Literary Walking Tour

“Oxford! The very sight of the word printed, or sound of it spoken, is fraught for me with most actual magic.”

Max Beerbohm’s words in Zuleika Dobson ring as true today as when they were written a hundred years ago.

Oxford’s magic has inspired generations of creative writers, some of them internationally famous, like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, others known to a more restricted but discerning readership, like Philip Larkin and Beerbohm himself.

Our literary walking tour evokes many of these unique personalities and shows you the places where they studied and relaxed, were rapt by religious fervour, composed in mad erotic delirium, or drifted away into dreams of other worlds and other days. Our guides, noted literary experts, will take you round the centre of “that sweet city… with her dreaming spires” as Matthew Arnold phrased it, and give you a genuine flavour of Oxford’s glorious literary past, and her vibrant present.

The tour will take place on the afternoon of Thursday, 7 January 2021 and will take in some of the historic sites of Oxford, including traditional pubs, and will conclude at one of the famous bars for you to enjoy a drink (not included in the price) before you return to St Katherine’s College for dinner (residential delegates).

Each ticket costs £7.50 + 20% VAT = £9.00