www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk Trinity Term 2011 Volume 23 No 3
OXFORD TODAY THE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
22 | SIR ANDREW MOTION | PHILIP PULLMAN SAVING THE ARTS IN BRITAIN
32 | GOODBYE MUBARAK YEAR OF THE FACEBOOK REVOLUTIONS?
35 | EDWARD BURNE-JONES ROMANTIC TO THE POINT OF MODERNISM
38 | PG WODEHOUSE LANGUAGE AS PLAYTHING
WHERE WE’RE HEADING James Martin interprets our century OXFORD TODAY
EDITOR:;iI`Z_Xi[Cf]k_flj\ DEPUTY ART EDITOR:DXibD`kZ_\cc HEAD OF PUBLICATIONS AND WEB OFFICE: 8ee\9ilee\i$ EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES:AXe\k8m`jfe AL;> GlYc`Z8]]X`ij;`i\ZkfiXk\ Tel:'(/-,)/',+, IF9 Fax:'(/-,).'(./ # ALUMNI ENQUIRIES, INCLUDING CHANGE OF ADDRESS::cX`i\CXib`e PJ 8clde`F]ÔZ\ F9 Tel:'(/-,-((-(' 1A @D8>< Le`m\ij`kpf]Fo]fi[#Le`m\ij`kpF]ÔZ\j# Fo]fi[Kf[Xp`jglYc`j_\[`eDXiZ_#Ale\Xe[FZkfY\i%@k`j]i\\kfFo]fi[ ^iX[lXk\jXe[]i`\e[jf]k_\Le`m\ij`kp%@k`jXcjfXmX`cXYc\fejlYjZi`gk`fe%=fi ]lik_\i`e]fidXk`feXe[kfjlYjZi`Y\#ZfekXZkAXe\k8m`jfe j\\[\kX`cjXYfm\ % K_\:_XeZ\ccfi#DXjk\ijXe[JZ_fcXijf]k_\Le`m\ij`kpf]Fo]fi[% K_\fg`e`fej\ogi\jj\[`eFo]fi[Kf[XpXi\k_fj\f]k_\Zfeki`Ylkfij#Xe[ Welcome Xi\efke\Z\jjXi`cpj_Xi\[Ypk_\Le`m\ij`kpf]Fo]fi[%8[m\ik`j\d\ekjXi\ ZXi\]lccpm\kk\[#Ylkk_\Le`m\ij`kpZXekXb\efi\jgfej`Y`c`kp]fik_\d% The future of the world and EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: 8cle8e[\ijfe# 8lk_fiXe[aflieXc`jk a University under attack 8ee\9ilee\i$ K_\k\okgXg\i`ek_`jdX^Xq`e\`jZ_cfi`e\ ]i\\%K_\gXg\idXel]XZkli\iXe[=lkli\ For your chance to win an iPad 2, complete our reader survey at GlYc`j_`e^_Xm\Y\\e`e[\g\e[\ekcp Z\ik`Ô\[`eXZZfi[XeZ\n`k_k_\ilc\jf] www.surveymonkey.com/s/oxfordtodaytrinity k_\=fi\jkJk\nXi[j_`g:fleZ`c% www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | oxford.today@admin.ox.ac.uk | twitter.com/oxfordalumni MY OXFORD Stephanie OXFORD Cook Trinity Term K_\Fcpdg`Z 2011 g\ekXk_cfe^fc[ d\[Xcc`jki\ZXccj ]fe[d\dfi`\j TODAY f]_\i[XpjXjX In this issue… C`eZfcejZ_fcXi 50 Oxonian 6 Letters 8 University news 10 New heads of house 13 S cience findings J E 14 New appointments J 9P 15 Photography competition F E#A F 17 Alumni news O @ EE @ M 18 Student spotlight < #B F 22 For art’s sake &: Professor Andrew Motion and Philip M@@ M& @ 26 Pullman assess the future of the arts 8M ? E F 22 26 T urbulence ahead EK#I @ Futurologist James Martin and his C = ? foreboding views on climate change 8EE8 ? 32 Facebook revolutions? Social media: a force for good? 9I8IP# @ 35 Burne-Jones’ pursuit of love D8E8IKC < > The life, loves and laments of the painter @; 35 9I 38 PG Wodehouse How one man transformed the way TRINITY HIGHLIGHTS we speak the English language Arts & Ideas 41 Book reviews Ten new books for your reflection 43 Reader wine offer 18 32 38 45 Poetry Couture on Social media, Words of 46 Events the catwalk social chaos? Wodehouse 47 Obituaries @kËj^c`kqXe[^cXdfli ?fnjfZ`Xcd\[`XkffcjXi\ JlYliYXen`kk`Z`jdjkf 50 My Oxford Xkk_\Yi\Xk_kXb`e^ÔeXc\ Zi\Xk`e^Xe\nXe[gfn\i]lc dXibk_\i\cXleZ_f]k_\ f]Fo]fi[=Xj_`feN\\b ]XZ\f]i\mfclk`fe e\nF<;fec`e\ www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni We welcome letters for publication, which can be sent either by post or by email. We reserve the right to edit them to meet space constraints; the best way to avoid this is to keep letters to 200 Letters or fewer words. Unless you request otherwise, Your correspondence letters may also appear on our website. Brave new world? I have been following the debate over In response to… post-secondary education funding in the UK, and in particular, the Oxford defence of the undergraduate tutorial OT 23.1: ‘First among equals’ system. My experience of the Oxford tutorial system was nothing special. Gfc`k`ZXcXkkXZbXe[g\ijfeXckflZ_%%% I was never intellectually stretched, rarely challenged. I had to work much @]fle[k_\m\ip`e]fidXk`m\ gX`e]lccp`ife`Z`ek_\Zfek\okf] :fe^iXklcXk`fejfepfli harder, and in a more focused way, Xik`Zc\XYflkFo]fi[gi`d\ k_\\]]\Zk`m\gi`mXk`jXk`fef] j\c\Zk`fef]c\kk\ij`ek_\?`cXip once I arrived in Canada as a young d`e`jk\ij Ê=`ijkXdfe^\hlXcjË _`^_\i\[lZXk`fe%K_ifl^_k_\ \[`k`fe#XYflkk_\:Xd\ife graduate student. During my academic `eFK)*%(dfjk`ek\i\jk`e^Xe[ Iljj\cc>iflg#Fo]fi[cfYY`\[ g_fkf^iXg_`ek_\gi\m`fljk\id% career – at a severely under-endowed m\ipXggifgi`Xk\cpkfg`ZXc% _Xi[]fiXe`eZi\Xj\`ekl`k`fe :fe^iXklcXk`fejXcjfkfk_\Gi`d\ provincial Canadian university – I K_\i\jlck`e^c\kk\ijpfl ]\\j%E\`k_\ik_\>iflgefi D`e`jk\ifeY\Zfd`e^`emfcm\[ taught through lectures and seminars, glYc`j_\[#i\cXk`e^dX`ecp Fo]fi[`kj\c]_XjiX`j\[Xjkife^ `eXefk_\inXi#jf\Xicp`e_`j with an office door that was always kf;Xm`[:Xd\ife#Z\ikX`ecp mf`Z\kfgifk\ZkglYc`Z_`^_\i c\X[\ij_`g#k_ljgifm`e^_`j open. I believe that this method was as i\m\Xc\[jfd\k_`e^1@]`e[ \[lZXk`fe%Nflc[Fo]fi[kf[Xp X[_\i\eZ\kfXcfe^kiX[`k`fe% effective, and more efficient, than the `kXcdfjkY\pfe[Y\c`\]k_Xk i\]lj\Xe_fefiXip[\^i\\kf LENON BEESON much-romanticised Oxford tutorial Xepfe\#n`k_fin`k_flk ;Xm`[:Xd\ifeXjk_\`ejk`^Xkfi Wadham, 1944 system. The British government’s Xle`m\ij`kp\[lZXk`fe#ZXekXb\ f]k_\j\Z_Xe^\jfi_fefliX plans for higher education may be jlZ_XZ_`c[`j_c`e\XjkfdXb\ dXen_f_Xjgifk\Zk\[ PfliZfcldejj\\dkfXkkiXZk unfortunate. But surely openness to jfd\fe\Ëj]XZ`XcXgg\XiXeZ\ `kjfne`ek\i\jkj6@nfe[\i jfd\m\ip^cldZfii\jgfe[\ekj% other models of teaching and learning k_\]fZljf]Xgfc`k`ZXcXkkXZb% `]Fo]fi[Kf[Xpd`^_kX[[i\jj ?fn\m\i#@nXjgc\Xj\[kfj\\k_\ is necessary and appropriate. 8dfe^dXepfk_\ik_`e^j#k_\ k_\j\`jjl\jfij_flc[@aljk Zfm\ig`Zkli\f];Xm`[:Xd\ife% JAMES K HILLER ]XZkk_Xk;Xm`[:Xd\ifeXkkX`e\[ ZXeZ\cdp df[\jk dfek_cp Jfpfl_Xm\Xkc\Xjkfe\_Xggp Brasenose, 1962 X=`ijk`jdfi\i\c\mXekk_Xe_`j Zfeki`Ylk`fekfG\dYifb\ i\X[\iflkk_\i\% ]XZ\%@k`jXcjfjli\cpefk :fcc\^\fek_\^ifle[jk_Xk ROGER SIMPSON XZZ\gkXYc\`eX[lck[\YXk\kf @Xdefkjli\n_Xkb`e[f] Wadham, 1957 For the love of God XkkXZbk_\Zlkjn`k_flkj_fn`e^ \[lZXk`feFo]fi[jkXe[j]fi6 How sad that some of your readers \m\ek_\jc`^_k\jkXnXi\e\jj SARAH WILSON @nXj[\c`^_k\[kfj\\k_\]lcc feel threatened by a Humanist leaflet f]n_pk_\pXi\_Xgg\e`e^% Pembroke, 1985 Zfcflig_fkf^iXg_f]Af_e?\eip saying, “There’s probably no God”. Gfc`k`ZXc[\YXk\`jfe\k_`e^ E\ndXeËjiffdXkFi`\c:fcc\^\ A quotation from Bertrand Russell Ylk`cc$`e]fid\[eXd\$ZXcc`e^ K_`j`j\Xjpkf\ogcX`eRn_p `ek_\D`Z_X\cdXj)'('\[`k`fe is pertinent here. “Belief systems `jhl`k\Xefk_\i% k_\i\Xi\jfdXepFofe`XeGDjT1 f]pflidX^Xq`e\%@Ëm\Y\\eX provide a programme which AUBREY BOWDEN k_\Fo]fi[dXeY\_Xm\jXj`] c`]\cfe^X[d`i\if]E\ndXeËj relieves the necessity of thought.” Merton, 1959 _\ilc\jk_\nfic[n_`c\k_\ nfib2@Xd]XjZ`eXk\[Yp_`j RICHARD GILBERT :XdYi`[^\dXe[f\jefkZXi\ _\j`kXk`fekfY\Zfd`e^XjX`ek# Worcester, 1958 @e(0/,Fo]fi[i\]lj\[Xe n_filc\jk_\nfic[Xe[k_`j Y\ZXlj\_\gi\]\ii\[k_\c`]\f]X _fefiXip[\^i\\kfDXi^Xi\k `eklie`j\ogcX`e\[Ypk_\]XZk dXef]c\kk\ij%@e[\\[#k_\Zfjp K_XkZ_\i`egifk\jkXk_\i_`^_\i k_XkFo]fi[`j`ek_\Z\eki\ m`YiXeZpf]_`jiffdjjl^^\jkj Bluff, Guile, Swagger... \[lZXk`fegfc`Z`\j%K_\ f]jflk_\ie Human traffic In your Hilary issue you mention environmental disasters that are Tutorials and tuition fees... coming our way. Global warming and loss of rainforest. I see these disasters Fek\c\m`j`fe@_Xm\j\\ek_\ fe#`ek\cc\ZklXcjgXii`e^nXj c`kkc\fiefk_`e^#Xjk_fl^_ being largely caused by there being [\dfejkiXk`fejYpjkl[\ekj iXk_\ic`m\cp%N\n\i\]XjZ`eXk\[ n\Xi\jfd\_fn\ek`kc\[kf`k% too many people on earth and the `ei\jg\Zkf]jkl[\ekjË]\\j# Ypflijk`dlcXk`e^X[m\ekli\j @]\\c`k`jk_\fk_\inXpifle[2 need to provide for them and give Xe[@_Xm\j\\eXkc\Xjkfe\ `ekf:i`d`eXcCXnfeJXkli[Xp k_\Zfcc\^\`j\ek`kc\[kf them a better standard of living. Zfe]ifekXk`fef]E`Z_fcXj:c\^^ dfie`e^j#jkiX`^_k]ifd fli^\e\ifljjlggfik%K_\ There are nearly 75 million human YpX^Xk_\i`e^f]jkl[\ekj% Cfe[fe#n`k_k_\efnCfi[>f]]# \eafpd\ekf]flinfe[\i]lc births over deaths every year. I find @_Xm\Y\\ejkilZbYpk_\ G:%8kk_Xkk`d\#n`k_fli_\X[j \og\i`\eZ\^f\jfeXe[fe this number staggering. President jkl[\ekjËXkk`kl[\f]j\\d`e^ ]`cc\[n`k_^`icjXe[ifn`e^#n\ `epflidX^Xq`e\#Xe[i`^_kcp Bush launched an immense ‘war kfk_`ebk_\p_Xm\XeXYjfclk\ [`[efkXggi\Z`Xk\k_\Yi`cc`XeZ\ jf#Ylkk_\ek_\mXjkdXafi`kp on terror’ at the loss of a mere few i`^_kkf_Xm\k_\`ile`m\ij`kp f]fliklkfij%8jk_\pjXpfm\i nXcbXnXpn`k_k_\`i_Xe[j thousand lives in a terrorist attack. ]\\jjlYj`[`j\[Ypk_\kXogXp\i% _\i\#ÈG\ic\emfi[`\JZ_n\`e\É `ek_\`igfZb\kj% We should value human lives less 8e[@_Xm\Y\\eXggXcc\[Ypk_\ PETER LANCASHIRE GERRY DUNPHY sacredly, and what Oxford thinkers Zfe[lZkf]dXepf]k_\d`e Lincoln, 1957 Brasenose, 1954 should launch is a ‘war against [\dfejkiXk`fejXe[`ek\im`\nj% over-population’. It is the root problem @_Xm\efkY\\eXcfe\`ek_\j\ K_\Xik`Zc\Ê8^\f] Fo]fi[nXjXnfe[\i]lc behind environmental problems, k_fl^_kj%@k_Xjj\\d\[kfd\ LeZ\ikX`ekpËcXpjflkk_\ljlXc \og\i`\eZ\Xn_`c\YXZb%@c\]k and in spite of natural and entrenched k_Xkk_fj\jkl[\ekj[fefk gifYc\djf]cXZbf]dfe\pXe[ K_\Hl\\eËj:fcc\^\`e(00)X]k\i attitudes against it, our world and our Xggi\Z`Xk\k_\[`]]\i\eZ\ k_\[\j`i\kfb\\gFo]fi[Xj`k ^X`e`e^X[\^i\\`eQffcf^pXe[ future depend on it. Y\kn\\ejkXk\jËfYc`^Xk`fekf `j%P\j#dfe\p`jn_Xkpfle\\[ XYfo`e^9cl\%?Xggp[Xpj%@k STEPHEN CONN jlYj`[`j\Zfdglcjfip kf[fk_`j#YlkiXi\cp[fpflXjb j\\djkfd\k_Xkfk_\ijZflc[ Corpus Christi, 1961 \[lZXk`feXe[k_\]XZkk_Xk ]fi`k%8kjfd\gf`ek`ek_\ g\i_Xgj^\kk_\\og\i`\eZ\f] k_\i\`jefZfii\jgfe[`e^ dX^Xq`e\#pflZflc[_Xm\XYfo ^f`e^kfk_\le`m\ij`kp`]pfl fYc`^Xk`fe`ei\jg\Zkf] k_Xk`e[`ZXk\jc\m\cjf]^`m`e^# jkfgg\[jg\e[`e^n_XkdljkY\ Indebted le`m\ij`kp\[lZXk`fe% fipflZflc[aljk8JBÈK_\i\ X]X`i]\nhl`[fegi`ek`e^Xe[ Your piece on the relaunch of OED STEPHEN GRATWICK `jefZlckli\f]^`m`e^#>\iip#É j\e[`e^flkZfg`\jf]Fo]fi[ Online (p9, Hilary issue) says “the Balliol, 1942 X]i`\e[kfc[d\feXi\Z\ek Kf[Xp%@Ë[Y\dfi\k_Xe_Xggp first print edition in 1884 consisted m`j`k%IXk_\i#`e[\\[#g\fgc\f] kf^\kXZfgpm`XZpY\ijgXZ\Xe[ of 10 volumes”. The 10 volumes Fo]fi[Ëjklkfi`Xc`j#`edp dp^\e\iXk`fe\og\Zk\[kfgXp b\\glgkf[Xk\k_XknXp%@j`k did not appear until the dictionary fg`e`fe#nfic[$ZcXjj%Lei`mXcc\[# c`kkc\fiefk_`e^]fiXnfe[\i]lc Xggifgi`Xk\kfjg\e[jfdlZ_ was finished, in 1928: 1884 saw the Xe[k_\\empf]?XimXi[%DpcXn \[lZXk`fe#Xe[k_\i\X]k\iefk dfe\pg_pj`ZXccpgi`ek`e^Xe[ publication of just the first fascicle, klkfiXkC`eZfce#k_\cXk\9i`Xe kfk_`ebf]dXb`e^jfd\i\klie% j\e[`e^flkk_\dX^Xq`e\6 A–Ant. And your editorial note after J`dgjfe#]fiZ\[ljkfk_`eb# PfljkXk\k_XkXclde``eZi\Xj\ CHARLES ALLDAY the letters on English usage (p6) Xe[k_`eb`e[\g\e[\ekcp%Ef k_\`i`eZfd\jYpX]`^li\nXp Queen’s, 1989 had the solecism ‘due to a lack ÊX[\hlXk\Ë\jjXpj_\i\8kfli fm\i(,'#'''#p\kn_\e`k NOTE: Opt to receive Oxford of space’: ‘owing to’, please! ]`ijkj\jj`fe#_\jlZZ\\[\[`e Zfd\jkfX^Xl[p#k_\paljk Today digitally! Top right corner AM HUGHES `e[lZ`e^XZfcc\X^l\kfX^i\\ \og\Zkk_\Zfcc\^\kf\ek\ikX`e of our home page: Queen’s, 1964 k_XkYcXZbnXjn_`k\%=ifdk_\e k_\difpXccp#glkk_\dlg]fi www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk American dream? Post-war healing In Oxford we trust In the Hilary issue, of the 14 new Sir Tommy Macpherson’s recall A number of letters to Oxford appointments from outside Oxford of returning to Oxford after WW2 Today strike a rather captious listed, eight came from establishments rang a Brasenose memory bell with and sour note. I would like For full versions in the USA; the only other from me. I arrived at BNC in January 1947 to see more praise for some of these letters abroad is a professor in American after an incident which left me with of the excellent, well- and to read Government. The Vice-Chancellor two amputations, third-degree burns, researched articles. further alumni came from Yale. It is suggested that facial damage, etc. Oxford built KEITH FRASER correspondence, the UK is becoming de facto the 51st a secure bridge for me into the real Univ, 1946 visit www. State. Is Oxford becoming an offshore world which has lasted to this day and oxfordtoday. American university? will last into the future. Thank you. ox.ac.uk DAVID DIXON SAM GALLOP Univ, 1960 Brasenose, 1947 www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni Oxonian University & alumni news 8dXafi`em\jkd\ek`ejkl[\ekjlggfik _XjY\\egifgfj\[YpFo]fi[kf Zflek\i^fm\ied\ek$`dgfj\[Zlkj`e Boats, quizzes and wine... k_\]le[`e^f]_`^_\i\[lZXk`fe K_\Le`m\ij`kpËj9cl\YfXklgj\kk_\f[[jkfn`e k_\(,.k_9fXkIXZ\#Y\Xk`e^:XdYi`[^\Yp]fli c\e^k_j%K_\[XibYcl\j\Xj\[kfm`Zkfip`eXk`d\ f](.d`elk\jXe[*)j\Zfe[j%K_\i\nXj]lik_\i afp]fiFo]fi[Xjk_\pnfek_\Nfd\eËj9fXkIXZ\ Xk?