A first proper encounter with the Bodleian

I confess something slightly shameful. As an alumnus of the other university in Oxford, I had never properly set foot in the Bodleian. No studying there, no late-night essays under watchful portraits, no quietly reverential wandering between shelves. Until today.

What a joy to finally put that right.

This afternoon’s visit to the was a genuine privilege – and it was made so by the warmth, care and thoughtfulness of our hosts. I am hugely grateful to Jacqueline for organising everything so seamlessly, and to Antony Brewerton for an outstanding tour that combined deep scholarship with a wonderfully light touch. We were made to feel both welcome and trusted with one of Oxford’s great treasures.

The Divinity School is simply breathtaking. Light, stone, proportion – all conspiring to remind you that learning was once understood as something sacred. Adjacent to it, the Convocation House carries a very different kind of history. It was here that members of the University were called to account, including a young , who found himself in the dock for the very student offence of not paying his bills. There is something rather comforting about that detail – genius, wit and brilliance coexisting quite happily with impecuniosity.

We moved on into the original heart of the Bodleian itself – Duke Humfrey’s Library – where some of the books are turned inwards, spines hidden, because they were once chained in place. A practical solution to an eternal problem: how to share knowledge without losing it. Standing there, you feel the accumulated weight of centuries of scholarship, doubt, debate and discovery.

One of my favourite moments was the walk through the Gladstone Link – the underground tunnel connecting the historic library to the Radcliffe Camera. Built in the early twentieth century, it was a quietly radical idea in its day, born of a simple truth: knowledge expands, and libraries must expand with it. Tradition, yes – but never at the expense of progress.

And then, of course, the itself. Magnificent from every angle, but even more impressive when you understand it not just as an icon, but as a living, working part of one of the world’s great libraries.

I was joined on the tour by Mark, Anne and Nick, and we all came away slightly dazzled, a little quieter than when we arrived, and deeply appreciative – not just of the building, but of the people who care for it and interpret it so generously.

It took me a few decades to get there, but I am very glad I finally did. And I cannot thank our hosts enough for making that first encounter such a special one.