definition of these terms.“ the project this autumn. Oxford classics student Shivani Singal, an English-educated “Latin is the root of English and many other languages so it Indian student (Christ Church, 2008), who also taught at provides a vital key to understanding and learning these,” says Pegasus, is equally convinced about the benefits of classics Dr Robinson. “It has clear and systematic grammar which is a for modern youngsters. great mental challenge and provides an important framework “You might say that India and China are the rising for learning and understanding all languages.” economies of the world. But economies don’t just need “We passionately believe that this should not be something For more information, engineers and economists – they also need people who please visit which is only available to children whose parents can afford to www.irisproject.org.uk have studied humanities subjects,” she says. educate them privately.” Shivani says she most enjoyed the energy and Yet it’s not just the children who have benefited; students too enthusiasm that the children brought to her classes. have reaped rewards from their philanthropy. “In my experience if you can just engage their interest on “Many of the students want to be teachers, so this has given one subject then this positive attitude will feed back into other them invaluable experience. What with the pressure of tuition areas,” she says.
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OXF06.student.indd 18 5/24/12 10:42 AM 20/21 Wine buying, acting and African telecommunications
Oxonians at large Such very Josephine Moulds meets a Master of Wine, two fine taste leading actors, a telco specialist and a writer Simon Field Queen’s 1988
A degree in modern languages under his belt, Simon Field followed a standard route out of Oxford, qualifying as a chartered accountant and working for an American bank in Paris. But it was in the bars and restaurants of the Place Vendôme that he found his vocation. “I grew quite fond of the lunches and dinners and the wine; the wine lists were generally more attractive to contemplate than the balance sheets of this bank.” So, aged 29, he quit the world of accountancy and headed back to London to work in his local Oddbins. The gamble paid off. After moving to Berry Bros & Rudd, Field qualified as a Master of Wine, a highly prestigious qualification awarded to just 298 people in the world. He still works for Berry Bros, now as a buyer. It sounds wonderfully romantic, travelling the world and meeting small-scale wine producers. But the romance is sometimes exaggerated. “If you are tasting 14.5% Châteauneuf du Pape at 8.30 in the morning on a cold day – it’s less idyllic. That said, I wouldn’t do anything else.” www.bbr.com
A rising young star photo
k Felicity Jones Wadham 2003 toc /is k
joby sessions Felicity Jones was a
edstoc familiar voice before she was a familiar face, appearing on The Archers as Actor, Painter, Writer Emma Carter (later Grundy) on BBC Radio 4 A leading artist and actor speaks about her work between 1999 and 2009. But her face is now becoming just as recognisable. The start of 2012 Joy Richardson at Kellogg (pictured above), and is saw major press coverage for a shoestring-budget Kellogg 2006 currently trialling her play at the RSC filmLike Crazy, which won her a Special Jury Prize “I’m really interested in linkages between about rehabilitating a girl soldier, for Best Actress at last year’s Sundance festival. oral traditions, spoken art and written Abandoned Stone. “There are numerous The script was improvised and Jones knew when word,” says Joy Richardson, a recent child soldiers from Afghanistan to the she read the outline that she had to have the part. graduate of the creative writing MSt. Congo,” she notes. “Some of their It had been a slow and steady burn up to that This begins to explain why she describes experiences are so debilitating that they point. She started acting aged 11 at an after- herself as an artist, writer and actor, cannot be expressed in words. school workshop and got her first screen role in united by recurrent themes that partly Storytelling and art are the only ways the same year, in The Treasure Seekers, alongside a link back to a childhood in Guyana. left.” As an actor at the National Theatre young Keira Knightley. She kept down various Aged three, Richardson moved to the for many years, she hopes to have one of roles through school and University, where she UK, then grew up in a number of areas her plays running simultaneously with gained a 2:1 in English and performed for the in east London. After graduating from an art exhibition of her work; her Oxford University Dramatic Society. Now wedded drama school, she overcame a severe paintings are on exhibition in the Green to her career, Jones has said she hopes to be stammer with help from The City Lit Room. “The purpose of my art is to acting well into her seventies. With the kind of Institute London: “Learning to accept open up other people’s narratives. Art is success she has achieved so far, she might be in my stammer led to fluency.” Last year a medium for that storytelling.” with a chance. www.felicity-jones.org she launched an exhibition of paintings www.joyrichardson.info
OXF06.oxonians.indd 20 5/24/12 9:55 AM Mike Quinn Developing Africa Saïd Business School 2008 The entrepreneur who has created mobile Eighty per cent of people in Zambia do not payment technology for the people of Zambia have bank accounts, while half the population are unconnected to modern communication technology. Mike Quinn, a Skoll Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship, explains: “To pay your school fees you need to physically move cash from one place to another. If you are a farmer, you have to sleep with cash under your pillow. It’s very inefficient.” His company, Mobile Transactions International (MTI), offers an alternative. With a network of 100 agents around the country, MTI uses its own technology to conduct bank transfers over mobile phones. A Canadian national, Quinn moved to Zambia in 2009. He had already volunteered there before doing his MBA. “I loved Africa and wanted to get back on the ground and see what I could find.” He found two Zambian brothers, Brett and Brad Magrath, who had been given a Bank of Zambia licence for a mobile payments business but had not yet launched. Now 31, Quinn is chief executive of MTI, which processes $1.5m (£950,000) a month. As well as mobile payments, MTI distributes microfinance loans on behalf of other companies; it provides the physical network of agents for mobile phone companies’ payment systems; and helps disperse We welcome aid for the World Food Programme. suggestions from MTI recently raised $4m in Venture Capital alumni for these funding, fuelling Quinn’s ambitions. “We want pages. Please send to build a pan-African billion dollar business,” he details to the says. “We started with a bit of a vision. That feels Editor at oxford. more tangible now we have attracted funding.” today@admin. www.mtzl.net ox.ac.uk
Broadcasting some A graduate in modern languages, Johns started a PhD in Medieval Italian at UCL but controversial opinions said the work was not suited to him. “I swiftly Lindsay Johns discovered my future did not lie in libraries.” Lincoln 1994 Instead he applied himself to freelance journalism, writing blogs for The Telegraph Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns and The Evening Standard, and appearing on would rather not be branded a polemicist. “I BBC2’s Culture Show. don’t actively seek to court controversy. If it In his spare time he mentors young comes up I’m not afraid to give my opinion. people in Peckham with a charity called Unfortunately there are very few people who Leaders of Tomorrow. “When I left college I are prepared to call it like it is.” wanted to put something back but didn’t feel His opinion is now readily available at Mail that I was qualified enough until I started Online, the web powerhouse of the Daily Mail taking my first steps in the media.” that attracts 52 million viewers each month. He says the scheme is all about expanding His blog posts range from teen stabbings, to young people’s experiences. “It’s not not having a TV, and why Michael Gove is about hip hop and basketball, or the right. In the words of his biography on the pernicious bling culture mindset. We’re site, Johns is “socially conservative and at trying to get them to broaden their cultural times reactionary”, often raging at the liberal horizons and develop a fully functioning apologists for Britain’s disaffected youth. moral compass.”