\ec\p#nXkZ_\[YpJ`iJk\m\I\[^iXm\#n_fj\ I<>JDFCFEJB@ > [Xl^_k\iEXkXc`\`j`ek_\Fo]fi[Zi\n%K_\@j`jYfXk Xcjfki`ldg_\[#Y\Xk`e^>fc[`\Ypj`oc\e^k_j% @eXcXe[dXibm`Zkfip`ek_\Le`m\ij`kp:_Xcc\e^\ Zfdg\k`k`fe#DX^[Xc\e:fcc\^\efkfecpY\Xkk_\ Le`m\ij`kpf]Pfib`ek_\ÔeXchl`q#YlkXcjfnfek_\ fm\iXccZfdg\k`k`fe]fik_\]flik_k`d\Æeffk_\i `ejk`klk`fe_Xjnfe`kdfi\k_Xekn`Z\%K_\k\XdnXj C Beating Alzheimer’s Duke Humfrey’s In a potentially dramatic breakthrough, Oxford Night success scientists at the Department of =i`\e[jf]k_\9f[c\`XeZXdgX`^e Physiology, Anatomy and kfgi\j\im\flini`kk\e_\i`kX^\ Genetics have found a means of delivering The second Duke Humfrey’s Night event takes place on drugs directly to the 15 October, the idea being to attract financial support brain to ‘switch off’ from supporters of the Bodleian Library for the a gene thought to cause acquisition and preservation of fragile manuscripts. Alzheimer’s and other Highlights of last year’s inaugural event include the common memory and acquisition of Louis MacNeice’s papers and a pledge to brain disorders. It will restore Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia. The Friends’ chairman take several years before Professor Richard McCabe, a fellow of Merton, has the technique can be emphasised the urgency of preserving our written safely released for heritage at a time of draconian cuts in public funding. widespread use. www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/friends t Notice: Implementation of a new library system will mean closure of the stacks from 7 to 18 July. Readers America’s First Lady planning visits are advised to order material by 1 July or to contact [email protected] comes to Oxford Michelle Obama met pupils from Medieval whistle a London secondary school in The Bate Collection of Christ Church College, on 25 May. Musical Instruments has been bequeathed a 13th- The trip to Oxford, by the girls century deer-bone whistle of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson from the estate of Mr Peter Henderson. Found Language College (EGA), arose in Abingdon during an from Mrs Obama’s surprise visit archaeological dig in the 1960s, the whistle is to the school in 2009 during the believed to have been Obamas’ first official UK visit. 8;8DD@;;C JK www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 10 University & alumni news NEW HEADS OF HOUSE -'j\Zfe[jn`k_%%% Balliol College Mansfield College PROFESSOR SIR DRUMMOND BARONESS HELENA Gero Miesenböck BONE, FRSE, FRSA#_XjY\\e KENNEDY, QC, _XjY\\e NXpeÕ\k\Gif]\jjfif] \c\Zk\[XjDXjk\in`k_\]]\Zk \c\Zk\[n`k_\]]\Zk]ifdFZkfY\i% G_pj`fcf^pXe[]\ccfn ?@CJ8PcXj^fn :fdd`jj`fef]Ali`jkj%@e Le`m\ij`kp%?\Y\ZXd\Gif]\jjfi X[[`k`fe#j_\`j:_X`if]@ehl`ip N_pe\lifjZ`\eZ\6 i\j\XiZ_d\k_f[j6 f] Science findings <[`k\[YpG\eepJXiZ_\k notes @em\jk`^Xk`e^k_\[`jZfm\ipf]XeXe`dXcjlYjg\Z`\jXe[_fn i\j\XiZ_`ekfgX`ei\c`\]Zflc[i\mfclk`fe`j\ki\Xkd\ek UK babies born using new IVF K_\@e[`Xe^i\pnfc]#g`Zkli\[ embryo screening _\i\#`jXZcfj\i\cXk`m\f]k_\ method jf$ZXcc\[<^pgk`XeaXZbXc The first UK babies to undergo a new IVF test developed at Oxford have been born. A new chromosome counting technique developed by Dr Dagan Wells and Dr Elpida Fragouli at Oxford’s Nuffield IP F K Department of Obstetrics 8 I F and Gynaecology makes 9 8 it easier to choose DC < embryos for implantation IJK < that have the best chances of survival. This D#JLG F microarray CGH method GC%: could increase a round of < IVF’s chances of success, KLI E8 reducing the emotional and physical toll of I9LKK& multiple IVF cycles. 8 :B> t E@ A wolf in jackal’s clothing 8eXcpj`e^Xe`dXc;E8_\cgjFo]fi[jZ`\ek`jkjdXb\n`c[Ôe[`e^j`e8]i`ZX An elusive subspecies of jackal known as the Egyptian conservational concern. As an African wolf, however, Jewellery sonicator jackal is, in fact, a type of grey wolf. A collaboration, this animal could be much rarer and its discoverers produces which included members of Oxford’s Wildlife argue that determining its numbers and distribution revolutionary Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), made the is a priority. This wolf also poses questions concerning nanosheets discovery by analysing the DNA left in the animal’s African canids. Dog family species are relatively similar A team led by Dr Valeria droppings. This finding vindicates the suspicions in terms of their lifestyle, prey and ecological niches Nicolosi at Oxford’s of Thomas Huxley, the evolutionary biologist known and scientists are keen to find out how this new wolf Department of Materials as Darwin’s bulldog who, as early as 1880, commented competes and interacts with other African canids, has developed a method that the animal looked remarkably like a grey wolf. particularly the golden jackal, and the extremely rare for splitting layered This discovery has strong implications for the Ethiopian wolf. Genetic samples indicate that this materials into sheets just conservation of mammals in Africa. When the Egyptian wolf may also be present in the Ethiopian one atom thick. Using common solvents and Egyptian jackal was thought to be a subspecies highlands, revealing the potential of DNA analysis to pulses of ultrasound of the golden jackal, it was deemed to be of little discover new species in relatively unexplored countries. in sonicators normally used to clean jewellery, the team made Patient expectations affect the potency of painkillers nanosheets out of 150 different materials. DI@jZXee`e^_XjY\\elj\[kf jZ\eXi`fj%GX`ec\m\cj[ifgg\[X]k\i c\m\cj#[\jg`k\k_\]XZkk_Xkk_\ Some act as conductors, \oXd`e\k_\`eÕl\eZ\f]k_\gcXZ\Yf X[d`e`jkiXk`fef]Xefg`f`[[il^# fg`f`[nXjjk`ccY\`e^X[d`e`jk\i\[% while others display \]]\ZkXe[`kjfggfj`k\#k_\efZ\Yf Xe[k_\e]lik_\iX^X`eX]k\ik_\ K_`jÔe[`e^_Xj`dgfikXek thermoelectric properties. \]]\Zk#fegX`eg\iZ\gk`fe%Gif]\jjfi mfclek\\ij_X[Y\\ekfc[k_Xkk_\p `dgc`ZXk`fej]figX`eki\Xkd\ek This easy method of producing hundreds of @i\e\KiXZ\p#]ifdFo]fi[Ëj:\eki\ n\i\i\Z\`m`e^k_\[il^%8]k\ik_\p `e_fjg`kXcj#gXik`ZlcXicp]fiZ_ife`Z materials with a range of ]fi=leZk`feXcDX^e\k`ZI\jfeXeZ\ n\i\k_\e]Xcj\cpkfc[k_Xkk_\pn\i\ gX`ejl]]\i\ij#n_\eXe\^Xk`m\ special properties could @dX^`e^f]k_\9iX`e#c\[Xjkl[p efcfe^\ii\Z\`m`e^gX`ei\c`\]Xe[ Xkk`kl[\i\jlck`e^]ifdgi\m`flj lead to technological `en_`Z_mfclek\\ij\og\i`\eZ\[ nflc[gifYXYcp\og\i`\eZ\_`^_gX`e ]X`c\[ki\Xkd\ekjZflc[_Xdg\i breakthroughs, including cfZXc`j\[gX`e`eXeldY\if] c\m\cjX^X`e#gX`ei\klie\[kffi`^`eXc k_\jlZZ\jjf]e\n[il^j% less wasteful batteries. ! www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 14 University & alumni news NEW APPOINTMENTS Geography and the American History Environment PHILIP MORGAN MYLES ALLEN appointed Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth appointed Professor in the School of Professor of American History Geography and the Environment G_`c`gDfi^Xe#?Xiip:9cXZb Dpc\j8cc\e#C\Zkli\i`e Gif]\jjfif]?`jkfipXkAf_ej 8kdfjg_\i`Z#FZ\Xe`ZXe[ ?fgb`ejLe`m\ij`kp#_XjY\\e GcXe\kXipG_pj`ZjXe[>iflg Cardiovascular Xggf`ek\[kfk_\gfjkXe[X History C\X[\if]k_\:c`dXk\;peXd`Zj Medicine ]\ccfnj_`gXkK_\Hl\\eËj:fcc\^\ LYNDAL ROPER >iflgXkFo]fi[#kffblgk_\gfjk SHOUMO BHATTACHARYA ]fik_\XZX[\d`Zp\Xi)'((Æ()% Regius Professor of History Xe[Y\ZXd\X]\ccfnf]C`eXZi\ appointed Professor ?\iDXa\jkpk_\Hl\\e_Xj :fcc\^\fe+8gi`c% of Cardiovascular Medicine Biomedical Xggifm\[k_\Xggf`ekd\ekf] J_fldf9_XkkXZ_XipX# Engineering Cpe[XcIfg\i#Gif]\jjfif] www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk IF9AL;> To view comments from the judges, visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk 6 7 8 9 www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni [email protected] 17 Alumni news iTunes U Lectures, seminars and conferences can be accessed for free from iTunesU. Find out more at _kkg1&&`kle\jl% fo%XZ%lb. You can search and choose content by department, centre or conference. Recent hits include: s Ethics and politics by Marianne Talbot s Detective Fictions: In Pursuit of Sovereignty in the Postcolony by Jean Comaroff Visitors to the Oxford Alumni Weekend may wish to listen to some of our speakers 8clde`Êjg\\[e\knfibËXkk_\ beforehand, including: ÔijkGif]\jj`feXcE\knfib`e^ \m\ek#_\c[`eCfe[fe s Oxford Internet IF9AL;> www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 18 Oxford Fashion Week Student spotlight >I8G?P F K F QG? F >I8G?P#?8EE8?=C@EK#A8JD@E8JK@IC@E>#8C To find out more :8I Ooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooo about the events of Oxford Fashion Week and to see the photos visit: www. Oxford Fashion Week oxfordfashionweek. N`k_flkjkXe[`e^[\j`^e\ijXe[kfgdf[\cj# Xe[n\[[`e^[i\jj\jifle[\[ co.uk f]]k_\j_fnki`ldg_Xekcp% Fo]fi[`jkilcp`ejkpc\#i\gfikjAf_e>Xik_ >l\jkjgcXZ\[Y`[j`eXZ_Xi`kp XlZk`fe]fi`k\dj`eZcl[`e^XZclkZ_YX^Yp Oxonians at large Drawing attention 8cXjkX`iCXZbd\\kjXm\ipÊ\]]\Zk`m\ËXnXi[ to a worthy n`ee\i#XZ_Xi`kpg`fe\\iXe[Xjgffbpni`k\i cause IfY`eD\[e`Zb If^\iDfj\p# fe\]XZ\f] Jfd\im`cc\(0.