Nature invades: old rooks in each college garden
We welcomed Oxford historian and author Mark Davies to the bookshop on Thursday for Coles Book Club. Mark’s mission is to dive deep into public records and unearth those snippets of history that are often overlooked. And in a city like Oxford, there’s so much history accumulated over the years that the odd and the peculiar can often get overlooked in favour of the big headline events. His book, Stories of Oxford Castle, focuses on the prison and its role in controlling and bringing to account the ne’er-do-wells and wrong ‘uns of Oxfordshire – it appears there were plenty!
Books like Mark’s are often sparks to ignite the curiosity – leaving the reader with more questions than answers. There is much in our local history which stirs curiosity, some surprisingly worrying – that just down the road from here there were still public executions in the second half of the 19th century, and that mothers, often quite young, were being convicted and sentenced to death for infanticide long before the complexities and reasons for child mortality were fully understood.
But despite the subject matter being about getting banged-up or transported to the colonies or worse, there was surprise and humour to be found amongst these tales of criminality – and this is where Bicester comes in! The notorious ‘Bicester Gang’ of the 18th century, led by criminal mastermind Thomas Gulliver, whose activities were described as ‘the iniquitous practises of this nest of villains’ finally resulted in the six members being convicted for stealing peas (yes, small vegetables – we’re unsure if they were shelled or still in their pods) from the village of Stoke Lyne. And some shirts, presumably from washing lines rather than the backs of the owners, from the village of Fringford. The criminal bar was embarrassingly low in this neck-o-the woods – one suspects Bicester didn’t have allotments at that time. That such fastidious records were kept by the authorities for what appear to be trivial misdemeanours is testament to what was the developing idea of law & order – no opportunity for the convenient loss of the WhatsApp messages back in those days.
Oxford by W.H. Auden
Nature invades: old rooks in each college garden
Still talk, like agile babies, the language of feeling;
By towers a river still runs coastward and will run,
Stones in these towers are utterly
Satisfied still with their weight.
Mineral and creature, so deeply in love with themselves
Their sin of accidie excludes all others,
Challenge our high-strung students with a careless beauty,
Setting a single error
Against their countless faults.
Outside, some factories, then a whole green country
Where a cigarette comforts the evil, a hymn the weak;
Where thousands fidget and poke and spend their money:
Eros Paidagogos
Weeps on his virginal bed.
And over the talkative city like any other
Weep the non-attached angels. Here too the knowledge of death
Is a consuming love, and the natural heart refuses
The low unflattering voice
That sleeps not till it find a hearing.
This week’s top fiction book of the week is the beautifully presented Faebound by Saara El-Arifi. This is the start of a trilogy, centred around two sisters torn between their loyalty for each other, their hearts, and their love for their elven homelands. This series is destined to be the next-big-thing shouted about all over the internet. Our other top pick of the week is The Showman by Simon Shuster. When writing this, Shuster had unprecedented access to Zelensky and his office; this is the Ukrainian president as you’ve never seen him before.
If your TBR pile is lacking, then look no further, be dazzled with the best new fiction of the week! Pet by Catherine Chidgey is a psychological thriller set in New Zealand in the 1980s, exploring the twisted relationship between the new teacher in school, and their most attentive student; this is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the 2020s. David McCloskey’s Moscow X is his follow up to the hit crime, Damascus Station – these books are known, not only for being incredibly gripping, but also for being “the most authentic depiction of CIA deep cover operations you’ll find in print” (John Sipher, Former CIA Senior Operations Officer). Death on the Lusitania by R.L. Graham is a WW1 historical crime set on board the ill-fated Lusitania ship; a man has been mysteriously murdered in his cabin, can anyone work out the culprit? Drawing from the true story of women killed in Chillicothe, Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel offers a moving literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere, in On the Savage Side.
New in non-fiction, everyone’s favourite historian, Dan Jones, is back with something a little bit different: Queer Villains of Myth and Legend is a discovery of diverse characters, ranging from seductive and cunning to powerful and awe-inspiring; experience the dark allure of Circe and Medusa, through to David Bowie’s Jareth in Labyrinth. Teddy Boys by Max Decharne is a delve into post-war men’s cult fashion and culture, it’s a look at how working-class teenagers found a way of asserting themselves in how they dressed, spoke and socialised on the street. Erika Howsare looks at one of our favourite animals in The Age of the Deer, from their depiction in cave paintings, deer and humans have been inextricably linked. Attention All Shipping is a hilarious reissue of Charlie Connelly’s 2005 book, an ode to Britain’s most-loved broadcasting institutions.
For young adults, Susan Price’s Ghost Drum, takes us on an adventure through darkness and ice, where a shaman and a prince are fighting for their freedom. And lastly, for ages 8+, Jack Tite’s Mega Meltdown is an introduction to the ice-age. With enormous fold-out pages, this is jam-packed with facts about how humans and animals survived this freezing time!
As always, if there’s something you need help with, or a book you need ordering, please call or email us!
From Amber
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