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OXF06.oxonians.indd 21 5/24/12 9:55 AM AN OXONIAN PENCHANT FOR PHYSICAL ENDURANCE
Pursuing a watery theme, Alastair Lack considers some of the extraordinary feats of endurance that Oxonians are engaging in, including July’s Varsity Cross-Channel swim
ccording to the Oxford University time in the world. And I really enjoy sharing the stories website, more than 250 Oxonians have from them.” Sarah is happy on her own, though she taken part in the Olympics, ranging from finds being solo means that strangers are likely to stop Princess Haya Al Hussein in the equestrian and talk. They then become friends, if only for a short Aevent to Thomas Yule, a weightlifter. Many are while: “One Chinese lad joined me on the bike for a household names such as Roger Bannister, Matthew month after a chance encounter at a petrol station.” Pinsent and Stephanie Cook. But Oxonians seem to be Sarah’s journey has definitely altered her concern for equally ubiquitous when it comes to exploration, exotic the environment – for the oceans and fish stocks, for locales and feats of endurance. Take three examples: water security and food production. And naturally the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, Andrew Irvine of there are times when she is fearful (not least when she Everest fame and the climber Eric Shipton (said to be encountered a bear), but she says: “Fear is important... the model for Lord Peter Wimsey). The trick is in managing fear and making it useful.” The tradition continues to this day. Sarah Outen Nick Coghlan (Queen’s, 1973) and his wife Jenny (St Hilda’s, 2004) is currently undertaking an (Wolfson, 1977) are currently sailing round the world. extraordinary solo journey round the world, by bicycle They undertook their first long journey across the across continents and by boat and kayak across oceans Atlantic from South Africa to Brazil and then worked –‘London2London: Via the World’. It’s an extension of their way down the coast, wintering in the Beagle a journey she made in 2009, rowing solo across the Channel, some fifty miles from Cape Horn: a voyage Indian Ocean. Sarah is “hooked on life and wild recounted in Nick’s book, Winter in Fireland. Now they places” and loves human-powered expeditions, “for all are sailing home to British Columbia, via New Zealand sorts of reasons – the challenge, the perspective, the and Japan. Nick admits to frequent worries, “both 22/23
Sarah Outen crossing the English Channel in April last year, at the start of her round the world trip using id tett
v only human power (main D a image) Rachel Lambert swimming the English Channel, 2008 (right) klaus haeussler lennard lee
(above left) Nicholas and Jenny Coghlan’s sailboat in the Strait of Magellan (right) The Smalman-Smiths leaving La Gomera, Canary Islands just a few minutes into their 75-day voyage
Jenny and I have had to learn new skills – from diesel maintenance through meteorology, fibreglass work and rigging. The greatest concern is heavy weather. You can often see what’s coming for days, but on a small yacht, that doesn’t mean you can get out of the way. A second concern is the risk of a collision. The Japan to Alaska passage is particularly worrying, with an estimated 18 million tonnes of debris strewn across the route following last year’s tsunami.” Like Sarah Outen, Nick and Jenny do not suffer unduly from loneliness, with seabirds to keep them company, and at night the blinking lights of aircraft and the babble of talk shows on shortwave radio. And as Nick points out, “you’d be surprised how few places are now out of reach of cheap, instant communication – although at our first landfall in the Solomon Islands, the remote island of Santa Ana, the locals complained they had to paddle a mile offshore in a dugout to reach a spot where their mobiles could pick up a signal.” Another Oxonian husband and wife team recently rowed across the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Starting in Tenerife and ending in Barbados, Richard (St Edmund Hall, 1987) and Helena (Pembroke, 1986) Smalman-Smith, or Team Tiger in their boat, DIDI (‘dream it, do it’) completed
the challenge in February this year in 75 days, rowing brian finke
www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 24 Physical endurance
2751 nautical miles. As Helena says, “more people have been into space than have rowed the Atlantic – one of the toughest challenges on the planet.” Rowers have to cope with blisters, salt rashes, sleep deprivation and rowing in two-hour shifts round the clock for weeks on end. Richard and Helena’s boat was just seven metres long, under two metres wide, with only a small cabin for protection. Advance preparation is all important: boats have to be fully equipped at the start of the race and cannot take on repairs, help, food or water on the voyage. They kept a blog, and Helena recalls mentally writing it during her long rowing stints, “it’s factual, philosophical, humorous and slightly mad.” And then there’s swimming. A saga of endurance must be the Oxonians who take part in the Varsity cross-channel swimming race. It began in 1998 and is held every two years. This year it will be in July, and two teams of six (three men and three women) will race against each other, individuals will swim for an hour at a time and the support boat will be piloted. The first Members of the Oxford race ended in extraordinary fashion: after nine hours University Yacht Club on Oxford University and 27 minutes swimming, with the respective pilots another expedition taking quite different courses, the result was a tie. The Yacht Club story made the front page of The Times. The first What do Hilaire Belloc, Glen-Coats and Smart Oxford success was in 2000, when the team set a world president of the Oxford won gold medals, as did record for a mixed relay channel swim of eight hours, Union, MP and author the Balliol-educated 16 minutes. This year’s team want to beat it, though, as of Cautionary Tales, King Olav V of Norway in Nick Thomas (Christ Church, 1957), co-founder of the ‘Skipper’ Lynam, 1928. The latter’s son, race with Martin Davies, makes clear. “There are many headmaster of Oxford’s the present King Harald, variables involved – the wind, the skill of the swimmers, Dragon School and King also Balliol-educated, the skill of the pilot in plotting the cross-channel Olav V of Norway have in competed in 1964, 1968 course.” It’s very international in terms of those taking common? All three were and 1972. part, as well as something of a marriage bureau; three members of the Oxford More recently, the couples of swimmers have married after the race. As ‘The water is University Yacht Club, yachting side of the club Nick says, “the race is high profile, unique and crazy.” founded in 1884 for was founded, with again A view shared by one of this year’s Oxford team, Joe very cold and dinghy team racing and an annual match against Northover (Merton, 2009), who makes the point, still going strong more Cambridge in the Solent “wetsuits, goggles and protective lard or fat are not the seas are than 100 years later. comprising four to six allowed – the idea is to create the same conditions as rough, often The annual Varsity races over a weekend, experienced by Captain Matthew Webb in Victorian dinghy match with and a winter cruise in times, the first solo cross-channel swimmer.” How hard dangerous, Cambridge is currently December. it is? Joe replies that it’s exhausting. The water is very with huge held in June over three Dinghy racing on cold and the seas rough, often dangerous, with huge days at Itchenor Sailing Farmoor reservoir and waves created by the hundreds of ferries and boats waves created Club, Chichester. As yacht racing in the criss-crossing the Channel. The main problem is Jeremy Atkins (Trinity Solent may seem a long jellyfish. As Joe says, “it’s like swimming through by the ferries’ 1977), Vice-President of way from the exploits stinging nettles. The small jellyfish sting badly, while the Yacht Club, explains: of Nick and Jenny the large ones hit the swimmer repeatedly in the face.” “While it may be true Coughlan as they sail So is it in any way enjoyable? The emphatic answer is that Cambridge has round the world, but no. Joe recalls five of the 2010 swimmers being violently won more often, Oxford generations of Oxonians sick during the race, “it’s brutal and very serious.” has produced several have vivid memories Why is it then that so many Oxonians are prepared to Olympian yachtsmen, of learning the ropes undertake endurance tests? Nick Coghlan believes that such as Simon Tait at with the club before Oxford encourages independence of thinking, Munich in 1972, Thomas embarking on later and intellectual adventure and toughness (he met Jenny, Glen-Coats at London greater adventures. For who was president of the University’s Cave Club, in 1908 and Paul Smart more details, visit actually in a cave). Joe adds that Oxford provides at London in 1948.” www.ouyc.co.uk wonderful opportunities for exercise and creates a competitive mentality essential for physical endurance. And Sarah Outen concludes: “At Oxford we were encouraged to explore... It was long hours and hard To find out more about these adventurers, graft – that’s where I honed my discipline and please visit www.sarahouten.com and endurance to complete big tasks.” www.bosunbird.com (Nick and Jenny Coghlan)
42/43 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
obama again? John Garth considers the state of US politics convention in Tampa, Florida. Even a late entrant could not unseat him. But the primaries may dog the through the eyes of Oxonian politicians party after that. To mobilise their core supporters, Republicans will have to row back from criticisms they mericans and outsiders alike could be have hurled at each other. Romney has moved forgiven for feeling nervous about the US substantially rightwards; to win the swing states will elections. The nation appears locked in require a ‘volte face’. “If he doesn’t move to the centre,” bitter strife over its direction and the warns the RAI’s Nigel Bowles, “he’s going to lose.” outcomeA is too close to call. Yet with the expertise of The people who will decide the outcome are not Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute (RAI) we can Republican voters in Texas, Alabama, or Mississippi, construct a reliable road map – or what might be nor Democrat voters in California, Oregon, or New called, thanks to insights from a quartet of Members of York. They are neither Tea Partiers, nor Occupy Wall Congress who studied at Oxford, a ‘Rhodes map’ of the Street campaigners – all of whose votes are predictable. run-up to November’s elections. Rather, the election will be decided by the swing voters Democrat supporters of Barack Obama have thrilled of a few populous states, particularly Pennsylvania, to the protracted mud wrestling between Republicans Ohio, Michigan, Florida and, increasingly, Virginia. Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Mitt “Obama won them all in 2008,” said Dr Bowles, “and if Romney. Speaking before runner-up Santorum he were to win all of them again the probability of him bowed out in April, Congresswoman Terri Sewell (St winning the election approaches 100 per cent.” Hilda’s, 1986; Democrat, Alabama) said: “The longer Obama is likely to be partnered once again with Joe it takes for them to slug it out, the better it looks for Biden, who will have an important role to play in our President.” winning voters in the swing states. To keep the Barring wholly unforeseeable events, Romney is now Republicans onside while pitching for the centre a dead cert for nomination at August’s Republican ground, Romney is likely to choose a staunch and