- k_\Fcpdg`Zj In 2005, Robin Mednick took a phone call in Toronto from a friend just back from Niger, West Africa. Robin heard about the poverty, and how 30 children shared one pencil. Her reaction was simple: “Let’s do something.” Until that moment Robin had had no connection with Niger or Africa. After university in Toronto and two years : at Somerville, she became a lawyer and then a #99 J busy mother of four. Over time, voluntary work gave way to full-time positions. Then came the :@ 8E; for Kids, has raised $375,000 (Canadian), built J three schools in Liboré, and much else. Robin’s latest project is “creating farmers of the future, where school children run African market gardens as business”. Robin is told that the community now has hope for the future. Life at present in Niger is dangerous but Robin’s mantra is: “Even if you have fear, just 8:8; GXlc=iXebc`e short films. An animated version of Iljb`eJZ_ffcf];iXn`e^Xe[=`e\8ik Dante’s Inferno led to spells in television JkAf_eËj(0/- advertising and Sony Computer Entertainment. In 1998 he co-founded “How do you cope with getting on the a company called Double Negative stage? Think about not tripping over VFX. He employed 10 staff. Now it has Behind the AIDS stigma the steps. It’s a bit like a bungee jump.” over 1,000 and a branch in Singapore. These memories are those of Paul Among other projects (including I\Y\ZZX?f[\j Franklin, who won an Oscar earlier the Harry Potter films), Paul has worked 9Xcc`fc)''+ this year for his special effects on closely for some seven years with the the Christopher Nolan blockbuster, writer and film-maker Christopher To say that Rebecca Hodes, Deputy Director of the Inception. “You’re given 45 seconds for Nolan, from Batman Begins, through AIDS and Society Research Unit at the University of a speech. If you run over, the orchestra The Dark Knight to Inception, one of the Cape Town, is engaged in vital work would be an strikes up. After that you’re whisked off greatest box-office earners of all time. understatement. Although, as she says, “the last few for press interviews and photos in the He is now working on a sequel to The years have seen a sea-change in government Green Room.” In the excitement of the Dark Knight. In modern film, there’s responses to HIV in South Africa”, and one million moment, Paul suddenly realised he was increasingly a blurring of the edges people have initiated antiretroviral treatment, less standing between Stephen Spielberg between acting and special effects. than half of those who need treatment are getting it. and Sandra Bullock. It set the tone As Paul says: “The power of computers There is, she adds, “a perception that the battle for the post-Oscar parties and the and the sophistication of software against HIV has been won, but this is baseless”. The subsequent week. means that whether it’s acting or special challenges facing the health sector result partly from It’s a long way from the days when effects, it’s all about the story. the apartheid era but there are other problems, from Paul, a student at the Ruskin School Technique is almost secondary.” high rates of HIV and TB co-infection and other of Drawing and Fine Art and St John’s, And the Oscar? Currently residing in non-communicable diseases, to endemic violence began creating graphics on University Paul’s Los Angeles office, it’s destined against women and children. computers in “down time”, designing for a long life on the mantelpiece of his Indeed, Rebecca’s research unit has a wide remit: sets for student theatre and making London home. focus areas include the stigma of AIDS, the social and economic factors driving HIV infection, global health and leadership. A specific example of this To view Paul’s online Oscar diary, interface between qualitative and quantitative visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk research is reflected in the fact that the unit director is an economist, Nicoli Nattrass (Magdalen, 1985) and Rebecca is a medical historian. Rebecca’s remit is also vast. She is working on several fronts: the adoption prospects for the children of HIV-positive parents (there are more than 1.5 million orphans in South Africa), improving public provision of antiretroviral treatment, developing tools for GXlc=iXebc`e community healthcare workers to offset the shortage Z\c\YiXk\j_`j of doctors and nurses in poor areas and the forced )'('FjZXi sterilisation of HIV-positive women. ki`ldg_ Future projects include long-term research into reproductive healthcare from the apartheid era to the present, and strengthening ties between universities and the public and private spheres. The problems facing South Africa may seem a world away from the University of Oxford, but We welcome Rebecca remembers “the wonderful libraries and suggestions from zesty social life, with plenty of carousing, in Balliol alumni for these MCR”. Above all, “exposure to brilliant minds, with pages. Please send accompanying debate” – and no doubt many details to the a disagreement. No bad training perhaps for the Editor at oxford. demanding work of healthcare in South Africa. today@admin. nnn%Zjji%lZk%XZ%qX&Xjil ox.ac.uk www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 24 Andrew Motion FOR ART’S SAKE 8^X`ejkXYXZb[ifgf]j\m\i\ZlkjkfglYc`ZXikj broadcaster and educator – most recently teaming up with rapper Tinchy Stryder to give a lesson in self- ]le[`e^`e9i`kX`e#DXkk_\nJg\ic`e^Zfej`[\ijk_\ expression to students on the Channel 4 programme Jamie’s Dream School – and has taken on a number of Zfii\jgfe[`e^^ifle[jn\ccf]Fo]fi[gifk\jk public roles, including chairing the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) since 2009. he Romanes lecture, delivered annually Motion’s title for the Romanes lecture is ‘The Bonfire in the Sheldonian Theatre, has seen many of the Humanities’, and his topic, the importance of distinguished instalments since Gladstone’s the arts and humanities in social, economic and inaugural effort in 1892, and this year’s cultural life, could scarcely be more timely. In the wake Tlecture, to be given by Professor Sir Andrew Motion of the global financial crisis, the coalition government (Univ, 1971) on 2 June, promises to be another has imposed savage cuts upon the funding of the arts memorable occasion. Motion concluded a decade’s and humanities across the board in education, culture service as Poet Laureate in 2009, during which he and public life. Barely a year into Motion’s tenure as established himself as a powerful public advocate Chair of the MLA, for instance, the Culture Secretary for poetry and the arts. In between writing Laureate announced that the body itself is being abolished and poems on topics as diverse as the invasion of Iraq, its work incorporated, with a greatly reduced budget, bullying, the Paddington rail crash, and the wedding into an already overstretched and underfunded Arts of Charles and Camilla, Motion has been a tireless Council. So there is currently a great deal at stake regarding questions of how and why we value the arts and humanities, and how we ought to repay this value. ‘Motion describes cultural and artistic In his Booker Prize judge’s speech late last year, Motion described cultural and artistic life as “the life as the foundation of our humanity’ foundation and high ambition of our humanity”, for the way it “makes us more nearly ourselves, that I want to see take their place in life. So a part of my work is to make manifest the value of these things.” This manifestation has a directly practical aspect for Motion, and this drives his tireless work on committees and public bodies: “These debates tend to get drawn into abstractions, but I’m also interested in how to make them real and palpable. The MLA, which has now had its operations folded in to the Arts Council, is an arm’s-length body, so it’s not our job to spring to the barricades and protest, but rather to get on with the job, to work from inside the machine and to spend hours and hours doing the boring, invisible stuff which one hopes will do its bit towards making a better world. This isn’t to say that I haven’t, and don’t, feel very angry about many aspects of the situation. In the case of the cutting of the Bookstart scheme, for instance, which I felt very strongly about, I got publically involved, and we managed to get the decision overturned; I think that writers, academics and everybody with an interest have a greater than ever responsibility now to be as articulate as possible about these things. But there’s also the business of rolling up your sleeves and getting on with it, and getting these issues out into the wider world, and this is what I’m mainly concerned with.” Motion’s voice is part of a growing wave of opposition among Oxford intellectuals. Professor of Poetry Geoffrey Hill (Keble, 1950) concluded his inaugural lecture in December with a stirring vision of how poetry and criticism at their strongest try to oppose “the gigantic scam of our times” – “the bankers’ scam, the Blair-Brown scam, the coalition scam, the Big Society scam”. In a meeting of Congregation called to discuss higher education funding in February, among several other important contributions, Merton Professor of English David Norbrook urged the need to stress unapologetically the value of the university’s role in “making Britain a civilized place to live”, by and sets us more steadily on the road to what we might Gif]\jjfiJ`i8e[i\nDfk`fe “fostering critical and independent-minded debate become”. When I caught up with him for Oxford Today g`Zkli\[flkj`[\_`jk\XZ_`e^ and scrutiny of the evidence”, and to uphold this he told me how his Romanes lecture will further his iffdj`eCfe[fe against any “imperfectly argued assumptions about public case for the arts and humanities. Partly this will market dynamism in education”. Soon afterwards, take the form of a “quite forthright” response to “what the newly founded Oxford University Campaign for looks like a very bleak picture for universities, libraries Higher Education (OUCHE) began its work, alongside and research councils” in the light of funding cuts its Cambridge counterpart (CACHE), with an open enacted by what he considers to be “a very philistine letter registering the “dismay and alarm” of the 681 government”, but Motion is keen also to communicate signatories, from both universities, at the speed and a positive vision of the importance of poetry in culture, recklessness with which funding changes were being and this is connected to both his long-standing work forced through. in schools and university education, and to his first Oxford author Philip Pullman (Exeter, 1965) has personal encounters with poetry: been another key activist, focusing on the issue of “My own discovery of poetry was something with roots public libraries. In January Pullman gave a speech to deep in my experience as a child. Not being much a meeting of library campaigners in Oxford Town Hall good at much else at school, I found that I couldn’t be following the local council’s decision to close 20 of the wrong in a poem in the sense that I could be wrong in 43 public libraries in Oxfordshire; the eloquence of maths, and then, when I read more poems, and started his defence of libraries and anger of his attack on their to write my own pretty soon after that, it contributed to