The Chronicle 682

23 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Malcolm: I was always interested in History. Around eight or nine, a temporary Master at my school took us out to visit local ruins at Kirkstall Abbey at the edge of Leeds and we had to draw a bit of it which I hated because I can’t draw. I remember him saying ‘look, look, look’ over and over, and from then on I became very interested in buildings and developed a fascination with cathedrals and castles and so on. Every summer I took Sixth Formers across Europe, staying in tents, and that really developed my interest in Art but the interest in Art History stemmed from my childhood interest in architecture. As we wound down the interview, talk turned to specific books and Malcolm highlighted some in the Art History collection which he has a particular fondness for. Malcolm: The Gainsborough books. I’m not wild about Gainsborough but if I were starting to learn more, those would be the books I’d go for.

Malcolm Oxley and Sarah Eldred

There are also three volumes of books on stained glass: medieval stained glass of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire which are rather special. Finally I wanted find out what books were keeping Malcolm’s attention currently and what one book he couldn’t do without. In true bibliomaniac form he had multiple books on the go and decided on three ‘desert island books’ rather than just one! Malcolm: I’m reading five books at the moment: The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides; A Vertical Art: Oxford Lectures by Simon Armitage; Thomas Beckett: Murder and the Making of the Saint by Lloyd de Beer

and Naomi Speakman; Cecil Beaton: the Authorised Biography by Hugo Vickers; and Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym. If I were on a desert island? I struggle to choose just one book but I suppose if it were poetry I’d go for The Complete Poems by Phillip Larkin; if History: Godliness and Good Learning: Four Studies on a Victorian Ideal by David Newsome; and if Medieval History: The Pursuit of the Millennium by Norman Cohn.

It’s always a pleasure to see Malcolm and it was particularly interesting to hear his thoughts on the new building and what he remembered of the previous iterations of the Library. The Malcolm Oxley Collection is currently housed in the Lemon Tree on site at Teddies and can be browsed digitally here: www.librarycat.org/lib/ StEdwardsSchool

If you are interested in leaving a bequest to St Edward’s, please contact Rachael Henshilwood, Director of Development and Partnerships, at henshilwoodr@stedwardsoxford.org