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Oxonians in American politics Oxford’s distant role in US politics she was inspired by Harvard Law brought, gave them a broad world is manifold, as current Oxonian School classmate Barack Obama view that is rare in US politics. Members of Congress all testify. and backed financially by her Oxford “Having a pint with students from all “Oxford has been intimately circle, among others. over the world really helped me to entwined with American public Tim Griffin (Republican, Arkansas) understand the multicultural society life through things like debates at liked Oxford so much as a Junior we live in,” said Congresswoman the Oxford Union and President Year Abroad student that he Sewell, who visited Egypt, Israel and Bill Clinton having attended,” came back in 1991 for a year while mainland Europe. “Oxford helped said Congressman Jim Himes researching his PhD in modern me understand the interconnections (Democrat, Connecticut). British and European history. between American, British and David Vitter (Republican, But when Jim Himes (Democrat, European politics.” Louisiana) arrived as a liberal- Connecticut) arrived in 1988 for a Congressman Griffin, who also leaning Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen two-year MPhil in Latin American studied at Tulane University in in 1983 and left two years later with Studies at St Edmund Hall, he New Orleans and elsewhere, said: a First in history and economics and found the initial culture shock “very “I certainly had quality top-notch a newfound conservative ethos. “I jarring”; he took up rowing to help education at other schools that reacted against the trend in England overcome British standoffishness. I’ve been to, but Oxford provided towards socialism since World War “It was the first time in my life where an education that is unique in its II,” he said; the Miners’ strike left a I was the guy with the accent,” he breadth and in its setting.” s
rbi deep impression. Terri Sewell, at St said. Congresswoman Sewell was Oxford bonds remain vital. Senator o Congresswoman Terri /c Hilda’s for two years from 1986 as surprised to find that Britons were Vitter keeps up “sporadically” ss Sewell, US House e a British Commonwealth Scholar, more prone to stereotype her as an with Rhodes Scholar friends. Representative for the
ma pr campaigned for Paul Boateng and American than as black: “People Congressman Himes attends the 7th District of Alabama, u Diane Abbott when they became, saw my nationality first and not my annual St Edmund Hall alumni holds a news conference to discuss the ‘Make it in with Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz, colour.” Senator Vitter was struck by dinner in New York and says his
America’ agenda for the berglie/z Britain’s first black MPs in 1987. She Oxford’s very un-American concept Oxford friends, in various walks s 112th Congress interviewed all four for her Politics of time: “I found it amazing when of life, “are a tremendous source jame MLitt (published in Britain as Black I went to Magdalen that the New of thoughtful ideas and help.” Tribunes: Race and Representation Building meant it was only built in Congressman Griffin remains in in British Politics). When she ran the 18th century.” the Oxford Union and in touch with History shows in 2010 to become Alabama’s first All four feel that Oxford, and Pembroke: “I have a very special poll margins African-American Congresswoman, the opportunities for travel that it place in my heart for it.” like Obama’s articulate economic conservative as vice-presidential commented that: “The healthcare system is an so far this running mate. Not Santorum; perhaps a relative enormous drag on our economic vitality. If I’m the year to be unknown without Sarah Palin’s kind of baggage. next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and I work at GE, I may History shows poll margins like Obama’s so far this not leave to start the next Microsoft or Apple, because eminently year to be eminently eradicable. But Republicans are that’s where I get my healthcare.” However, the issue is not complacent. Senator David Vitter (Magdalen, 1983; a double-edged sword for Obama because independent eradicable Republican, Louisiana), not taking part in this year’s voters question components of his legislation, and for elections, said: “It’s going to be very close, in both the Romney too because as Governor of Massachusetts he presidential election and the Senate, where we need a has piloted net gain of four seats.” a healthcare package rather like Obama’s. Racial or Barring a game-changer like an Iran war, the key lies religious prejudice, a thorn in the side for both in the economy. “If we knew what’s going to happen to prospective candidates, will not affect the elections. It real personal disposable income or to unemployment, has been suggested, for instance, that, “most of those we could predict the outcome of the presidential people that might be offended by Romney’s election with some confidence,” said Dr Bowles. Mormonism think Barack Obama is Muslim anyway.” Despite the surprising success of the automotive A bloody battle can be expected, with popular anger bailout, Obama faces an incumbent’s usual problem stoked by a polarised media. As Senator Vitter notes, that counterfactuals do not win votes: he will gain little the bitter rhetoric in Congress itself has earned it by saying the economy could have been worse. historically low approval ratings. “I’m a strong Other major issues, such as foreign policy, the conservative and I don’t shy away from those beliefs at environment, or America’s slide down the all, but I certainly want to get to a more civil and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and productive discourse,” he said. Congresswoman Sewell Development’s educational rankings, also offer few said ‘gridlock’ on Capitol Hill made her first year there electoral benefits. Congressman Jim Himes (St deeply frustrating, but finds hope in the way Alabama’s Edmund Hall, 1988; Democrat, Connecticut), members of Congress came together when tornadoes
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OXF06.uspol.indd 27 5/23/12 5:27 PM 28 United States elections s
Republican Party presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, greets supporters during a campaign stop in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 2012 rainier ehrhardt/getty image ehrhardt/getty rainier Today’s squabbles have nothing on those American system, you have the British system.” Dr Bowles predicts that the next four years will see an among the revered founding fathers unremittingly partisan battle for power on Capitol Hill. Ten years hence, every member of our US political hit their home state. “We didn’t see red and blue, we quartet sunnily foresees a revived America trading with just saw Alabamians in need.” Congressman Tim a recovered Europe and as closely bonded with Britain Griffin (Pembroke, 1990; Republican, Arkansas) points as ever. It is economics that exposes the Republican- out that today’s squabbles have nothing on those Democrat divide. Citing the internet as a product of among the revered founding fathers: “You had state (i.e. military) ingenuity and private enterprise, shootings and duels with firearms, Aaron Burr and Congressman Himes said: “If we have that kind of Alexander Hamilton. You had deep personal hatred partnership in the realm of energy, this country will between Jefferson and Adams. You had canings and continue to be a global strategic and political leader.” knives and firearms – blood on the floor of the House Congresswoman Sewell, a public finance attorney, of Representatives.” But 2012 will certainly be the most agrees: “The people I represent want us to spend American politics expensive US election ever, particularly with the advent money on education and infrastructure, and that at the Alumni of ‘super-PACs’ – political action committees which investment will pay off in leaps and bounds.” In the Weekend (thanks to a legal loophole) can raise unlimited dollars other corner, Congressman Griffin hopes to see in indirect support of a campaign. ‘pro-growth reform’ in tax and regulation, and Senator Dr Nigel Bowles is giving The elections of a third of the Senate and the House Vitter thinks Europe in its current crisis stands as a a talk at the Alumni of Representatives are, Dr Bowles cautions, “Not warning to the US: “The President has tried to make us Weekend on ‘American ancillary to the main action: they are the main action.” a more left-of-centre European social democracy. It’s Election Prospects and Britons who assume the US political system is basically ironic because Europe is dealing with the downfalls of Consequences: 2012 the same as their own are quite wrong, Congressman that model, and is moving in the opposite direction.” and Beyond.’ Himes points out: “Americans 240 years ago looked at During the elections, the RAI will benefit from the The talk will take place what they had just rejected in Britain and said, ‘We are arrival of George Edwards, of Texas A & M University, on Friday 14 September really going to explode and diversify and fragment as John G Winant Visiting Professor of American at 4pm. For details, visit power in this country.’” Congressman Griffin concurs: Government. Dr Bowles said: “He’s going to host a big www.alumniweekend. “If you want a system that rewards the winning party in programme of events, and he’s bringing colleagues ox.ac.uk election with complete and relatively unfettered power who will pay more attention to the congressional to make wholesale changes you do not have the elections than the presidential – and that’s fine by us.”
OXF06.uspol.indd 28 5/23/12 5:27 PM eauchêne, except pot still photo: BNIC ©G.deB hotos: —P jadecommunication.eu hine makes little, but the best. hinecognac.com 42/43 Mindfulness
power of th e mind The head of a lineage of Buddhism visits Oxford to discuss the role of mindfulness in the modern world, writes Richard Lofthouse