enemies quickly made it a viral hit on the internet. a sense that perhaps I did have a brain after all, and it I first read it, for instance, having been emailed the helped me find a way to address the strongest feelings link by my mother, an avid Pullman fan who worked in my life. I was first pushed to read poems by my for most of her career in the young people’s sector of school English teacher, and the big thing for me was the public library service in Kent. I spoke to Pullman that he made one feel that poems belong in life. I still several weeks after the Town Hall address had found very much believe this – poems are responses to life, him in the media glare, and he declared himself www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 24 Andrew Motion “very surprised” at the wide coverage it had received. “I’ve been banging on about things like this for a long time and no one’s taken any notice, so I thought the same thing would happen this time. Obviously the Zeitgeist and I were on the same wavelength for once.” The influence that Pullman’s activism has on the future of library funding is still being played out; as of late March, the majority of the threatened libraries have rejected the chance to apply for money tokenistically set aside from the ‘Big Society’ fund to finance them as self-run enterprises, and a further review of the situation has been announced, with a new prospect arising of privately outsourcing the running of the threatened libraries to an American firm. On these developments, Pullman has firm views: “My opinion of the ‘Big Society’ fund is that it’s a nauseating fiddle, like everything else with the ‘Big Society’ label. I profoundly dislike the business of ‘bidding’ for money that is ours in the first place. It’s a symptom of the nervous reluctance to govern that characterises a lot of local and national administrations in the past 30 years or so. We elect people to make decisions, not to farm them out to a lot of opinion polls and focus groups and bidding processes – it’s an attempt to escape responsibility for the consequences. I’d rather government made firm decisions I disliked than indulge in a lot of fake democracy over every question that arises. As for the prospect of private provision of libraries, if it happens it will prove yet again (as if we needed to be shown another time) that private will be worse than public. Cheaper, to start with, or superficially, but worse; and not as morally offensive as private prisons, or as meanly destructive of a clear good as the privatisation of the NHS, but offensive and meanly destructive all the same.” E While its occasion was a local one, Pullman’s Town F Hall speech was also notable for the breadth of its critique. The Oxford library crisis, for him, is not only a question of any merely individual E#B ‘For him, the Oxford library crisis follows Dr Matthew Sperling is a fellow in English Literature at Keble College, and poetry editor for Oxford Today. A video of Professor directly from market fundamentalism Sir Andrew Motion’s Romanes Lecture can be found at in Anglo-American politics’ www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/romanes11 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS, THERE’S TURBULENCE AHEAD K_`jn`ccY\Xe\okiXfi[`eXipZ\eklip#jXpjFo]fi[ Y\e\]XZkfiXe[]lklifcf^`jk;iAXd\jDXik`e# Y\ZXlj\_ldXe`kp`jflk^ifn`e^k_`jjdXccgcXe\k 28/29 Predicting our century IKE THE TENSION building in emptying many of the aquifers. The amount of water a suspense novel, the dangers from future we are taking from them is over four hundred million climate change are ratcheting up year after tons a day more than is being replaced by rain. If that year. The world’s media have become amount of water were carried in water trucks, it would increasinglyL full of images of collapsing ice shelves, need 25 million of them – a convoy 30 times the Earth’s stranded polar bears, raging hurricanes, lands stricken diameter – every day without being replenished. This by drought, fires sweeping across southern Australia cannot go on much longer. and deserts spreading. The ice caps are melting in both If you sail across the oceans, you can go for weeks the Arctic and Antarctic. But all this is only an overture without seeing another vessel. It’s incomprehensible to trouble on a much grander scale. The runaway that we’ve fished out 90% of the edible fish, and are transformation of the Earth’s climate may become the building bigger fishing fleets. When I was a kid, worst crisis of human history. the Earth had about 2 billion people, and humanity’s Meanwhile, technology will bring increased wealth, ecological footprint was well within a range that the improved healthcare and entertainment, great Earth could support. It was a land of plenty. However, creativity and brilliant media-assisted education. our consumption of its resources increased until, People will have more leisure time and use it better. by the mid-1980s, we not only exceeded a consumption Environments of very different design will be rate that was sustainable but went far beyond it. wonderful places to live. The future is a tapestry of By 2030, we’ll need the equivalent of two Earths immense problems and great improvements in society. to keep up with our demands. To comprehend and improve this future needs research and understanding of the highest order, an SOLUTIONS area in which Oxford University is pre-eminent. There is a rich diversity of solutions to these problems. The grim news is that humanity has been However, generally today, there is immense resistance overspending the Earth’s resources for decades, like to implementing or even understanding them. Small a wealthy family running up extreme debts at a bank underground nuclear power units called ‘nuclear that it could never repay. Earth scientists know we batteries’ will be ultra-safe and maintenance-free. are in trouble. Too much carbon in the atmosphere New types of photovoltaics will make electricity from is causing weird weather and a slow rise in the sunlight cheaper than that from coal. Changes in the temperature of the Earth which, if not stopped, monsoons will cause extreme flooding, as in Pakistan, and the water will be funnelled into aquifers. It amazes ‘The runaway transformation of the me that water-stressed areas today don’t capture their rainwater, which is easy to do. China may gain access Earth’s climate may become the worst to Lake Baikal, which contains about one-fifth of all crisis of human history’ the fresh water on Earth. There is also much research on improving food-growing productivity. will lead to devastating consequences. Correcting A particularly important concept is ‘eco-affluence’. this will need a massive effort to replace carbon It is possible to immensely improve our quality of life energy sources and make rainforests absorb as much without increasing greenhouse gases or using up an carbon as possible. unsustainable share of the planet’s resources. The term Detailed computer calculations make it clear that eco-affluence refers to a rich, enjoyable and sometimes dangerous climate change can be prevented only complex way of life that does no ecological harm. The if action is taken quickly. Procrastination incurs a heavy economy can grow in new ways without harmful penalty but the world is procrastinating. The longer consequences. Eco-affluence is one of the most it does so, the more difficult the problem will become. important concepts for humankind’s future. Problems of runaway change can be prevented if Slow global warming will make some places more humanity acts together, with powerful leadership, pleasant. By 2030, Scotland may have the climate that but this seems unlikely to be the case. Cornwall had. Many people will be buying homes in Almost certainly, the average world temperature in Finland. People will want to move from where the the late 2030s will exceed 2° Celsius above the baseline weather is hostile to where the weather is welcoming. that has existed since civilization began. If we don’t act This will occur at a time of radical redesign of cities strongly to stop it, it will keep climbing to 4° or higher. with stunning new architecture. Instead of being When the average temperature is 4° higher, some parts dominated by the car and petroleum industries, new of the Earth will be much higher. The climate will be cities will be dominated by social interaction and in danger of sliding into a new state hostile to humans. beautiful environments. These may be called climate- This is studied with very detailed computer models that change cities. Patagonia, perhaps the most beautiful divide the atmosphere into small blocks and show the place on Earth, will be covered in wildflowers and have gases and heat that flow from each block to adjacent climate-change cities. There will be a booming ones. Unfortunately politicians and most of the public economy in the era of eco-affluence, nano-robotics ignore the predictions of the models, like the crew and accelerating machine intelligence. of a ship happily sailing into a hurricane. We tend to deal with severe problems only after The Earth has vast, ancient underground reservoirs a catastrophe forces us to. A catastrophe-first pattern of water called aquifers, which are essential for is observed in many different areas. Public indifference agriculture. Independent of climate change, we are changes to shock or terror when a catastrophe happens. The catastrophe-first pattern is a not a good way to run the planet because the possible catastrophes will become much larger. To avoid a catastrophe-first pattern, politicians and the public must listen to scientists. Sooner or later, there will be large-scale panic about climate destruction. By then, it may be too late to lessen the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Catastrophes in our future will not be caused by malicious intent but by an endless babble of misinformation, the determination of executives to focus on stock prices, and politicians seeing only as far as the next election. OUR STOLEN FUTURE A major conference in New York in March 2008 called ‘Global Warming is not a Crisis’ opened with the main speaker saying, “The science is settled. Climate change is not caused by human activity.” The conference concluded that because climate change is caused by natural forces there is nothing that humans can do to stop it. There are many climate deniers, some of them in high places. There is remarkable opposition in the US government to taking action about global warming. N_`k_\i?ldXe`kp6;iAXd\j human activities are causing climate change. How The public wants to avoid any form of carbon tax. DXik`e`jg`Zkli\[`ek_\ many board members vote to increase the future value We have reached a time when the understanding of j\X]Xi`e^n`e^f]Cfe[feËj of their stock options, although it endangers their JZ`\eZ\Dlj\ld