Alumni in Print

Rustle Up

Rhiannon Batten’s (1993 Geography) cookbook, Rustle Up: one-paragraph recipes for flavour without fuss, was co-authored with her former Olive magazine colleague, Laura Rowe. The book contains over 80 quick and easy recipes that anyone can make. Utilising simple ingredients and basic cooking equipment, the cookbook includes tips and twists to make ingredients stretch further and avoid waste. Each recipe is clear and concise, at just a single paragraph long.

Normal Schmormal

In this part-memoir, part how-to guide, comedian and father of six, Ashley Blaker (1994 History) writes about the experience of parenting, adoption and raising children with special needs. Highlighting the many challenges, as well as the hugely rewarding elements, of parenting children with additional needs, the novel is written with humour, compassion and a lot of love. Ashley Blaker has six children, three of whom have a SEN diagnosis. Between endless meetings, countless therapists, public humiliations, failed playdates, surreal monologues and occasional violence, it’s certainly not what anyone would call a ‘normal’ household—but would he want it any other way?

Seven Summers

Surrey County Cricket Club have teamed up with Fairfield Books to publish Seven Summers, a new book by Surrey CCC historian Michael Burns (1976 PPE). Bedser, Laker, Lock, May, Barrington—these cricketers are all England greats. And in the 1950s, they all happened to be playing for Surrey County Cricket Club in what was the greatest county cricket side of all time. Led for much of the time by the indefatigable Stuart Surridge, Surrey defeated all comers, winning seven consecutive County Championship titles between 1952 and 1958.

Follow the Money

Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) Paul Johnson (1985 PPE) uses his expert knowledge to decode Britain’s public finances through a forensic examination of the £1 trillion it now costs to run the United Kingdom's economy. The book provides an explanation of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change.

Holloway

In this thrilling dystopia, Rosemin Najmudin (1990 PGCE Chemistry) explores the theme of the collective suffering of women wrought by inequality and injustice. Holloway, a category A prison, was made to house murderers and criminals but instead, through injustice and corruption, women of petty crime were to be abused by the laws and society one had hoped were there to protect them rather than punish them. Along the way, these remarkable women form deep friendships, and love and care for each other, despite being thrown into a place of fear and intimidation.

A Home for all Seasons

After Urbanite Gavin Plumley (1999 Music) met his rural husband, Alastair, they decide to buy a three-storey building in Pembridge, Herefordshire: Stepps House. Said to be from the 1800s, the age of the house is up for dispute. Gavin traces Stepps House through various hands and eras and sees emerge the picture of a past that resonates powerfully with our present. A Home for All Seasons is a hybrid work of domestic history and European art, of memoir and landscape, A Home for All Seasons is both grand in its sweep and intimate in its account of life on the edge of England.

Healing Social Divisions

In this book, Barry Spivack (1973 PPE) explores evidences for a radically new, non-ideological and effective consciousness-based approach for transforming our societies though good governance. Using peer reviewed-research, this book is an examination of our self-concept, freeing us from our biases of reductionism that impede the development of morality in public life, in turn examining evidence that concludes it is possible to neutralise stress in the collective consciousness of a society, promoting life, liberty, happiness, the healing of social divisions and a platform for good governance.

Three Score Years... But Then?

Eight years ago, Peter Udell (1959 History) finished his first novel: Just Now and Then. Now he has finished his second: Three Score Years... But Then? The novel is about a couple who celebrate their retirement by going on a pilgrimage—walking along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. In their month on the Camino, their relationship changes slowly but surely. By the end, it has changed in ways neither of them could ever have imagined.

The Butcher, the Tailor, the Picture-frame Maker…

Gareth Winrow (1978 Modern History) of Middle Way, Summertown in Oxford writes an alternative history of his local Oxford suburb using references, archival sources, and interviews to give a voice to the living relatives of people historically connected with the land and property of the once artisans’ village of Summertown. Suspicious activity ensues: a newlywed woman from a God-fearing family, convicted for murdering her housemaid, is pardoned from execution at Oxford Castle at the last minute by King George II; a butcher suddenly disappears and changes his identity after the tragic death of his young wife; a picture-frame maker from humble origins becomes ‘the richest man in Oxford’ and is at ease socialising with the luminaries of the Victorian art world; and a lovestruck local member of parliament with a serious gambling addiction dies in suspicious circumstances.