t’s not every day that the head of a Buddhist Another purpose of His Holiness’ visit, which began sect brings an entourage of nuns to Oxford to that morning at Oxford’s Mindfulness Centre, part of perform kung fu on the lawn. The setting is the Department of Psychiatry next to the Warneford Wolfson, the graduate-only college situated up Hospital, is to have an open discussion with the centre’s Ithe Cherwell from Lady Margaret Hall, north Oxford. founding director, Professor Mark Williams. Williams On a cool, early spring day when mist rises around the (St Peter’s, 1970) is Professor of Clinical Psychology Cherwell, reducing the sun to a pale disc, shaven- and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at the headed nuns fight mock battles across the neatly University, and a world-leading authority on clipped lawns while college staff watch from a safe depression. The open forum was later described by distance behind windows. It’s an Oxford moment as Williams as “a great meeting of minds.” only Oxford can. The incongruity of the head of a lineage of Buddhism One purpose of the display is to show that His visiting a centre whose research is funded by the Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, who heads the Drukpa Wellcome Trust and offers clinical services to the NHS, lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, has made a quantum is not lost on me, because aren’t we all taught that leap in gender matters, circumventing the weight of science and religion are basically at loggerheads with history by teaching nuns directly. Instead of teaching each other? What, I wonder to myself, is mindfulness, monks to teach nuns, he teaches nuns to teach monks. In Tibet, this is a revolution. For the purposes of the display at Wolfson, nuns practising a Chinese martial Science has come out on the side of art symbolises the empowerment of women. meditative practices dating back 2500 years
OXF06.mind.indd 30 5/24/12 10:07 AM 30/31
Researchers studying people who regularly meditated found that not only did they feel happier but MRI scans of their brain patterns showed that this was reflected in the way the brain worked. There is a part of the brain’s surface called the insula, which becomes more active during meditation. Over a longer period of time, regular meditation can actually alter the physical structure of the brain, according to research conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The insula happens to control many of the features that we regard as central to our humanity, such as empathy. Williams explains: “This part of the brain is integral to our sense of human connectedness as it gives us access to those body sensations that help to mediate empathy in a very real and visceral way.” The connection with depression is that empathy towards yourself, as well as others, has “hugely beneficial effects on health and wellbeing.” It can free individuals from the narrowing, tunnel-like sensation that being depressed can bring. One recent analysis, bringing together all the trials of MBCT for people who suffered three or more bouts of depression, found that those who had undergone an eight-week MBCT course were 44 per cent less likely to suffer another depressive episode. So robust is the evidence underpinning it, that the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends MBCT for those who have suffered from such recurrent, depressive episodes. Classic symptoms of people who experience unhealthy levels of stress include difficulty staying focused on what they are doing, constant tiredness, being preoccupied with the future or the past and rushing through activities without really paying attention to what they are doing. ery A group of Buddhist nuns d In essence, Professor Williams’ techniques train perform kung fu on the lawns of Wolfson College people how to focus on what is happening from
Dave CauDave moment to moment, in order to see more clearly the patterns of their mind and help them to develop focus, and how and why does it intersect with Buddhism? concentration and perspective. As the discussion unfolds, I learn that mindfulness is A vital element is to respond kindly to what they find, based on ancient Buddhist practices with ‘mindfulness’ rather than judging themselves harshly. “This takes coming from the Pali word, ‘sati’, meaning ‘awareness’ practice and some gentle persistence, but it is possible,” or ‘non-forgetfulness.’ It is a western adaptation of an says Professor Williams. eastern practice. During the discussion between His “One of the things that people need when they are Holiness and Professor Williams, the terms stressed is to find within themselves a place of stillness,” ‘mindfulness’ and ‘meditation’ are used he explains. “Mindfulness practice enables people to interchangeably without any noticeable friction, do this.” although Williams later noted that the awareness that His Holiness approaches the subject with a different, ery meditation cultivates is one of its central processes, but d slightly more embracing vocabulary, but projects a not the only one – an important qualification if we common message. Reduce attachments to burning
allow that all major religious traditions have had a CauDave emotions; contain the ego; accept yourself, discover meditative aspect, not just Buddhism. His Holiness the Gyalwang compassion. Whether we refer to it as Everyday Even more startling is the fact that science has come Drukpa who heads the Enlightenment, Walking the Path to Happiness in the Modern out on the side of these meditative practices dating Drukpa lineage of Tibetan World (The Drukpa’s recent book), or as Mindfulness: back at least 2500 years. Instead of merely explaining Buddhism A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World the experience of it in terms of feelings, we now know (Williams’ recent book), the terrain overlaps hugely. why meditation works. In the UK, this is a revolution. Above all, they both insist on action rather than First, it moves what is often perceived by mainstream debate. During the discussion with His Holiness, media as a fluffy discussion of ‘wellness’ onto firm Williams jokes about the difference between reading ground. Secondly, mindfulness (the clinical term is about mindfulness and practising it. “I own all manner Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, MBCT) has of books on gardening. Getting out there with a trowel profound implications for the treatment of depression. and planting something is much harder!” In other
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OXF06.mind.indd 31 5/24/12 10:07 AM
33
His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa in conversation with Professor Mark Williams, the founding director of Oxford’s Mindfulness Centre ery d Dave CauDave
words, meditation is an action. It is not just an idea. evangelical. “Do not cut up compassion by the frame of Therein lies the rub, because it is much harder to religion,” he warns. “You guys look at me as a religious disengage from the torrents of everyday life than one leader because of my robes, that’s very unfortunate!… might assume. Lighting up your insula takes a great It’s a shame, all religions are in a problematic space deal of work and patience. these days…” Another overlap concerns the increased pace of Colin Thubron’s best-selling To a Mountain in Tibet twenty-first century life – not a disavowal of the modern or Thomas Laird’s incomparable The Story of Tibet, world at all, but an acknowledgement, as His Holiness indicate that there is a world of religious complication puts it, that, “Our ‘to do’ lists are forever growing, our and opportunity (depending on your point of view) goals becoming bigger and more shiny than ever. that is being swept aside here. Laird betrays incredulity When did life become a race?” at some of the magical aspects of Buddhism while Still another shared view is that mindfulness is an talking to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, while action free of religion, unless the practitioner wants to Thubron cannot bring himself to dissolve the endow it with religious significance – a position that individual soul in the face of what is an essentially confirms the privatisation of religious conviction in the nihilistic philosophy. . al t e
modern world. This is where Buddhism is convenient Take the following sequence from Thubron. He b The brain after eight weeks for the west, because it wears its doctrine lightly in meets a genial young monk called Tashi, three years of meditation, showing the insula from two angles. In comparison to some of the monotheistic religions. His into his studies. Tashi “refused to call it [Buddhism] the experiment participants Holiness makes it clear that his mission is not a philosophy, still less a faith. ‘We have no God.’” were asked either to ‘think
about’ certain traits such as 0.8 313-322,07) 2(4): far ‘confident’ or ‘melancholy’ or 0.7 e (20 simply to ‘experience’ them, 0.6 c moment by moment. The bar 0.5 ien
chart shows the difference osc 0.4
in activity levels in the insula eur between the two conditions, 0.3 N 0.2 ive
before and after mindfulness ct 0.1 training (MT). Increased ffe A
fMRI signal activity in the insula after MT 0 d n (taken together with other —0.1 ive a evidence) is thought to be —0.2 t
associated with the ability gni
—0.3 o to feel emotions without —0.4 them stirring up an (often ial C
Novice MT oc
unhelpful) story about the self S
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OXF06.mind.indd 33 5/24/12 10:07 AM 34 Mindfulness
Thubron continues: A one- “The gods were only guides to the enlightenment minute that would erase them. His arms unfolded impotently from his chest, trying to explain. ‘I think meditation it is a science. Anyone can do it. I think you can do it.’” 1. Sit erect in a straight-backed chair, Thubron muses: with your feet flat on “I tried to imagine this, but the wrong words swam the floor and your into my mind: rejected life, self-hypnosis, the eyes closed. obliteration of loved difference. Premature death... But tantrism was a way to be lived, Tashi said, not a 2. Focus your doctrine to be learnt. You could not know it until attention on your you experienced it. Though by then, perhaps, it breath as it flows in would be too late to return.” and out of your body. Stay in touch with the There are yet other complications, such as the different sensations question of why 2500 years of mindfulness did little to of each in-breath empower women. and each out-breath. Yet despite these queries, the Gyalwang Drukpa has Observe the breath obviously digested the west as much as the west is without looking for toying with the east, and the message is delivered with anything special to a wonderfully composed sense of happiness. happen. There is no Later, when he speaks to a different audience at need to alter your Wolfson, the ‘non-NHS, non-science audience’ if you breathing in any way. like, he talks about the success of his Pad Yatra, a 400-kilometre walk through the Himalayas that took 3. After a while your 42 days, conducted in a blaze of media publicity, three mind may wander. years ago. He talks about positive karma purifying When you notice this, negative as a consequence of the walk; of the fact that a gently bring your third of the world’s population rely on the Himalayan attention back to watershed flowing down into India and China, and ery your breath, without thus the importance of planting trees and clearing d giving yourself a litter; about female emancipation, and education.