science is vital for our existence. A major concern today children’s future? Does a top US senator really believe is that powerful voices with no knowledge of science it when he says that global warming is a hoax, and that often make themselves heard much louder than all thousand top scientists in the IPCC are liars, and scientists. Many scientists avoid the public stage. Most that they all tell the same, meticulously detailed lie? politicians haven’t a clue about science. This is a time on Earth when we desperately need to CRUNCH get our act together, but it is an age of dangerous If we continue as now seems likely, a crunch is coming misinformation. Highly skilled PR organisations earn – in fact three crunches – our global footprint greatly a fortune by persuading the public of anything that exceeding what the Earth can support, climate will increase the profits of the corporations that hire destabilisation becoming severe, and fresh water them. Strong and urgent actions are needed to slow becoming insufficient to feed the Earth’s large down climate destabilisation, but clean energy would population. These crunches will not, by themselves, lower the profits of the coal industry. Such PR ought to destroy humanity but they will cause a Darwinian called ‘PM’ – Public Misinformation. PM copywriters situation; when the going gets tough there will be are highly paid. survival of the fittest. By mid-century, the Earth could be like a lifeboat that’s too small to save everyone. LONG-RANGE To be politically correct, organisations don’t use the Humanity’s behaviour today will have consequences term ‘Darwinian’ or talk about ‘survival of the fittest’, a long time in the future. For example, climate change but I am increasingly finding that at elite dinner parties will cause many farms to close at a time when the there is already discussion of who the survivors will be. population is reaching 9 billion and many developing China has enormous fighting spirit and will soon countries are changing their diet from rice to meat. be the world’s largest economy. In 2030 it will have Newly affluent Chinese will want to eat like Americans. 1.4 billion people. The average footprint of a Chinese There will not be enough food-growing resources to person is a small fraction of an average American. cope with such a situation. A variety of catastrophes will The Chinese government does more detailed future come from the long-range consequences of our planning than perhaps any other government and activities, possibly including gigafamine, cyber- is determined that China will be one of the survivors. terrorism and global pandemics. There are many ways China has been buying the steel and resources it will we could change course, but today we seem unlikely need in the future. To the largest extent possible it has to do so because a long-range map of consequences already cornered the market in rare Earth metals is understood by only a few people. needed for high technology. It is interesting to ask whether board members of The USA combined with Canada will be a survivor, corporations that pay for misleading PR about the because it is economically powerful and resourceful, climate know that they are hoodwinking the public. and with Canada it has a large amount of land, much They are highly intelligent people who should be aware of which will benefit from global warming – the of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on breadbasket of the future. Europe, in my mind, is a Climate Control (IPCC), which states that top climate question mark. Japan will struggle. It is a small country, scientists are certain that emissions resulting from short of farmland, and will have a seriously ageing www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 30 Predicting our century J E J It’s also true that many new social media tools have Pfle^nfd\e_fc[=XZ\Yffb governments, including those of China and the US, inbuilt features which make them easy to appropriate j`^ejXjk_fljXe[jf] have recognised the importance of having a for political ends. The group and personal profile <^pgk`XeXek`$^fm\ied\ek propagandist presence online. Western companies pages of social network sites such as Facebook offer gifk\jkfij^Xk_\ife make a good deal of money selling software and a new space where people can share dissenting views -=\YilXip`e:X`ifËjKX_i`i network systems to make such activities possible. JhlXi\]fik_\Ê;Xpf]k_\ and exchange information when planning It’s no surprise that technologies are used by bad DXikpijË#_fefli`e^k_fj\ demonstrations; a modern reworking of the traditional b`cc\[`ek_\ZcXj_\j guys as well as good ones. And it’s also true that ‘public sphere’. Blogs, such as tortureinegypt.net, have it could be dangerous to over-emphasise the proved effective in documenting injustice and democratic potential of social media if this deflects brutalisation over long periods of time, and have attention away from deeper engagement with provided a lens through which to focus and direct underlying political problems (such as the West’s cosy public anger. Other tools, such as Twitter, enable relationship with easy-to-manage dictators) or the very fast dissemination of news. blinds us to the ethical responsibilities of high-profile tech companies who cooperate in censorship or Blogs have proved effective repression. We must avoid such pitfalls, but it’s wrong to argue, as social researcher and blogger in documenting injustice over Evgeny Morozov does, that we can’t believe in the freedom-enhancing potential of social media. New long periods of time communication tools shake things up because As Oxford Internet Institute research has found, when it’s hard for a threatened regime to control them. used in conjunction with ‘old-fashioned’ forms of With a variety of circumvention tools, the internet is media, such as newspapers, they form an almost even more difficult to control. Why else did the unbeatable partnership. When, for example, the Egyptian government shut down the internet as the Egyptian authorities shut down Al Jazeera and revolution unfolded? television transmission of the demonstrations on the Reflecting on recent events in the Middle East and 30th January 2011, journalists were still able to receive North Africa, it’s undeniable that the origins of this and send live mobile phone pictures, blog posts and conflict lie in deep-seated civil unrest. It’s equally clear Twitter feeds to colleagues outside the country, and to that a wide variety of media were central in supporting ensure that reporting was not suppressed. the protests but social media played a unique and It is, of course, also true that the same features that crucial role. Anyone who disagrees may want to are so helpful to activists are also open to manipulation reconsider how trivial their own online activities are by governments, authoritarian or otherwise. Filtering in contrast with those who convened protests at risk research such as the OpenNet Initiative reveals that of arrest or stood in front of water canons, mobile many regimes use extensive online censorship of phones at hand. To paraphrase Gladwell’s final political speech to suppress opposition, while many sarcastic line: “Viva la Facebook revolución”. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni BURNE - JONES’ PURSUIT OF LOVE Gi\$IXg_X\c`k\gX`ek\i<[nXi[9lie\$Afe\j DWARD BURNE-JONES FITS THE definition of the ultimate Pre-Raphaelite. 8 as his susceptibility to women first erupted 9I C@ IK and love troubles” as Burne-Jones’ susceptibility to women first erupted. He and Swinburne would soon be D8E8 >< defining Heaven as “a rose-garden full of stunners”. A @; 9I stunner was an ideal Pre-Raphaelite beauty, frizzy < ? K haired, a bit mysterious, a Victorian version of the @FE& medieval dame lointaine. K : < For Burne-Jones, art was life. The features of the :FCC women that he loved became imprinted on his artist’s K< imagination, so that a sequence of his paintings can @M8 GI # tell us a whole emotional history. Sometimes the > $@D8 as strangely interchangeable. In 1856, once he had > =lccf]jklee\ij6K_\>fc[\e moved to London, Burne-Jones became engaged to @8D&8B JkX`ij (/.-Æ(//' the fifteen-year-old Georgiana Macdonald, daughter www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 36/37 Edward Burne-Jones of a Wesleyan minister. He had known the family since G_pcc`jXe[;\dfg_ffe they had lived in Birmingham and went to school with (/.' %K_\_\X[jf]Yfk_ Georgiana’s brother. Throughout what became Ô^li\ji\j\dYc\9lie\$ a frustratingly long engagement, since Burne-Jones Afe\jËcfm\iDXi`XQXdYXZf had no means of supporting a wife, he was drawing and painting her. They were not married until 1861. Often, tellingly, he makes her his model for the Virgin. Georgie’s decorous, sweet features can, for instance, be identified in the central panel of the Burne-Jones triptych in the chapel at Lady Margaret Hall. It was part of the whole ethos of Pre-Raphaelite art to draw and paint from people near at hand, part of the intimate domestic circle, in preference to using professional models. Burne-Jones himself was particularly fond of using Georgiana’s sisters as his models. Agnes, Alice and his favourite Louisa can be identified in his pen-and-ink drawings of this early London period. There was a certain clinginess in his attitude to women, possibly related to the loss of his own mother, who died when he was just a few days old. Drawing and painting them was how he laid his claim. Burne-Jones was devastated and indignant as, one by P I one, Georgie’s sisters announced themselves engaged. 