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Power corrupts ...
Sep. 2nd, 2018 07:36 pmBook Review: Holt College - An Oxford Novel, by Brian Martin
This was a random selection in the work book sale. I didn't really know what to expect; I struggled to downplay the idea that this must be satirical, like Porterhouse Blue. I was also curious how Oxford would be portrayed, and whether there would be a steep learning curve for the outsider.
The story is told by Johhny James, a "young" economics fellow at Holt College. (I put young in quotes because he is one of the more junior fellows, not a Junior Research Fellow, which is something else). The college Principal is acting in an increasingly autocratic manner, as a CEO rather than a Chairman, and this has aggrieved some of the fellowship, James among them. This has become a more serious issue as some appointments and expenses are called into question. In parallel with the college politics, James also begins a relationship with Estelle Treisman, another of the other fellows. The story chronicles an increasingly bitter battle within the college governing body, and has some twists.
The literary geography of Oxford has always been negotiable; in this case, a mixture of real and fictional colleges are named; the location of Holt oddly corresponds best to Queen's, which is not one of the colleges mentioned (and notably, until recently, did not admit students to study English, which was Martin's own subject). The downfall of a Principal is reminiscent of the resignation of Sir Stephen Tumim across the road at SEH; though on that occasion apparently he and the college Bursar were in conflict, which is not the case in this novel. (Again, oddly, characters in the novel fret over the attention of Private Eye, which did have a long-running spat with that bursar in the 1990s). Ultimately I suspect anyone with any knowledge of Oxford machinations can recall college politics whose fragments can, to a greater or lesser extent, be projected or imagined onto this novel. It's a work of fiction.
Although it's relatively contemporary - the Principal's expenses are cast in the light of the MPs' expenses scandal of 2009 - I find the use of devices such as photocopiers and telephones curiously anachronistic, even for an Oxford college. The plot does seem at times exaggerated, though that probably is a fair reflection of the self-importance of the characters concerned. There are plenty of Oxford tropes - wine snobbery, outdoor concerts, gross moral turpitude, college grandees and fundraising. It's not Colin Dexter: despite the high tension, there is no murder. It fits well into the category of what Graham Greene would describe as "an entertainment".
This was a random selection in the work book sale. I didn't really know what to expect; I struggled to downplay the idea that this must be satirical, like Porterhouse Blue. I was also curious how Oxford would be portrayed, and whether there would be a steep learning curve for the outsider.
The story is told by Johhny James, a "young" economics fellow at Holt College. (I put young in quotes because he is one of the more junior fellows, not a Junior Research Fellow, which is something else). The college Principal is acting in an increasingly autocratic manner, as a CEO rather than a Chairman, and this has aggrieved some of the fellowship, James among them. This has become a more serious issue as some appointments and expenses are called into question. In parallel with the college politics, James also begins a relationship with Estelle Treisman, another of the other fellows. The story chronicles an increasingly bitter battle within the college governing body, and has some twists.
The literary geography of Oxford has always been negotiable; in this case, a mixture of real and fictional colleges are named; the location of Holt oddly corresponds best to Queen's, which is not one of the colleges mentioned (and notably, until recently, did not admit students to study English, which was Martin's own subject). The downfall of a Principal is reminiscent of the resignation of Sir Stephen Tumim across the road at SEH; though on that occasion apparently he and the college Bursar were in conflict, which is not the case in this novel. (Again, oddly, characters in the novel fret over the attention of Private Eye, which did have a long-running spat with that bursar in the 1990s). Ultimately I suspect anyone with any knowledge of Oxford machinations can recall college politics whose fragments can, to a greater or lesser extent, be projected or imagined onto this novel. It's a work of fiction.
Although it's relatively contemporary - the Principal's expenses are cast in the light of the MPs' expenses scandal of 2009 - I find the use of devices such as photocopiers and telephones curiously anachronistic, even for an Oxford college. The plot does seem at times exaggerated, though that probably is a fair reflection of the self-importance of the characters concerned. There are plenty of Oxford tropes - wine snobbery, outdoor concerts, gross moral turpitude, college grandees and fundraising. It's not Colin Dexter: despite the high tension, there is no murder. It fits well into the category of what Graham Greene would describe as "an entertainment".