The most recommended books about Oxford

Fictionalizing her large and extremely eccentric family—shabby members of the British gentry in the 1930s, lacking the wealth of earlier times—Nancy Mitford managed to create a novel that is both hilarious and poignant, with a style uniquely her own. Her characters seem almost too bizarre to be real, yet if you read about the real Mitfords, you discover that, if anything, this novel (published in 1945) softened their edges! She writes brilliantly not only about the fun and tensions among an array of strongminded siblings but also about her domineering father and, later, about the blissful madness of falling in love after an isolated childhood.

This is actually not one book but a five-volume (!) series of books which contains some of the best writing on classical music I’ve ever come across.

Taruskin, who passed away recently, was a legendary musicologist. In his writings, he managed to combine analytic writing that addresses his colleagues with unbelievably sharp and insightful writing that I, as a classical music fan who is not a pro, enjoy tremendously.

Taruskin loved picking intellectual fights, and this sort of combative energy is gripping. In this series, there are major story arcs like the interplay between “oral” and “literate” traditions or the role of nationalism in 19th-century music. I liked how Tarsukin switches smoothly between a close analysis of a piece and a discussion of how it relates to the wider culture.

This book is a comprehensive and fascinating look at an elusively handsome city. It shows unknown corners as well as the familiar Spires. History and events feature in attractive informative writing. All balanced by sensitive new imagery from the noted artist, architect, and illustrator Ian Davis. It is a gripping read, stunningly illustrated.

I love the fact that despite my living in Oxford for over 40 years, Ian Davis showed me views I didn’t know and facts I had not learnt. The book is Informative and interesting.

The book's great value is its comprehensive personal view of the City of Oxford, produced in an accessible and affordable format.

This is one of the many books that have delved into the old question of who William Shakespeare really was. And it is one of the more clever ones, drawing clear parallels between Shakespeare's texts, on the one hand, and the travels, experiences, opinions, and facilities of the main suspect, the Earl of Oxford, on the other. Looney’s book was the first one to propose and present exhaustive evidence that the Earl of Oxford was the sole author of all of Shakespeare’s works – a hypothesis that is now dominant among those who doubt the role of the relatively uneducated and untravelled “Stratford-man”.

Proper English—who needs it? Certainly not Ape, the London urchin who stole my heart in this gentle historical mystery.

I just love the lingo in this book: "He's all mild and polite, then turns up damned handy with his fives. That was quite a wisty caster!" Ape grinned at the memory. "Man of parts, his lordship."

His lordship is Piers, Lord Petteril, and both he and Ape are delightfully mysterious and unconventional characters for a Regency-set tale. Together, the two mismatched protagonists manage to solve a mystery (not murder, but theft) and incidentally discover a lot about themselves in the process.

This book has wonderful characters and perfectly pitched writing. It's Agatha Christie meets Georgette Heyer. 

For me, Oxford is the Hollywood of stories and indeed it is now home to The Story Museum. One of the stars of Oxford storytelling was Colin Dexter, whose Inspector Morse novels have spawned three TV series. He was the patron of the Oxford Writers Group and recommended this anthology. It includes stories from Town, Gown, and County so it is a good holiday read while in Oxford or dreaming of the city.

This is an imaginative mystery centered on the people who inhabited the world (Oxford and London) of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) after the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

As an Oxford local historian myself, I think the author captures the atmosphere and detail of Victorian Oxford superbly well and sustains the suspense to the end, as Dodgson becomes embroiled in a series of events that involve him being blackmailed and being treated as a murder suspect.

Many familiar elements of Dodgson's life and many of his real associates are included, and there are numerous subtle nods to the text of Wonderland. And Dodgson's (to modern eyes) controversial friendships with and photographs of children are not swerved – indeed, they are central to the plot – but are astutely incorporated and believably explained.

This book is thought-provoking, instructive, enthralling, and convincing. 

This was the first book about architecture I read and it remains one of my favourites. Clark wrote it in 1928, long before ‘Civilisation’ made him a television star and it has the freshness of a young man trying out ideas and working to understand something he doesn’t like. He was writing about Gothic architecture at a time when it was completely out of fashion. Clark’s subtitle ‘an essay in the history of taste’ is tongue in cheek because Gothic for his generation meant bad taste. Tracing its roots back into the eighteenth century Clark shows how it developed to embody the ideals of the Victorian age. 

Julia Whalen is also a renowned audiobook narrator, and I listened to this book in her melodic voice, being carried to Oxford. Julia attended Oxford for a year, and she takes us there in this beautiful story.

The story is about a young American woman named Ella Durran who has made it to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Through twists and turns, Ella must decide whether to turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with or follow her political dreams, which are coming true. Can we change our dreams? Read to find out. 

What do the writers you are drawn to reveal about you? Why at certain points in our lives do we become “attached” to certain authors? The process of attachment is mysterious. As we age (and change) some things remain constant. Our attachment to a particular author may have begun in our youth, but evolved as we have. To reconnect with a favorite author can put us in touch with our younger self in unexpected ways. Mead shows how much Middlemarch has “spoken” to her throughout her life. This book is perhaps more in harmony with my own than any on the list. I have come to love books that underscore how what we read can be inseparable from the person we become.