8 9I There was nothing unsuitable about the men they C@ married. Far from it: Alice’s husband was the sculptor IK D8E8 >< @; He had a lifelong tendency to see 9I < ? K himself abandoned and bereft P& and art school director John Lockwood Kipling and their son Rudyard became the famous writer; Agnes IK married Edward Poynter, painter and leading figure 8E;8 J of the arts establishment; Louisa married the wealthy LD ironmaster and MP Alfred Baldwin and their son J< Stanley finally became prime minister. But these ?8DDL defections left Burne-Jones inconsolable. He had > D@E I a lifelong tendency to see himself as abandoned @ 9 and bereft. In the late 1860s a new face begins to appear in sexual relations to avoid having more children Burne-Jones’ pictures: the more exotic and sexually in addition to their small son Philip and infant alluring Maria Zambaco. She was a young Greek daughter Margaret. A third child had been stillborn woman, born Maria Terpsithea Cassavetti. Her mother and Georgie was not strong. Maria was already well was an Ionides, a member of one of the leading Greek known as a pursuer, with an uninhibited physicality merchant families in London, a clan so cohesive and unusual in women in London at that time. She was interlinked by marriage they were often described as a striking figure with “almost phosphorescent” white ‘the Greek colony’. Maria had impetuously married skin and come-hither glorious red hair. Burne-Jones a Greek doctor, Demetrius Zambaco, a specialist in believed himself to be shy, gauche and unattractive. venereal diseases whose practice was in Paris. Zambaco His self-cartoons portray him as abjectly undesirable. was accused within the Cassavetti family of being Targeted by Maria, he did not stand a chance. involved in child pornography. :Xi`ZXkli\Yp9lie\$Afe\j He dispensed with most other models now, in favour For whatever reason, the marriage failed. Maria had f]_`j]i`\e[N`cc`XdDfii`j of Maria Zambaco’s delicate, distinctly Grecian i\X[`e^gf\kipkf_`d (/-( now returned to London, a wealthy, wilful woman with features, her large expressive eyes, well-sculpted nose her own artistic aspirations. Burne-Jones gave her and neatly pointed chin. From the artist’s point of view D8E lessons in his studio at his house in West Kensington, >< she had the virtue of mobility. He told Rossetti that @; The Grange. Maria soon became for Burne-Jones what 9I Maria “had a wonderful head, neither profile was like first Elizabeth Siddall and then Janey Morris became the other quite – and the full face was different again”. @FE& K : for Rossetti: the visual obsession, the model and the < She appears in many guises in Burne-Jones’ paintings. muse. This was his first overwhelmingly sexual There she is in his series Pygmalion and The Image, the experience. Georgie, though conventionally pretty, was FE:FCC statue created to be worshipped by the artist; there she no siren. When Rossetti wrote his limerick on “Georgy, G is as his enchantress in the The Wine of Circe; his goddess 8 JK whose life is one profligate orgy” he was clearly being in Venus Concordia and Venus Discordia; his temptress < ? ironic. The Burne-Joneses had in any case ceased K in The Beguiling of Merlin, the pursuit of the ancient magician by the sexually predatory Nimuë. If he saw history has been hampered by the lack of accessible her as Nimuë, then he himself was Merlin. He was documentation. There is still no published collection conscious of his own succumbing to enchantment: of his letters. In researching his biography, I’ve been “I was being turned into a hawthorn tree in the forest the more dependent on the mass of his amorous of Broceliande.” In his final revision of the painting, correspondence still in private collections and Nimuë has become a Gorgon, snakes entwined in her the fixations revealed in his own art. enticing Pre-Raphaelite hair. First in the 1880s, Burne-Jones became obsessed with The affair could not end well. “Poor old Ned’s affairs a number of beautiful and self-possessed young women have come to a smash altogether,” wrote Rossetti, the from the artistic and liberal elite: Frances Graham, part sympathetic, part sardonic commentator on daughter of his patron William Graham; Mary, William Burne-Jones’ fraught emotional life. Maria was putting Gladstone’s daughter; Margot and Laura Tennant; pressure on Burne-Jones to run away with her and live Mary Stuart Wortley. These are the girls assembled on a Greek island, the island known as Syra described on Burne-Jones’ aesthetic movement masterpiece The in Homer’s Odyssey. They could reclaim her classical GfikiX`kf]DXi`XQXdYXZf Golden Stairs. In the following decade his emotional heritage together. But Burne-Jones had a streak of (/.' Yp9lie\$Afe\j focus was his daughter Margaret, the unawakened bourgeois caution. There were turgid scenes of drama princess in his Sleeping Beauty paintings, whom he loved in 1869, with Maria pursuing him along the narrow with near-incestuous devotion. But Margaret, like the lane leading north from Kensington High Street, other girls, got married – to his enormous chagrin. proposing a suicide pact. When Burne-Jones refused Late in life Burne-Jones found himself embroiled in to take the poison she had brought, she threatened parallel adorations for an old love, Frances Graham, to drown herself in Regent’s Canal. They were rolling now Frances Horner, and new love, Helen Mary about together on the parapet when, in a scene that Gaskell. Both were sophisticated, spiritual women in could have come straight from a Wilkie Collins novel, their forties at the centre of the intellectual clique ‘the the metropolitan police arrived. Souls’. But these were married women. There were The story was not over. The Zambaco affair erupted limits. Both affairs were ultimately unsatisfactory. into public scandal in 1870, when Burne-Jones’ His late painting The Wizard, for which Frances was painting Phyllis and Demophoon was shown in the Old a model, is painfully autobiographical, suggesting Watercolour Society’s annual exhibition at its Pall Mall an old man’s sexual frustrations. “I suppose I have Galleries. The picture, like so many of his paintings, learnt my lesson at last,” he wrote to Mary Gaskell is of a love chase, an episode from Ovid’s Heroides three years before he died. “The best in me has been in which Phyllis, daughter of the King of Thrace, love and it brought me the most sorrow.” apparently betrayed in love by Theseus’ son Love was certainly the stimulus for the finest Demophoon, kills herself and is turned by the gods examples of Burne-Jones’ art: Nimuë pursuing and into an almond tree. Burne-Jones illustrates the tantalising Merlin; Phyllis clasping Demophoon in that moment when Demophoon returns to be reclaimed by desperate embrace; Pygmalion kneeling daunted at the Phyllis, who clasps him around, enticingly, while still foot of his own work, the living, breathing women the part of her own tree. The scandal arose not just sculptor has created; the mermaid dragging a lover to because the heads of both the female and male figures the unknown depths of a cruel ocean. These are bear the unmistakable features of Zambaco. Still more images of passion but in the end bleak pictures of the controversial was the nudity of Demophoon. When incompatibility of men and women. the harassed Society president suggested that his It is this bleakness of vision that relates Burne-Jones genitals could be temporarily chalked over, Burne- to a twentieth-century art of psycho-sexual exploration. Jones indignantly removed the painting and resigned. His influence extended to Freudian Vienna, Egon In 1872 Maria unexpectedly moved back to Paris. Schiele and the ornately erotic dream paintings of There were innuendos about another lover. She Gustav Klimt. You can find the echoes of Burne-Jones’ was later to throw herself at Rodin, still in search K_\9\^l`c`e^f]D\ic`e search for love, beauty and sexual fulfilment in the (/.)Æ.. of a substitute ‘cher maître’. New research indicates work of the Swiss symbolist painter Ferdinand Hodler. the degree to which Burne-Jones continued to pursue There is evidence of the strong impression made by her. He made visits to Paris. He and Maria may even Burne-Jones on the young Pablo Picasso and the early have been in Italy together. In the 1880s she was twentieth-century Catalan painters. His preoccupation reportedly renting a London studio next door to his. with sex was to be echoed in the work of Eric Gill and In a previously unpublished letter of 1888, now in Stanley Spencer. Of all British twentieth-century artists, a Cassavetti family collection, Burne-Jones addresses it is Spencer, with his unrelenting candour and the Maria as his “Dear and ill-used friend”. He says, “You strangeness of his vision, who relates most closely to must believe a bit that I never forget you.” And indeed Burne-Jones. how could he forget the woman who had moved his art onto a new level of transfixing and alarming Fiona MacCarthy’s new biography The Last Pre-Raphaelite: erotic consciousness? Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination will be Through the years of public scandal Georgie had published by Faber and Faber on 8 September behaved with dignity and stoicism. She said stoutly, “There is love enough between Edward and I to last out To claim one of 10 free copies of a long life.” There needed to be. After Zambaco he was Fiona MacCarthy’s new book, visit never not in love. The story of his complicated sexual www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/ebj www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 38/39 PG Wodehouse WODEHOUSE AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Lj`e^k_\e\nFo]fi[ ELHAM GRENVILLE WODEHOUSE, born The Mayfair of the clubs was in the future. Dulwich in 1881, came of age at the dawn of mass College is rooted in the suburbs of south London, culture. He was an Englishman of that soup a genteel purlieu of sorrowful aspiration, a place of generation, shaped by the Education Act servants, landladies and clerks. It’s Dulwich (‘Valley ofP 1870, for whom the written word was an intoxicating Fields’ in the Wodehouse canon) that connects the plaything – and a means of self-improvement. Also, Wodehouse of the English shires to a mass audience as the son of a colonial civil servant, he was a junior strainers of clerks, insurance salesmen and minor civil servants, member of an English establishment shaped by public for whom chassis becomes slang for body, and giving schools like Dulwich, his alma mater. Wodehouse’s someone the elbow, meaning to reject, possibly derives inimitable style, its language and range of allusion, from the experience of taking a commuter train to the which is also the expression of his comic genius, City. Such suburban clerks would also refer to profoundly reflects these two influences, the popular moustaches as soup strainers or jocularly describe and the traditional. a colleague’s beard as a fungus. At their most As a boy, Wodehouse received a classical education ritzy uninhibited, they might address one another, as at Dulwich. His instinctive command of the prose Ukridge does in some of Wodehouse’s earliest stories, sentence, combined with a perfect ear for the music as “old horse”. of English, gave him the confidence to trade in school After Dulwich, Wodehouse had two unhappy years slang (oil; archbish; barge; biff; corking), which would working in a bank. Although he disdained the City, eventually morph into the lingo of his 1940 story zing he owed rather more to his fellow clerks than he collection Eggs, Beans and Crumpets. acknowledged, appropriating the Pooterish Edwardian slang of give me the pip (irritate); restore the tissues (take alcoholic refreshment); off his onion His instinctive command of the prose (unbalanced); old oil (flattery); pure applesauce sentence gave him the confidence to (fanciful nonsense), and pip pip (goodbye). This was the Edwardian world whose slang – cove, trade in school slang blighter and snifter – would pepper the conversation of Bertie Wooster and his fellow Drones. In this indolent milieu, the prince of the affluent young