hard time – the act He’s not trying to make any of us into Buddhists, CauDave of realising that your insisting that the Pad Yatra is not a pilgrimage, but a mind has wandered way of re-connecting with nature, including our own. ‘The values of mindfulness and bringing your Williams, an honorary canon at Christ Church, talks attention back without about mindfulness as ‘secularised spirituality.’ “It’s the are not to be buried in a criticising yourself is wisdom of universal values,” he says. “They [the values] central to the practice are not to be buried in a cathedral or a temple or a cathedral or temple, but they of mindfulness monastery. But equally, they are not easy to implement. take effort to implement’ meditation. It takes effort.” In his book he strives to keep the distinction. “Meditation is not religion”. He continues: 4. Your mind may “Mindfulness is a mode of awareness that is available to eventually become us all, and the ‘mind and body training’ of meditation calm like a still pond helps us to get out of our own way to realise it.” – or it may not. Even This helps to better explain the Drukpa’s if you get a sense of organisation Live to Love, which is described on its The Gyalwang Drukpa is the head of the Drukpa school, one of the absolute stillness, it website as a “secular, humanitarian organisation.” The main schools of Buddhism. This lineage of reincarnated masters may only be fleeting. five pillars of Live to Love are environmental started from scholar-saint Naropa. The present Gyalwang Drukpa, If you feel angry or protection, emergency relief, medical aid, education Jigme Pema Wangchen, is the twelfth lineage holder. exasperated, notice and heritage preservation, with active projects in each that this may be category. The educative element partly explains his Mark Williams is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Wellcome fleeting too. Whatever courtesy visit to the University, while the organisation Principal Research Fellow at the University. He is a fellow of the happens, just allow it already has an international dimension. Academy of Medical Sciences, fellow of the British Academy and to be as it is. The nuns are finishing their display on Wolfson’s fellow of the USA’s Association for Psychological Science. In Oxford, lawns in 2012. Globalisation is here to stay, and it has a he is a fellow of Linacre College, honorary fellow of St Peter’s, and 5. After a minute, let positive aspect. Making our way inside for some tea, an honorary canon of Christ Church. your eyes open and I ask one of the nuns, Jigme Rigzin, why they took up allow yourself to take kung fu. “We were experiencing problems of laziness,” To learn more and view a video about in the room again. she explains. “Ah, I see,” I reply. “So there is a hard, mindfulness, visit physical counterpart to meditation?” “Yes”, she says. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk
OXF06.mind.indd 34 5/24/12 10:07 AM
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Friday13July Baroque Sheldonian Theatre Concerts in Oxford,Bath, Virtuoso Bach www.conted.ox.ac.uk/on5 Bristoland Malvern email: onlinecourses conted.ox.ac.uk Saturday 14 July @ ForumTheatre, Malvern Artists include: Magnificat The Soloists of Tuesday 17 July Oxford Philomusica DAY &WEEKEND Merton CollegeChapel Julia Kogan OVER 130 ONE &TWO DAY Music at the Court of COURSES IN 2012-13 Frederick the Great Mahan Esfahani Thursday 19 July Choir of New College, Bath Abbey,Bath Oxford Four-star campus accommodation available Magnificat Edward Higginbottom www.conted.ox.ac.uk/pp7 Saturday21July email: [email protected] Sheldonian Theatre Marios Papadopoulos Magnificat Oxford University alumni receive one 10% Forfulldetails and to bookvisit Thursday 26 July www.oxfordphil.com discountper term.Please email your 7- or Sheldonian Theatre BoxOffice: 01865 980 980 8-digit AlumniCard number to receive an Last Nightofthe enrolment code Baroque Proms
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The University of Oxford logo is the registered trademark of the University of Oxford and is used under licence. 36/37 Cowley and the Mini
Hannah Crowder at the end of the BMW MINI production line at Cowley, 2012 joby sessions
roaring success of MINI, whose production at Cowley began on April 26, 2001. It’s not just a workforce of 3700, and the way all those salaries play into the local property market, but the overall atmosphere of prosperity, which has been the mini barely dented by the downturn. Prosperity indirectly supports the University by making Oxford a strong city. If that sounds vague, try the alternatives. Yale is a famous instance of a university that for much of the 1980s and 90s struggled to secure the safety of its factor students because of the collapse of the manufacturing Richard Lofthouse considers the importance of base of its surrounding city, New Haven, Connecticut. But the connection between car making and the the car making industry to the University University is also much more direct. It’s a matter of gown and not just town. William Morris was born in hen the Olympic torch comes to 1877, he started in bicycles, then opened a garage in Oxford in July, it will dwell fractionally Longwall Street, and thence to Cowley. Rapid longer at the MINI factory in Cowley expansion after the First World War led to such than at the Iffley running track, iconic enormous personal wealth that he was the most siteW of middle-distance running and Roger Bannister’s celebrated industrialist of his generation. During the four-minute mile. 1930s, he single-handedly transformed the finances of That state of affairs reflects not just the relative the University at a precarious moment, subsequently importance of German, Munich-headquartered BMW, endowing a whole college, three years after he was an official Olympic sponsor and owner of MINI raised to the peerage as Lord Nuffield. (uppercased as a brand to distinguish it from the The Mini occupied Nuffield’s twilight years, and he original Mini launched in 1959), but the transformation died in 1963 when the car was just four years old. By of Oxford city’s broader economy in light of the then, Morris Motors had long since merged with Austin st u stry heritage tr u
Inspecting completed
otor ind Minis at the end of the assembly line at the Cowley works in 1959 british m
Motor Company, with a new holding company, British When BMW bought the Rover Group in 1994, it was a Motor Corporation. These were years of decline, trauma of misunderstandings and cultural difference, ege
disguised as consolidation. By 1968, when Mini ll but a logical outcome. Strong companies buy weak
production had switched to the Longbridge plant in d co companies, and by then, Rover was weak. Seven years Birmingham after a run of about 600,000 cars at l later, BMW launched a new MINI and it has been a ffie Cowley, almost every British car brand had sheltered u remarkable success story ever since, with nearly two
under the umbrella of British Leyland. s of n million cars already produced in Cowley. w The Mini is a case study in success and failure. It o More than one hundred deliveries of sub-assemblies ll leaked in the footwells but its fiercely independent and parts are delivered to plant Oxford daily, explains designer, Sir Alec Issigonis, refused to change its Wayne Morse, a spokesman for the factory. Some of design one jot. Meanwhile, poor business planning these are from local companies that can deliver very meant that every car was calculated by rival Ford to arden and fe quickly on demand. Meanwhile, pressed panels arrive
have realised a loss of £30. the w from a separate plant in Swindon and engines from The money men who succeeded Nuffield didn’t do William Morris (later Lord Hams Hall, near Birmingham. But there is a still their sums correctly, and they didn’t take account of Nuffield of motor car fame) broader web of commerce that spreads out from OX4 the marketing budget, for instance, which epitomised began his working life as a 6NL. Take Douglas Ligertwood, the founder of Oxford Britain at a moment when it was switching away from cycle mechanic, seen here on Crash Repairs on the adjacent Horspath Industrial wartime austerity to a more carefree spirit. a precarious ‘Ordinary’ (1893) Estate. He runs a highly successful body shop, adjacent One of the engineers at the 1959 launch of the Mini, to which is Mark Purcell Limited, Purcell being a BMW the late Roy Davies, recounts: “I was in the press tent specialist, ex-BMW, whose colleague John Blake is [at the (then) Fighting Vehicles Research and ex-MINI. They live and breathe BMWs, and MINIs, and Development Establishment in Chertsey, Surrey]. You they have made their livelihoods from fixing them had to hover in case anyone had any questions. This outside the official channel of the dealership networks. chap walked up to the bar and said to the barman, ‘I’ll Oxford is lucky to have MINI. Had the project gone have a half.’ The chap behind him said, ‘Don’t you to the Longbridge plant, Cowley would have been stuck realise you’re not paying for this stuff, old boy?’ He with the Rover 75 on borrowed time. As it was, said, ‘Well, in that case I’ll have a double whisky.’” February 2005 saw an extra £100 million investment by
www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 38 Cowley and Mini joby sessions
BMW in Cowley and the end of the line for Rover 75 done projects at the MINI site. But there is still a gulf production at Longbridge. MG Rover went into separating the University from car making, a tale of administration a few months short of its 100th birthday two Oxfords. Hannah’s father crossed that divide in and 4500 people were made redundant. 1987 when he moved from car making to a job as an IT Back in 2001 no one knew whether the new MINI manager in the University’s Department of would be a success. But as its Moroccan-born designer Pharmacology, where he still works. How are the Frank Stephenson, puts it so neatly, “Somehow it hit the cultures different? Hannah says, “The University is a bit nail on the head. It looks good. It does what it looks more relaxed – not as process-led.” Then she corrects like.” And then there was the business case. Because it herself unconsciously, “I like the way that the German had a substance and quality that no small car had culture works.” Morris’s original garage previously had, BMW were able to position MINI in the The twenty-minute tea break is about to end, but (above) in Longwall Street, as global marketplace as a premium product with a almost all the line workers are already here. All the it looks today. He opened the profitable price tag. This was the only real point of ghosts of the past have been banished, except that the garage in 1902 and outgrew it departure from the original formula. day we take photos coincides with a Union row over tea within a decade Here we are in the MINI plant. A big buzzer went off breaks. It is also the case that not many students who ten minutes ago, all the lights went out and the have lived ‘in’ or just ‘off’ the Cowley Road have been (top) The wider car economy production line stopped moving. There are five out to OX4 6NL. Ever fewer Oxonian graduates go into in Oxford (from left to right): minutes left to take photos of Hannah Crowder, 24, the manufacturing. It’s fallen from 9.4 per cent in 1974 to 5 John Blake, Mark Purcell fourth generation of a local family to work at Cowley. per cent in 2003, partly reflecting a national decline in and Douglas Ligertwood, posing with Ligertwood’s Mini She’s a Capacity Planner for Physical Logistics. that sector. At the latest estimate, just 100 students a Cooper, one of the last Rover “We move parts,” she says jocularly. But it’s more year went into Engineering and Manufacturing out of a Minis to be produced complex than that. Extensive customisation options student body of 11,752. mean that no two MINIs are the same. Every part has As this issue of Oxford Today has noted, the University to find its way ‘trackside’ (a trade term for the moving has filed a record number of commercial patents (p8). belt that synchronises with the assembly line) at the Meanwhile, Tim Woolmer’s re-configuring of the exact moment when it is required. 640 of 800 cars electric motor (p12) appears to be a highly significant made daily are for export, and the pepper white (its automotive advance. The University that once disputed officially designated colour) Cooper hatch in front of the value of engineering and campaigned not to have a us is destined for China. railway station may live at arm’s length from Cowley, The current head of the BMW MINI plant, Jürgen but all the same the car trade matters to it. Next time Hedrich, sits on the board of Saïd Business School. The you drive up the M40 why not come off at Lewknor Vice-Chancellor has toured Cowley and drives a turn and amble along the pretty B480, taking in the German car. The University engineering department very different skyline that greets you on the edge of has contact with BMW. Some Oxford students have Cowley? It’s the other Oxford in our midst.
