Not real, of course. Well I could hardly describe the lapse of security in a real college, could I? But the essence is real, I hope.
I did not go to Oxford. My husband did in the 1970s, and my two sons did – all following one another into engineering science. I do envy them. I have always found a powerful attraction in a world within a world, whether it was the girl whose parents were tenants of a National Trust manor house or the boy who lived inside the Tower of London because his father was a Beefeater. The massive appeal of passing through a doorway and leaving the public street behind, of the sudden quiet privacy inside the quad, where everyone knows everyone and everyone belongs…well, apart from the visiting parents, of course
Some of the colleges are open to the public; many are not. But even the private colleges offer tantalising glimpses through doors left open. Linger on Merton Street and you will catch sight of the golden pelican...
