Congratulations to Professor Patrick McGuinness who has released his new book 'Real Oxford'.
Oxford is a place of fantasy and myth, home to the famous university and some of the world’s most iconic buildings. But the real Oxford is rarely seen, even by those who live here.
There’s industrial Oxford, the huge gasworks that once stood a few minutes’ walk from Christ Church’s Tom Tower, and Oxford the car city, home to Morris motors, once the biggest car plant in the world. There’s Oxford the midlands city of factories and breweries, wharves and stations. There’s Oxford's venerable football history and its unexpectedly radical politics. There’s high-rise Oxford as well as honeyed stone Oxford. There’s the Oxford of OX2, where life expectancy is among the highest in the UK, and the Oxford of OX4, where it’s among the lowest. There is the Oxford whose libraries, buildings and bequests come from slavery and colonial exploitation – an Oxford whose bright statues mask darker histories. There’s the Oxford that broadcasts its achievements, and the Oxford that covers its tracks...
The novelist, poet and Oxford academic Patrick McGuinness guides us through the past, but also the present, of all of these interlinked Oxfords. He walks the city’s streets from the station to the ringroad, tracks its canals and towpaths, its footbridges and tunnels, to evoke the continued presence of the Oxford behind the classic views. The 80 black and white photographs of Oxford's unnoticed corners are a counterpoint to the tourist postcards and the giftshop merchandise.
Patrick discusses these and more in his talk, on the Faculty's YouTube Channel.