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Arts& Ideas average income £690 smaller and story was reported by a parking an average house price deficit of lot attendant in a large shopping £151,999. mall in Glasgow,” immediately The website www.pepysrd.com establishing it as anecdote. The represents the infancy of print version leaves explanation interactivity; it was not created by to a footnote, so that the ‘story’ Lanchester and is not integral to can be read as a fiction about a his fictional project. Yet I suspect mysterious figure in a MB W. its existence already changes In the video version the things. Capital is the most parking attendant is called Jim, in journalistic of his four novels. It is print he is Dave. Morrison is far written in narrative units in too knowing a writer for this to which plot and character emerge be a simple error; in combination repeatedly from paragraphs of with other small textual ichuck/istock photo ichuck/istock exposition. It has a feeling of differences, it suggests that we fiction as a road map for may be getting the same story something outside itself. from different narrators. What I'm reading... This may be the result of We are told on the one hand Lanchester’s habit of alternating that “this happens every week and fiction and non-fiction (his book, no-one but the parking attendant by Claire Armitstead Whoops!, was an account of the has ever seen Greta”; on the other stock market crash), but even this that “an almost identical tale has Like many in literary journalism, the loss of his multi-million habit would be claimed as part of been reported in a second mall, I’m preoccupied with the impact pound bonus, to the Asian family a new literary ecology by the fourteen miles away.” Slyly, of the new technologies, and it’s a who run a corner shop at the end second author I’m currently Morrison poses an important concern that has increasingly of the street; from a Senegalese reading, Ewan Morrison. question: at what point, in the come to shape my reading life. football star struggling to adapt Morrison has always ranged echo chamber of contemporary On a basic transactional level, to life in a premier division club, across genres and media, writing society, does anecdote become I’m constantly worrying about to the elderly, dying widow who is novels, short stories and modern myth, and reportage how to absorb and reflect the the vestige of the pre-bubble days. screenplays. His new work, Tales slide into fiction? burgeoning digital market. It’s Lanchester’s point is that we all from the Mall, was simultaneously Gruen, father of the modern not all soft porn and vampires live our lives at the intersection of released on iPhone app, shopping mall, could be seen as created by extra-terrestrials, some history, geography and enhanced e-book and in having anticipated the anxieties of the most interesting writers are economics; yet that patterning paperback. It is not structured in of writers like Lanchester and engaging with new storytelling can remain opaque because of chapters but as the floor plan of a Morrison. Concerned that media in ways that are beginning the way that, even in a single shopping mall. It has a customer suburban Americans “knew to have a discernible impact on street, our lives run in parallel information area of 12 sections, nothing of their neighbours and their writing. without ever coinciding. The which are not consecutive, but drove tens of miles to shop for Two books I’m currently accompanying website, www. can be extracted as a history of essentials... he wanted to call a reading demonstrate different pepysrd.com, maps the reader’s shopping malls from the “agora” stop to this newly emerging aspects of this phenomenon. At own life experience on to this of classical Athens, via the early lifestyle before it resulted in social the more conventional end is scenario. “How will your life twentieth century urban architect atomisation and the dissolution John Lanchester’s Capital – a change in the next ten years?” It Victor Gruen, who co-opted the of community life… Against his novel accompanied by an asks. “Will you be better or worse word “mall” for large retail areas better intentions, his designs interactive website. off?” to an account of customer contributed to an acceleration of Capital offers a snapshot of The trail begins with a series of “corralling” techniques. the social fragmentation he spent a divided London through the basic questions – where and when Sections marked “V” also exist a lifetime trying to prevent.” inhabitants of a single street, were you born and where do you in video, audio, or animation, Sometimes to understand the Pepys Road, SW21. In some ways live now? I was born in Nigeria and one such is an anecdote future it pays to look back. Next it’s pleasurably old-fashioned; and now live in London, a about a Glasgow cross-dresser stop – Walter Benjamin. long and leisurely in its unfurling 3057-mile migration which has called Greta, titled ‘Incident in a of individual lives. Disquisitions increased my life expectancy by Mall #22. A Solitary Car on the Claire Armitstead (St Hilda’s, 1977) on the property market, the 29.3 years. A colleague’s 93-mile Top Floor.’ Comparison of the is Books Editor for Guardian News financial industry or world-class journey from Witham to oral and printed texts offers some and Media. She presents the weekly football prop up stories ranging Brighton has left her with a life idea of the project’s complexities. Guardian books podcast and is a from a City trader devastated by expectancy one year shorter, an The video version opens: “This regular books reviewer for BBC radio. We welcome Oxford Alumni bookshop review suggestions Blackwell’s offers a 10 per cent discount to all from authors and alumni card holders on book purchases. publishers. Please www.blackwell.co.uk/oxfordalumni send brief details to the Editor at oxford.today@ admin.ox.ac.uk
Works for Piano - rachmaninoff/ Scriabin/medtner/ Liapunov By chisato kusunoki, travel: A Literary 2012 and the end Women Who Into Africa: the Quartz, £11.99 history of the World made money: Imperial Life of It is as if something magical By Matthew Restall and Women Partners margery Perham By peter Whitfi eld, happens when pianist Amara solari, in British Private By c Brad Faught, Bodleian Library Chisato Kusunoki (Univ, Rowman & Littlefi eld Banks 1752-1906 iB tauris publishers, publishing, 1998) performs. her take on publishers, inc, 9781848854901, £35 9781851243389, £19.99 By Margaret Dawes and rachmaninoff's Six Moments 9781442206090, £9.99 Nesta selwyn, trafford dazzling, authoritative Musicaux Op. 16 – written A testament to travel Concise argument for publishing, biography of the British when he was just 23 – takes in and a history of the the evidence behind the 9781426937255, £9.99 African expert and pieces that range from the literature it has inspired, belief in a mayan nuffi eld fellow that impressively grand to the focusing on nearly 200 prophecy that the world Yes, there were female covers nationalism, beautifully subtle, providing authors from Captain will come to an end on bankers long before the imperialism and the perfect stage on which to Cook to marco Polo. december 21 2012. twentieth century. questions of empire. display her prodigious talent. As the disc continues to cover the works of medtner, Scriabin and Liapunov, Chisato's performance refl ects her extensive study of the works of medtner and her preoccupation with the neglected piano literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She brings the compositions back to life, most notably with medtner's Sonata in G Minor Op. 22. the collection also includes Scriabin's Fantasie in B Minor the Cardinal's titanic Calling: Performing the Stones and Liapunov's Etudes College: Christ Wireless greek drama in of Oxford: d'Execution Transcendante Church, Chapter Communications Oxford and On Conjectures on Op.11. She won the gibbs and Verse during the great tour With the a Cockleshell Prize for performers while at the University and received By Judith curthoys, disaster Balliol Players By John Melvin, a scholarship to the royal profi le Books Ltd, Edited by Michael hughes By Amanda Wrigley, papadakis, Academy of music. She has 9781846686177, £40 & katherine Bosworth, university of Exeter press, 9781906506131, £25 played as part of the Bodleian Library 9780859898447, £40 From the college's A journey through the prestigious Park Lane group publishing, archivist comes this Colourful volume history of architecture, concert series and made her 9781851243778, £14.99 extensive history of a tracing the link between examining the roles that Wigmore hall debut in 2007 great institution, with all With a wealth of classical times and tradition and memory to great acclaim. its peculiarities and material from the dramatic performance play within our sense of www.chisatokusunoki.com traditions explained. marconi Archives. in Oxford today. pride in our cities.
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OXF06.books.indd 46 5/24/12 2:16 PM 42/43 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Christina Hardyment steering her punt Dulcibella under the 13th-century Newbridge archie hardymen archie The Stripling Thames Christina Hardyment plans a punting summer stone from Radcot to London to rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral, Second World War pillboxes are dotted exploring the deep topography, history and menacingly along the northerly banks of the river literature of the Thames above Oxford between Lechlade and Buscot. Shelley wrote a sonnet in Lechlade churchyard after rowing there from Windsor, William Morris rowed all the way from he charm of what Matthew Arnold London to fall in love with the weathered grey stones of famously calls “the stripling Thames” when Kelmscott Manor, which he soon made famous for fine his Scholar Gypsy encounters it at Bablock printing, furniture and tapestries. Hythe, west of the Cumnor Hills, lies partly But although a quarter of the Thames’ 200-mile total Tin the winding river’s profound peace and partly in the length lies upstream of Oxford, it remains, as it has knowledge of the mysteries hidden in the landscape. always been, something of a lost world. Dozens of books Few stretches of water have richer associations with were written in praise of the Thames at the height of its history and literature. The Roman Fosse Way crosses a Victorian and Edwardian fame as a playground, but barely toddling Thames near Cricklade, where Canute very few give more than the sketchiest description of defeated the Saxons, Prince Rupert fought a valiant the waterway beyond The Trout Inn at Wolvercote. action at the oldest still extant man-made crossing, the Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown at Oxford (1861) only contrarily named Newbridge, barges brought Cotswold mentions young gents quaffing champagne and
OXF06.thames.indd 42 5/23/12 5:33 PM 42/43
smoking cigars in punts on the Cherwell and rowers flowery lanes and signposts to nearby hamlets, and coming to grief on the Sandford Lasher. The great passed them by, muttering “another time”. Oxford photographer Henry Taunt’s marvellous This year, things are going to be different. I am lucky two-mile-to-the-inch illustrated map of the Thames enough to own Dulcibella, a camping punt which I keep (1871) only started in Oxford, though later editions at Oxford Cruisers, a busy little boatyard near Eynsham corrected the omission. Bridge. Fun as sailing was, it had its frustrating “Not one boatman knows Eynsham or Lechlade for moments: downing the mast for every bridge, shrouded a thousand that know Medmenham or Marlowe,” without a tremor of wind in Shifford Cut, fighting for
declared The Boys Own Paper in April 1883. Its account t control when a gale made a wild balloon of my of three young sportsmen venturing up river in a skiff dropped sail just above a weir. Moreover, I had to find might have been calculated to deter other explorers. somewhere to eat and sleep at the end of the day. Having rowed and towed for several days, negotiating Punting, especially with my featherlight aluminium ina hardymen ina
“cantankerous rush beds” in a stream that wriggled st pole, is the perfect form of locomotion: facing forward,
“like an eel in convulsion”, they collapse with relief at chri requiring enough physical exertion to justify slap-up Cricklade. “That’s over at last. I never did such a piece grub at frequent intervals, but far less effort than of river in my life”, says one of the lads. “And what a wielding oars or paddle. The gentle pace is conducive pace we went. A mile an hour at least.” to Thackerite reflection, and tributaries and I can vouch for the accuracy of the description, backwaters can be explored, even if it means wading having punted to Cricklade myself a couple of and towing. I can carry a Kelly kettle, refreshing and summers ago, immeasurably assisted by my doughty sustaining comestibles, cushions, books, and on brother John (Lincoln, 1968), who waded upstream occasion a friend, as well as my gallant dog, Leo. Poseidon-like dragging the punt while the dogs and I I know that I will find Thacker’s preferred country fended off willow branches. Near Castle Eaton we were fruitful territory for my own favourite pastime of deeply vexed at being overtaken by some dear old knitting past to present by seeing it through yesterday’s biddies taking the air on the towpath on zimmer eyes, savouring the words and images of earlier frames. So why do it again? Largely because of a travellers, imagining myself in a different, less hurried t remarkable man. I can’t find much about Frederick S n age. Will there be a book about my explorations?
