Finding beauty in buildings

“Can we dim the lights so the audience can see the screens?” “No,” came the response. Matthew turned to the audience. “Good — that means you’ll be able to see less and won’t be as bored.”

Witty and self-deprecating, Matthew showed the audience his new book, called simply Oxford. With hundreds of beautifully painted and annotated illustrations, Matthew guided us through Oxford’s architecture.

He began with the monastic Oxford of dreaming spires and continued right up to today, describing the city as a sculpture park with an extraordinary collection of buildings.

Matthew explained that some cities turn out pottery or metal items, but the industrial function of Oxford is education. It produces undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates. Simple, when it’s put like that.

New buildings make people angry. Matthew allowed this statement to sink in. He believes Oxford has been saved from the more disfiguring elements of new buildings, although he described how the approaches to Oxford have been damaged. His suggestion is closing your eyes for 15 minutes between arriving at the outskirts and being in the centre.

Next, Jim Donahue spoke about The Thames Valley: Past, Present, and Future. The dapper American has lived in the UK for 25 years and this is his fifth book. It’s full of lively photography and all sorts of fascinating facts. Jim likes to bring history into the present day. Did you know that there is a neolithic settlement near the H café at Berinsfield? Or that the largest hand axe found in Europe was discovered at Furze Platt, Maidenhead? Or that St Mary-le-More church in Wallingford rings a curfew bell every evening at 9pm — almost 1,000 years after the curfew was extended by William the Conqueror?

Jim considers that the Thames Valley stretches all the way from Eton and Windsor to Oxford, so the book covers a wide area. Asked for his favourite Thames bridge, he named Marlow — used as a model for the Szechenyi Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest.

Matthew and Jim each brought a different aspect of history to life in a vivid and engaging way. And I said I wasn’t going to buy as many books this year.

Laura Basden