Edwardian was the knut, descended from the Beau, the Buck and the Swell, an amiable cove you could laugh at but hardly despise, given to absurd expressions like oojah-cum- woozled spiff and Tinkerty-tonk. Rupert Psmith (“the P is silent as in psalm”) is the quintessential knut with a range of vocabulary (like his author’s) that is matched by an instinctive love of quotation from the classics (“solvitur ambulando”) and from the kind of English poetry squiffy learned at public school. Psmith is never lost for words, his own, or other people’s. Wodehouse, like all the greatest English writers, was always a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. Two youthful trips to New York before the outbreak of the Great War had a decisive effect on the emergence of his pip mature style. Throughout his heyday (approximately 1915 to 1939), Wodehouse could always count on selling his work twice over, first in magazine, and then pip in book, form on both sides of the Atlantic. Zippiness, hotsy-totsy, ritzy, dude, lame-brain, syncopated, zing, and hooched all bear witness to Wodehouse’s love of the US vernacular. In retrospect, his creative zenith (the years of the first Jeeves and Blandings stories) was the 1920s, one of the great alcoholic decades of the twentieth blighter century. Unique in the canon of English literature, almost none of Wodehouse’s characters is indifferent to the temptations of a quiet snort. Wodehouse’s Drones Almost none of Wodehouse’s Or: “It is no use telling me that there are bad aunts dude and good aunts. At the core, they are all alike. Sooner characters is indifferent to the or later, out pops the cloven hoof.” Or: “You see before you, Jeeves, the toad beneath temptations of a quiet snort the harrow.” The Code of the Woosters is the supreme example of will make for the bar like buffalo for a watering hole. Wodehouse’s marriage of high farce with the inverted Their lexicon for inebriated includes: awash; boiled; hotsy poetry of his mature comic style. Today, he is more fried; lathered; illuminated; oiled; ossified; pie-eyed; popular than on the day he died, and reference to his polluted; primed; stinko; squiffy; tanked and woozled. characters appear somewhere in the English-speaking Every one of these words, and many other phrases, world almost every day. The OED Online, for example, betrays their author’s delight in the vernacular. totsy contains more than 1,750 quotations from crispish Wodehouse himself, of course, was always completely to zippiness. In lightness and lunacy, life could in command of his artistic faculties. He was also lucky. become bearable, and the unexamined life, left to its His astonishing popularity came at a singular moment own devices, could go like a breeze – especially in British social history. For the first time, the nation if crowded with incident, orchestrated by butlers and was almost universally literate. Wodehouse’s polished drones valets, and dedicated to helping old pals. It was, finally, and seemingly effortless combination of the suburban Wodehouse’s genius to execute his stories in a language and the classical, matching popular storytelling with that danced on the page, marrying the English style of brilliantly allusive prose, was perfectly suited to a mass the academy with the slang of the suburbs. audience and the elite Oxbridge readership within it. Newspaper critics, like Gerald Gould in The Observer, expressed a widespread opinion: “In the most serious The new Oxford English Dictionary Online and exact sense of the word [PGW] is a great artist. restore is available – at home, at any time – via UK He has founded a school, a tradition. He has made public libraries and many others worldwide. a language… He has explained a generation.” An online version of this article, with links Shortly after these words appeared, Wodehouse to Wodehouse’s words, is available in the completed his masterpiece, The Code of the Woosters, ‘Aspects of English’ section of the Oxford English a comic tour de force that contains some of his the Dictionary Online: www.oed.com most celebrated felicities: “He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and Robert McCrum is an associate editor of The Observer. His latest I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far book, Globish. How the English Language became the from being gruntled.” tissues World’s Language, has just been published by Penguin www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni Arts& Ideas Book reviews -'j\Zfe[jn`k_%%% botanical illustration held in Oxford libraries. Will Hawthorne But be warned. Planting Paradise is not an account of how AXd\jDXik`e]\ccfn#@ejk`klk\ gardens have been arranged over feGcXekj]fik_\)(jk:\eklip four centuries as its subtitle suggests. It focuses on the N_Xk`jk_\dX`e]fZljf]pfli ?fn[fpflYXcXeZ\k_\e\\[j discovery of exotic plants, nfibXkk_\dfd\ek6 f]cfZXcg\fgc\Xe[iXi\gcXekj6 some awesome curiosities, Flii\j\XiZ__\cgjfk_\ij GcXekY`f[`m\ij`kpZXeefkY\cfjk others economically priceless, dXeX^\Xe[Zfej\im\m\^\kXk`fe n`k_flkj\i`fljZfej\hl\eZ\j% and their transplantation and `eiXi\gcXek_fkjgfkjnfic[n`[\% DXepcfZXcg\fgc\[\g\e[fek_\ cultivation in botanical gardens @ZfccXk\[XkXk_Xk\eXYc\jljkf iX`e]fi\jk%N\i\Zfi[n_`Z_gcXekj worldwide; in short, horticultural cfZXc`j\_fkjgfkjf]iXi\gcXekjfe Xi\cfZXccpmXcl\[#kfYXcXeZ\fli imperialism. Harris begins XccjZXc\jkf`[\ek`]pYfk_^cfYXc befnc\[^\f]^cfYXccpiXi\ in 1501 when the invention of Xe[cfZXcki\e[j%@Xcjfgifm`[\ jg\Z`\j#Xe[X[m`j\f]ÔZ`Xcjfe Planting Paradise: printing led to books in which kiX`e`e^]fiIXg`[9fkXe`ZJlim\p _fnkfXmf`[cfjjf]lj\]lcgcXekj% Cultivating the botanists reported their own I9J #k_\k\Z_e`hl\lj\[kf observations rather than relying `[\ek`]pXe[[fZld\ekk_\j\ N_Xk_Xgg\ejkfpfli[XkX6 Garden 1501–1900 on classical authorities. He stops _fkjgfkjXkk_\Ôe\jkjZXc\j% N\Xi\[\m\cfg`e^Xefec`e\ÊGcXek 9pJk\g_\e?Xii`j in 1900, when genetics began to FYj\imXkfipË#Xccfn`e^Yifnj\ij 9f[c\`XeC`YiXip)0%00 dramatically change our N_p`jiXg`[Xjj\jjd\ekf] kfj\\^cfYXc_fkjgfkjXe[ understanding of plant diversity. k_\j\Xi\Xj`dgfikXek6 g_fkf^iXg_jf]iXi\jg\Z`\j% “Plants in Oxford’s Botanical Harris covers an ambitious Jg\\[`j`dgfikXek`]XcfZXk`fe`j 8jkXijpjk\dZcXjj`Ô\jk_\^cfYXc Garden have flourished for range of subjects, some fully, kfY\[\m\cfg\[]fid`e`e^#]fi iXi`kpf]jg\Z`\j#Xb\p]XZkfi]fi centuries on academic manure”, some cursorily. What most \oXdgc\%FliI9Jk\Z_e`hl\ d\Xjli`e^_fkjgfkj% Stephen Harris calmly announces interests him are the plants that Xccfnjljkf`[\ek`]pXe[cfZXc`j\ as he details ways of acclimatising changed lives: rubber, tea, coffee, +''jg\Z`\jg\i[Xp#jfn\ZXe N_Xkb\\gjpfldfk`mXk\[6 plants from foreign parts to the breadfruit (Captain Bligh’s cargo hl`Zbcp[\k\id`e\`]XeXi\X`j =`e[`e^Xe\njg\Z`\j#fife\@ English climate. But you can on the Bounty). But he takes time X_fkjgfk%Lck`dXk\cp#n\X`dkf [feËki\Zf^e`j\%N_\egXkk\iej banish the vision of ingenious to consider plant connections iX`j\XnXi\e\jjf]k_\cfZXk`fej# \d\i^\]ifdk_\ÊiXe[fdale^c\Ë eco-sewers running from college with religion (the passionflower’s eXd\jXe[gifg\ik`\jf]k_\j\ f]jg\Z`\j#Xe[pflZXejkXikkf latrines to the garden’s compost crown of thorns), the Doctrine of gcXekjkfgifm`[\XjZ`\ek`ÔZYXj`j dXb\j\ej\f]k_\\Zfjpjk\dXe[ heaps. It is a long time since “ye Signatures (walnuts resemble the ]fik_\`iZfej\imXk`fe% Zfeki`Ylk\kfY\kk\idXeX^\d\ek% Universitie Scavenger” delivered human skull, and were “very 4000 loads of “mucke and dunge” profitable for the Brain”), magic ?fn`jpflinfib_\cg`e^k_\ N_pj_flc[n\XccY\gXjj`feXk\ during the making of the Oxford and astrology. nfic[ËjiX`e]fi\jkj6 XYflkgcXekZfej\imXk`fe6 Physic Garden between 1621 and Harris has a nice dry turn K_\[\Xik_f]jZ`\ek`ÔZYfkXe`jkj Hl`k\XgXik]ifdb\\g`e^]fi\jkj 1626. Under Jacob Bobart the of phrase and a sharp eye for dXb\jjljkX`eXYc\]fi\jk jkXe[`e^]fik_\jXb\f]k_\ younger, this was to become the the telling quote. He is fond dXeX^\d\ek_Xi[kfXZ_`\m\% Zc`dXk\#n\dljkkipkfgi\m\ek first botanical garden in Britain, of tall stories, notably an Oxford @kËj_Xi[kfdXb\XZXj\]fi]fi\jk k_\Ylijk`e^[Xdf]Y`f[`m\ij`kp divided, as it still is today, into myth: senecio squalidus, or gifk\Zk`fen`k_flk^ff[YXj\c`e\ ]ifdkfkXcZfccXgj\%N\ZXeËk four great beds, originally Oxford ragwort, was spread [XkXXe[dXeX^\ij%GXikf]fli gi\[`Zkn_`Z_gcXekjXi\Zi`k`ZXc intended to contain plants from from the Oxford Botanical nfib`jkfkiX`ecfZXcYfkXe`jkj% ]fiY`fk\Z_efcf^`ZXcX[mXeZ\jfi the four known continents. Garden’s specimen by “prelate N\XcjfZXiipflk\em`ifed\ekXc kfb\\g`e^fk_\ijlZ_jg\Z`\j Harris is Druce Curator of the dispersal” (untidy old parsons `dgXZkXjj\jjd\ekj]ficXi^\ Xc`m\jfn\dljkkipkfZfej\im\ Oxford University Herbaria, and taking a memento of Oxford ZfdgXe`\jZfdg\cc\[YpZXiYfe Xcc%;`m\ij`kp`jb\pÆkf_\cgk_fj\ he has a special interest in the with them to their new livings). kiX[`e^i\^`d\jkfd`k`^Xk\k_\`i `ek_\]lkli\kffgk`d`j\k_\`i evolutionary consequences This one I know is wrong. It was ZXiYfe]ffkgi`ek% nfic[]fi_ldXen\cc$Y\`e^% of human-mediated plant clinker chips under the national movement. Bravely, he sets out on network of railway lines that To listen to an interview with a sweep through plant history, provided the ideal habitat for Will Hawthorne, visit peppering his pages with glorious a plant that originally thrived www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk illustrations from the treasures of on Sicilian volcanic ash. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni We welcome 42/43 Arts Ideas Fo]fi[8clde`Yffbj_fg review suggestions & Blackwell offers a 10 per cent discount to all from authors and Alumni Cardholders on book purchases publishers. Please send brief details to the editor at oxford.today@ For this issue’s Distractions admin.ox.ac.uk (Crossword, etc.) visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk Freeing Tibet Ivor Gurney’s Where An Accidental 9pAf_e9IfY\ikj@@ Gloucestershire Hornbills Fly Masterpiece A Discovery Xe[ Issue no. Signature Att: Oxford Today Wine Offer ;@F 6 New Street L 8 Please send wine to Shipston-on-Stour E Name Warwickshire, CV36 4EN D E# Fax for ordering 01608 663166 ?@ L Email for ordering: william@bennettsfinewines.com ;IF Postcode Telephone/Email 9fYJklXik#Zf$]fle[\iXe[:KF And please cc: linda@bennettsfinewines.com f]D\i`[`Xe8l[`f#n`k_Aljk`e Prices include VAT and delivery on the British mainland. Readers based outside the UK can inquire about shipping rates directly with AFJ E I_f[\j#DXeX^`e^;`i\Zkfi Bennetts Fine Wines. Payment should be made either by cheque with the order, payable to Bennetts Fine Wines Ltd, or by debit or credit f]C\n`j9l`c[`e^K\Z_efcf^p card, details of which may be telephoned or faxed, or e-mailed. This offer, which is subject to availability, closes on 15 October 2011. D8@JF This offer is administered by Bennetts Fine Wines Ltd and neither the University nor the publisher accept any liability arising from the offer. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni Poetry Arts& Ideas 45 The Event On the fifth day we sailed our frozen island out into the shipping lanes. We counted all the evil things and cast them in an ice-hole. They were only numbers. On the fourth day we opened high-yield savings accounts. The refugee camps were fast becoming commuter towns encircling the crater. Jets of steam were seen from the tor. On the third day we left our cars in short stay. The air was pine-fresh. Pebbles nuzzled at our shoes. We began to doubt the alignment of the trackway. On the second day we shopped. You carried your foot like a dead weight. Some youths got on TV J8I8?;LJK8>?< the swart boar flirts the stoop. Tom Chivers (St Anne’s, 2001) was born in 1983 in South London. His books include Snaffling for trash, his ridgeback wig How To Build A City (Salt Publishing, 2009) and The Terrors (Nine Arches stands stiff as a disguise. Press, 2009) and, as editor, Stress He bides his time. Fractures: Essays on Poetry and the anthologies Generation Txt and City State: New London Poetry (Penned in Haunted by the cuff of his feet the Margins, 2010, 2006 & 2009). He is in sweet grass, Director of independent publisher Penned in the Margins and co-Director of London Word Festival. the burst flute of Aphrodite’s calls as he put her young god to the gore. Sarah Hesketh Sarah Hesketh (Merton, 2001) was born in 1983 and grew up in Pendle, East Lancashire. Her debut collection, Napoleon’s Travelling Bookshelf (2010), from which this poem comes, is published by Penned in the Margins and was described by Bernard O’Donoghue as “original and utterly convincing”. She currently works as Assistant Director at the writers’ charity English PEN. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 46 Arts& Ideas Visit www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk for full listings of events 8D`[jldd\iE`^_kËj ;i\XdXjgXik f]k_\Jldd\i Events J_Xb\jg\Xi\Kfli a hue of brown oil paints – en Museums brunaille. These works were often used as presentation pieces for & galleries clients. Includes works by Ashmolean Museum Anthony van Dyck. Until 29 August 29 September–15 January 2012 Heracles to Alexander the Giulio Romano Great: Treasures from the As Raphael’s collaborator and Royal Capital of Macedon, pupil, Giulio completed his a Hellenic Kingdom in the master’s projects after Raphael’s Age of Democracy death in 1520 and developed his University Museum of Menahem Pressler and Oxford With more than 500 treasures own fanciful designs following Natural History Philomusica recently found in the royal burial Raphael’s ideas and principles. Sheldonian Theatre tombs and the palace of Aegae, Until 31 August Stephen Hough and Oxford the ancient capital of Macedon. Museum of the History Isabel Rawsthorne Philomusica On display for the first time of Science (1912–1992) ‘Migrations’– Sheldonian Theatre outside Greece. Painting and Drawings Participants Recital Until 16 October The first exhibition of luminous Jacqueline du Pré Music Building Bodleian Library Eccentricity landscapes – the final statement Stephen Kovacevich Unexpected objects from the of a lifetime studying birds. Piano Recital Until 4 September museum’s collection, including Sheldonian Theatre Manifold Greatness: Oxford a Japanese mechanical fly-trap. Student and the Making of the King James Bible Pitt Rivers theatre Alumni events Marking the 400th anniversary of 16–20 August 21 July the publication of the King James Until 31 July OUDS and Thelma Holt Summer reception and Bible, the most frequently printed Ghost Forest: A Year in Oxford Summer Shakespeare Tour wine tasting at Vintners’ Hall book in the English language. The last chance to see Angela A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Celebrate summer with other Palmer’s striking exhibition re-imagined in the ceremonial Oxonians at this prestigious 30 September–23 December featuring 10 immense rainforest and festive world of 1940s British London venue. Finding Treasure: The Best tree stumps from Ghana, which royalty. Theseus’ high-society of the Bodleian show the impact of deforestation. celebration is blown apart by the 27 July–7 August With some of the library’s most excitement of the fairy court. Meet the Vice-Chancellor in iconic manuscripts and books. 18 July–27 January 2013 Worcester College Garden, 19.30 Australia and New Zealand Members of the public can give Made for Trade nnn%fo]fi[gcXp_flj\%Zfd The Vice-Chancellor will be their thoughts on which of the Indian silk textiles, a brick made holding receptions in Australia library’s treasures should be put of tea, lustrous glass beads from and New Zealand. on permanent display in the Venice... from local markets to Music Bodleian’s new Weston Library, global networks this exhibition Oxford Philomusica 16–18 September which will open in 2015. offers insights into the world of Oxford Alumni Weekend: trade through the museum’s 9 , 15, 22 July Meeting Minds: 21st Century Christ Church Picture remarkable collections. Summer Baroques: Challenges Gallery The Magic Flute Three days of talks, lectures on, 19 July–8 Jan 2012 Harmony and Invention and tours of, Cardiff’s treasures. Until 4 September People Apart: Cape Town Virtuoso Violins An Artist Looks at Old Masters Survey 1952 Sheldonian Theatre, 20.00 12 November Artist Jeff Clarke selects more A recently discovered archive of Cardiff Study Day at the than 30 Old Master drawings photographic images by Bryan Piano Festival National Museum of Wales from the gallery’s collection to Heseltine taken in the townships This year’s alumni study day will explore the principles of of Cape Town during the early 30, 31 July, 1, 2, 4, 6 August, 20.00 focus on art, with lectures on, draughtsmanship. years of apartheid. While the Elisabeth Eshwé Piano and tours of, Cardiff’s treasures. photographs are evocative images Jacqueline du Pré Music Building 27 August–27 November of township life, the ambiguous Leslie Howard Piano Recital En Brunaille – contexts in which the images University Church of St Mary For a full listing of alumni events Painted Drawings were exhibited at the time The Virgin and to book, contact: events@ This exhibition will show a group suggest other ways of Shai Wosner Piano Recital alumni.ox.ac.uk, or visit of painted sketches executed in interpreting his work. Holywell Music Room www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/events 47 Obituaries Lord Windlesham in 1997. He was instrumental in 28 January 1932–21 December 2010 establishing an online catalogue in the 8J?DFC<8EDLJ www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni 50 The last word My Oxford Stephanie Cook – Lincoln College 1994 K_\Fcpdg`Zdf[\ieg\ekXk_cfe^fc[d\[Xcc`jk k\ccjAf_e>Xik__fnXgfjk\i`ek_\gfik\iËjcf[^\ Xk_\iZfcc\^\glk_\ifekiXZb]fiJp[e\p)''' Why did you apply to Oxford [after modern pentathlon and athletics your first degree at Cambridge] and Varsity matches in 1996 and 1997. what did you study? My first international competition was After completing my pre-clinical years when I was still a student – the 1997 at Cambridge, I was ready for a change World Cup competition in Hungary. and decided to apply to Lincoln What happened at Oxford and College for three years of clinical subsequently was beyond my wildest J medicine (BM, BCh), learning dreams. I did sport simply because 9AL;>< F through hands-on work in hospitals. I enjoyed it. The thought of winning I an Olympic gold medal had never How did you become involved in crossed my mind. and a sportswoman – plus I met my modern pentathlon? husband Daniel. He’s a vet and was at I’d played hockey and done athletics How did you balance sports Cambridge, but we met through sport. at school and also ridden with the training with academic studies? Pony Club. At Cambridge I was a It involved a lot of early mornings, and You keep coming back... lightweight rower and I continued late nights whizzing down Headington I’m now completing training as a GP athletics, but it wasn’t until Oxford Hill from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Sussex, and I’m on the Athletes’ that I tried modern pentathlon – to get to training sessions, but :ffb`e_\i Committee of LOCOG (the London shooting, fencing, swimming, riding I did not let sport affect my studies. le`m\ij`kp[Xpj Organising Committee for the and running. I saw a poster for Olympic Games). After I qualified in OUMPA, the modern pentathlon Did you find time for any other medicine I worked for six months in club, in the porter’s lodge at Lincoln. extracurricular activities? Oxford at the John Radcliffe and the I’d always fancied it, mainly because I had quite enough to do with five Churchill. I was made an honorary of the horses. I went along and different sports! But sport became fellow of Lincoln, and supported the thoroughly enjoyed it. my social life – there was the weekly college in its development campaign. cross-country meet at the Lamb and I studied a part-time MSc in evidence- Who did you train with? Flag, for example. Because Oxford based health care at Kellogg College, The other OUMPA members, though teaches such a cross-section of which I completed in 2008. I’m still because I was better runner I tended subjects, through sport I could meet very involved in OUMPA and recently to do that with the Cross Country and people reading many varied subjects. helped out at the Varsity match. Athletics Clubs. I also joined Fencing Club sessions under Tomek Walicki. Did you enjoy Oxford? How do you think of Oxford now? I loved it. My parents were born in When you’re there as a student you’re How did your sporting career Oxford and my grandparents had so immersed in your life that you don’t go at Oxford? continued to live there, so I had always fully appreciate it. It’s only going back In my first year I tore the medial visited. The University was a different that you realise what an incredibly collateral ligament in my knee and world again – I’m very lucky to have special experience it was. Oxford had to spend three months rehabbing. gone there. is somewhere where I learnt some I’d been training with the cross- things, made some lifelong friends country team when the river had What did you take away? and had a great time. overflowed; we were skirting the water, Fantastic memories. They were some and I stepped forward into the actual of the best years of my life and gave river. But I still competed in the me the skills that I then took forward To view interviews with previous subjects cross-country Varsity match three in both my sporting and professional of this column, visit www.oxfordtoday. times, winning it in 1996; and in both careers. At Oxford I became a doctor ox.ac.uk/oxonians/my_oxford www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk | [email protected] | twitter.com/oxfordalumni