Oxford and fantasy

There was an interesting article in The Weekend Australian last weekend which my friend Jane W pointed out to me had been Blogged by Judith over at Misrule. In the article Felicity Carter discusses the prevalence of fantasy authors who hail from Oxford saying that many of the greatest English children's writers of the past century or so have studied or taught at Oxford, among them Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Diana Wynne Jones, Penelope Lively, Susan Cooper, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Alan Garner and Philip Pullman. Carter notes that few other places appear to have made as significant an impact on children's fantasy literature as Oxford. And I would add that some adults' fantasy writers also hail from Oxford since my own favourte author, Juliet E McKenna, studied at Oxford University and still lives in the county.

In the article, Julia Cresswell, who tutors in children's literature at the summer school at Christ Church college, suggests that part of the reason for Oxford producing so many fantasy writers is that Tolkien and Lewis had a large role in developing much of the English syllabus which was in place at Oxford until the '70s. Their syllabus put a lot of emphasis on philology and medieval literature. Meanwhile, Dianne Purkiss, who is a fellow at Keble College and researches children's literature and fairytales, suggests that Oxford itself is an inspiration, partly because of the concentration of brilliant people in the University, but also in part because of the University's architecture which "points to the heavens", and she notes the number of gates that bar the way into the colleges, behind which can be seen glimpses of "another world."

It would be interesting to know if there are any other cities in the world that have produced a high number of fantasy writers. And of course I should note that crime fiction is often set in Oxford, Inspector Morse being the most famous, but by no means the only, detective to haunt the city !