Thacker, but to my mind he is the Thames’ greatest er ga Perhaps, perhaps not. Having worked flat out to finish t e
historian. He ignored the general Oxford assumption p two books last year, I don’t want a looming publisher’s
‘upstream-bad, downstream-good’ and in 1909 wrote deadline any time soon. Inspired by Cambridge punter (Above, from the top) a seductive and impressively erudite account of his Dulcibella ready for bedtime John Eade’s polymathic, www.thames.me.uk, I will start journey from Osney, on Oxford’s western edge, to the at Lechlade; punting under with a link (Slow Punting?) on my website, a place to river’s source at Trewsbury Mead, near Cirencester. He Hart’s Footbridge; (below) The record such gems as Brian Walter’s account of Evenlode called the plump green volume The Stripling Thames frontispiece from Frederick villagers sitting in their waterside gardens stabbing and published it at his own expense. The title page sets Thacker’s The Stripling toasting forks into trout as they swam upstream to the tone with two lines from Horace and a frontispiece Thames, showing his skiff, spawn (straight onto the bonfire?), publish images showing his chosen conveyance, a skiff called Phasellus Phasellus Ille ancient and modern, and invite more knowledge and Ille (‘That Boat’, a name taken from a poem by the experiences of others. Please contribute! Catullus). He burrowed in libraries (especially the Bodleian) and quizzed local people to uncover a Christina Hardyment’s Writing Britain: Wastelands to phenomenal amount of history, folklore and literary Wonderlands was published by the British Library in May 2012; association which immeasurably enriches the reader’s The World of Arthur Ransome will be published by Frances understanding of the landscape surrounding “the Lincoln in October 2012 far-off lonely mother of the Thames”. In the introduction he nails his colours to the mast. “I write for no maker and breaker of records, for none Thacker uncovered a phenomenal amount who delights in engines of locomotion, whether on land or water”. Crucial to the enjoyment of the “ancient of history, folklore and literary association and unspoilt countryside,” he declares, is travelling under your own steam. “You must traverse its roads upon your feet, and pull and steer your craft along its winding reaches with your own arms.” Thacker’s prose is like rich Malmsey, orotund and arresting. The breadth of knowledge he displays both of the river itself, its fords, weirs, locks, bridges and inns past and present, and of the towns and villages within five miles of it, made me realise how superficial both my previous excursions had been. The first was in a British Moth dinghy launched at Lechlade and sailed to Port Meadow, Oxford; the second the previously mentioned punt odyssey. On both occasions, I was, like the many Thames Path plodders I saw, obsessed with Getting There. I saw enticing backwaters and tributaries,
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10% of sales Competition results will directly support the OUS The winning prize, Winners Student Travel a Montblanc Awards fountain pen First Place Philippa Schofi eld (Somerville, Ordering details can 1976), My Other Self be found at: www. £500 Montblanc fountain pen oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/ wine. A mixed case can Second Place be ordered, and any Ian Dudley (St Catherine’s, 1977) twelve bottle case is Dr Luther’s Assistant eligible for free shipping £300 bottle of Glenfarclas whisky Third Place The eight winning stories are stories make you feel very alive. Gaines Post (New College, 1961) wonderful examples of short There are intensely bright and Prosecco Ca’Val Scudo Across The Lake form fi ction, and all received the happy notes, not least in the two Giallo Spago NV £100 magnum of Charles glowing commendation of the north American settings. But Bottle £8.99 Heidsieck champagne judges for the 2012 Oxford perhaps none is so catching as Case £107.88 Today Creative Writing the winning entry by Philippa Highly Commended Competition. Schofi eld, which is like a double Contained within the espresso laced with something Robin Fabel (St John’s, 1955) disciplining jacket of a thousand stronger. If you work in an offi ce Durban 1942 words, each story is richly block or in front of a computer, it Robert Turrall-Clarke Verdejo 2010 Legaris, vibrant, emotive and punchy. should carry a warning sticker. (Lincoln, 1957) Rueda, Spain Dwelling on deep human Brace yourself! Lovely Sunday Bottle £8.99 preoccupations from the On a more mundane note, the Case £107.88 remembered childhood of a winners have been sent their Commended picnic outing to a mother’s crisis, prizes and it remains to us here Penelope Randall they generate a rollercoaster of in the editorial team at Oxford (Hertford, 1979) emotion that is darkly brilliant Today to thank everyone who Knit Your Own Lifeboat (Style) De Chansac Sauvignon and perfectly English, soliciting entered the competition. There Blanc 2011, Côtes de a mood of introspection, were 134 entries in total, which Lucy Mouland (Balliol, 1991) Gascogne, France diffi dence and crisis. But a bit exceeded our expectations. Now Wednesday’s Child (Structure) Bottle £7.99 like walking into an ice bath and we just have to devise the next Mark Cinanni (Jesus, 2009) Case £95.88 catching one’s breath, these competition! Dealbreaker (Humour/dialogue)
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OXF06.creative_wine.indd 43 5/24/12 10:44 AM 46 Arts& Ideas Visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk for full listings of events
Buzzard over Wytham (2012) Events by Robin Wilson
An exhibition celebrating the Museums great novelist’s bicentenary, showing something of the world & galleries he lived in using contemporary Ashmolean Museum materials along with quotations from his writings. Until 27 August The English Prize: The Christ Church Capture of the Westmorland, Picture Gallery an Episode of the Grand Tour Exhibition about captured British Until 15 October
merchant ship, The Westmorland. Heroic Nakedness robin wilson Celebrating the human form 20 September–6 January through Renaissance and through the Museum’s 2 August The Bicentenary of Edward Baroque Old Master drawings. remarkable collections. Sergei Babayan: Rachmaninov Lear (1812–88) and Tchaikovsky A display covering all aspects of Until 22 October University Museum of Mahahem Pressler: Lear’s work, including the early Illustrating Alice Natural History Mendelssohn and Mozart natural history illustrations, the Salvador Dali illustrates Lewis finished watercolours, and the Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Until 31 September All concerts 20.00, Sheldonian nonsense drawings and verse for Out of the Woods: The Art of Theatre, unless stated otherwise. which he is best known. October–February Science at Wytham Woods 10% discount for alumni: www. Giulio Romano - Raphael’s Linocut and woodblock prints by alumni.ox.ac.uk/philomusica Botanic Garden legacy and 16th-century design the artists in residence at Raphael’s collaborator and pupil, Oxford’s Wytham Woods, and of Alumni events Until 29 July Giulio, was inspired by his master sculpture inspired by the Garden Secrets at the to develop his own designs. woodlands, using wood taken 19 July Botanic Garden from Wytham. Olympics Reception: The An exhibition by professional Museum of the History Ethics of Prosthetics artists of works created in paper. of Science An alumni reception and panel Music discussion at the Royal College Evening Guided Walks Until 2 September Oxford Philomusica of Surgeons with expert speakers A series of guided walks, after Phil and Jim’s Summer Baroque from the London Organising hours at Harcourt Arboretum Marvellous Medicine Committee of the Olympic and and the Botanic Garden, An exhibition about the history 7 July Paralympic Games and Channel 4. 18.30–20.30, £15 of medicine curated by Year 2 La Serenissima pupils from St Philip and St 14–16 September 5 July James’ Primary School in Oxford. 13 July Oxford Alumni Weekend Redwood Forests of North Virtuoso Bach Talks, tours and social activities. California Until 9 September Ben Jones, Arboretum Curator: The Renaissance in Astronomy 17 July 7 November Hear about the adventures of Instruments and books that show Music at the Court of Professional Networking seed collecting, then walk the astonishing developments in Frederick the Great Event: Social entrepreneurship through the collection. astronomy in the 16th century. 20.00, Merton College Chapel Held at the Oxford and Cambridge Club for all alumni 26 July Pitt Rivers Museum 21 July interested in business for social The Chemistry of Colour – Magnificat and environmental good. Nature’s Palette Until 6 January Alison Foster, Senior Curator: Christian Thompson 26 July 26–28 April Discover the hidden world of Digital photographic works by Last Night of the Baroque European Reunion 2013: chemistry that is happening right contemporary Australian artist Proms Madrid under our noses in the plants in Christian Thompson, in response Mark your calendars! The 2013 our gardens. to the museum’s historical photo 28 July programme features fascinating collection from Australia. Olympic Fanfare talks, cultural sessions and Bodleian Library 20.00, Christ Church Cathedral wonderful dining opportunities! Made for Trade Until 28 October Until 27 January International Piano Festival For a full listing of alumni events, Dickens and his World An insight into the world of trade and Summer Academy www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/events 4710/11 Obituaries
