Author Archives: kathryntyne

Morecambe & Wise 1971

In 1971 André Previn was three years into his tenure as the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He was booked to appear on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show, but two weeks before his mother fell ill and he flew to New York. Eric Morecambe was so concerned that he couldn’t make rehearsals… Read More »

Battleship

This Christmas, perhaps you’re hoping to find a battleship in your stocking. Perhaps you’re thinking you might just sail out into open water and randomly fire to see if you can hit a neighbour’s ship. It would be foolhardy to take such a journey only to begin the New Year in a holding cell, so the… Read More »

Can We Fix It?

In Bobsville, the answer is always a resounding “Yes We Can!” In England it’s possible to make a living as a builder through networking, working with personal contacts on existing construction sites, without any set qualifications or skills at all, but it’s hard and dangerous work so builders do have to be physically fit and willing to listen and learn.… Read More »

Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)

Ernie, before his unfortunate demise due to being hit in the eye by a stale pork pie thrown by his love rival Ted the baker, was noted for the speed of his milk cart. He and his horse Trigger “galloped into market street” which sounds rather dangerous, especially if it was contemporary, for at the… Read More »

The Coventry Carol

The lilting lament of The Coventry Carol is not especially festive, being as it is a mother’s song to her doomed infant as she waits for Herod’s soldiers to visit and murder him, however it is a haunting, beautiful tune with extraordinary history. If you’d like to know more about that, you can compare audio… Read More »

The library email address is currently out of order

We are currently experiencing some technical problems with the email address law.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk so if you need to contact us please email an individual staff member (you can find out who does what at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/law/about/staff and look up our email addresses at http://www.ox.ac.uk/applications/contact_search/index.rm) or reach us by telephone on +44 (0)1865 271462. We apologise for the… Read More »

Local history: Sir William Blackstone

William Blackstone (1723-1780) studied at Oxford, joining Pembroke College at the age of 15, eventually holding high office at All Souls (where his statue now sits in his Judge’s robes in The Codrington Library) and taking the first Chair of Vinerian Professor of English Law. He held many other distinguished legal and administrative positions during… Read More »