Ursula Dronke and lecturer (and latterly vice- 3 November 1920–8 March 2012 principal) at London Bible College, before becoming Principal of Wycliffe Ursula Miriam Dronke, scholar of Hall. He presided over an expansion in Icelandic and Old Norse, died on 8 student and staff numbers but his years March 2012, aged 91. Born Ursula as Principal were also marked by Miriam Brown, she was educated at tensions, particularly over the the Church High School, Newcastle, ordination of women (which he Mary Russell Vick and at Somerville College, Oxford, supported). He resigned in order to 16 July 1922–1 March 2012 where she read English and graduated become rector of a group of parishes in 1942. After three years’ service in in the diocese of Hereford. In 1999 Mary Russell Vick OBE, England hockey international the Board of Trade she returned to he retired to Gwynedd but continued and hockey administrator, died on 1 March 2012, Somerville as a graduate student then to teach and to write, notably aged 89. Born Mary de Putron in Guernsey, she was from 1950 as fellow and tutor in commentaries on Matthew and Mark’s educated at the Beehive School in Bexhill and English. She made her name as an gospels. He is survived by his wife Somerville College, Oxford, where she read editor, translator and authority on Barbara and their two children. mathematics and gained four Blues. After graduating Icelandic and Old Norse, most notably in 1943 she joined the WRNS and in 1944 married through her editions of Thorgil’s Saga Ann Dummett RAF officer Clive Russell Vick. Post-war she taught for and the Poetic Edda. In 1960 she 4 September 1930–7 February 2012 26 years at St Hilary’s School, Sevenoaks, and made married Peter Dronke; they moved to her first appearance for the England women’s hockey Cambridge following his appointment Ann Dummett, Lady Dummett, died team in 1947. She notched up 30 appearances over six to a lectureship in Medieval Latin on 7 February 2012, aged 81. Born years, scoring 70 goals. She was president of the All there. Meanwhile, Ursula Dronke Agnes Margaret Ann Chesney, England Women’s Hockey Association from 1976 to continued with her own scholarly daughter of the actor Arthur Chesney, 1986 and inaugural secretary (later chairman) of the career, and for three years was head she grew up in Battersea, and was Great Britain Women’s Olympic Hockey Board, from of the department of Scandinavian educated at Ware Grammar School, 1979 to 1992. She is survived by her three daughters, Studies at Munich University. She Hertfordshire (where she had been her husband having predeceased her. returned to Oxford as Vigfússon evacuated) and Somerville College, Reader in Icelandic and fellow of Oxford, where she read Modern Linacre College from 1976 until her History and graduated in 1951, the Oxford, graduating in Literae retirement in 1988. A volume of same year as her marriage to Michael Humaniores in 1938. He was elected collected essays, Myth and Fiction in Dummett (obituary, Hilary 2012). She a Senior Demy of Magdalen the same Early Norse Lands, was published in shared her husband’s antipathy to year and a Fellow by Examination in 1996. She is survived by her husband racism, and was active in community 1939. During the Second World War and their daughter. relations both locally in Oxford and he served with the Duke of Wellington’s nationally; she was one of the founders Regiment in France, North Africa and Richard France of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Italy, where he was taken prisoner. On 2 April 1938–10 February 2012 Immigrants, campaigned vigorously liberation he returned to Oxford, against successive nationality and where he was a lecturer then student of Richard Thomas France, Principal of immigration laws, trained generations Christ Church then fellow and tutor in Wycliffe Hall from 1989 to 1995, died of community activists in nationality philosophy at Corpus Christi, from on 10 February 2012, aged 73. Born in law, was Director of the Runnymede 1959 to 1978. He finished his career as Londonderry, he was educated at Trust from 1984 to 1987, and Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Bradford Grammar School and Balliol continued even in her final years to Stanford. He published widely, on College, Oxford, where he read Literae advise and organise race relations Greek and early Christian philosophy, Humaniores, graduating in 1960. He organisations and immigration law language, ethics, aesthetics, and the then moved to Bristol, where he practitioners. She is survived by five of history of philosophy. He is survived by prepared for ordination at Tyndale her seven children. a daughter, his wife Marion having House, while writing a doctoral thesis predeceased him. on Jesus and the Old Testament. James Urmson Ordained in 1966, he was successively 4 March 1915–29 January 2012 Obituaries are edited by Dr Alex May, a curate in Cambridge, lecturer at the research editor at Oxford DNB University of Ife, Nigeria, librarian of James Opie Urmson MC, philosopher, Tyndale House, Cambridge, senior died on 29 January 2012, aged 96. He A more comprehensive list of lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, was educated at Kingswood School, obituaries of Oxonians is at Nigeria, Warden of Tyndale House, Bath, and Corpus Christi College, www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk
OXF06.obits.indd 52 5/30/12 9:52 AM 48/49 Directory
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www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 50 The last word My Oxford y
Judith Macgregor t ci o c exi m
– Lady Margaret Hall 1971 y ss a
The British ambassador to Mexico talks to mb h e s i John Garth about shoestring creativity and t ri street theatre in early Seventies Oxford b r and o reg acg m
Why did you apply to Oxford? to do things that hadn’t been possible h t Because of its reputation, with lots of at school, to meet people from very i
renowned historians. I had a place at different backgrounds doing a range r jud o
Leeds to study French, but with very of subjects. ad ss good A-level results I thought I’d have a mb
a go at Oxbridge. My brother and his Did you take part in any other f a o y
girlfriend, who were already studying extra-curricular activities? s e at Cambridge reading history, We worked hard but we also played t ur o
informally tutored me and I studied hard. My closest friends were quite c in public libraries. serious historians and we participated in faculty discussions on changes to No more exams then ever again!” Did you enjoy Oxford? the curriculum. It was a time when That degree was certainly a great help I found it quite a culture change after students were beginning to question in getting on the first rung of my being at a central London school, more actively the status quo. There career – but after that, of course, it just where very few people then went to had been a student occupation of the became one of a number of successive university at all. But I immediately Schools in 1969–70 and reform experiences and achievements. liked my course [Modern History] and discussion was rife. I also made tutors. The medieval historian Susan friends, on my very first day, with a Macgregor in her What else did you take away from Reynolds (now at the University of musician who was very keen to create a your time at Oxford? university days London) remained my personal tutor mime and music group. We ran ‘street A tremendous love of history; a and is still a friend today. I also very theatre’ events, largely improvised to module on art history in France has much took to Oxford. Such a entertain the people bustling past. We carried me through to an enduring beautiful place was a revelation – the held an Alice in Wonderland tea party interest in 19th-century European art. lovely gardens and the countryside outside the Bodleian, in costume, with I took away good friendships and a around. I enjoyed the change from drinks served in enormous teacups confidence in being able to relate to a London. For me that first year was a and cakes, and we invited passers-by to wide range of people. I date my love of real voyage of discovery. join us. We also invited Geoffrey being in the countryside from Oxford. Caston, the University Registrar, And finally my musician friend went to Were you a hardworking student? whom I’d met in the University Budapest to study Kodály, and pointed At a ladies’ college in 1971 you would Curriculum Reform discussions. To out I could go to Romania on a similar have had to have been extremely our complete shock he turned up and scholarship. I consequently studied in enterprising not to be hardworking! seemed to enjoy the party! It was all Bucharest and then in the north of We had quite a tempo of work, and very young and idealistic. I also took Romania. That set off my love of the tutors were thorough about part in Twelfth Night, directed by Central and Eastern Europe. ensuring you turned work in on time. Patrick Garland, as one of the crowd of maidens. How do you think of Oxford now? What was your social life like? With a lot of a pleasure and a certain There was a real pleasure in making Has your Oxford qualification amount of nostalgia. It’s a time that I friends in several different colleges helped in your career? associate with space and time to think and seeing on the noticeboard so I remember a friend dashing into the and reflect; and a certain timelessness. many events being organised. It was a supermarket where I was working with self-help, creative time: we didn’t have a big bottle of champagne and saying, To view interviews with previous subjects much money. Among the pleasures of “Congratulations! You’ve got a First.” of this column, visit www.oxfordtoday. being in college was the opportunity And my first words were “Goodness! ox.ac.uk/oxonians/my_oxford
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