What an absolutely amazing review to get! ☺️ I’m honestly enjoying my job so much this summer, getting to spend my time with so many interesting people from around the world (like this lovely family) and enthuse about history and literature and architecture and Oxford in all its glorious weirdness. Though I feel I should clarify I do not actually have two Masters’ degrees - just the one… 🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓 I’m an award-winning Oxford Green Badge tour guide. Message me to book a tour - link to my website in bio. #oxford #oxfordshire #visitoxford #oxfordtour #discoveroxford #oxfordguide #oxfordtourguide #experienceoxford #britainsbestguides

An incredible treat to be right at the front for a discussion between @philippullmanofficial and Kristen Poole, author of a new book ‘Philip Pullman and the Historical Imagination’. Such an astonishingly rich and wide-ranging conversation, taking in poetry (it’s about sound and you should *always* read it out loud), influences (from Milton to the Magnificent Seven), research styles (how do polar bears’ claws work, actually?), the purity of invention vs ‘stealing’ (Pullman is a proud thief), the most interesting character in any book (the narrator). The man can weave magic just *talking* about storytelling. At one point he quoted Paradise Lost and genuinely brought a tear to my eye. No spoilers forthcoming for The Rose Field, the final book in the Book of Dust trilogy coming out in October, other than ‘field’ has a double-meaning (scientific, not just agricultural) and that Lyra is on a path from disillusionment back to inspiration… 😅 Thank you @blackwelloxford for another incredible event. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 I’m an award-winning Oxford Green Badge tour guide. Message me to book a tour - link to my website in bio. #oxford #oxfordshire #literaryoxford #philippullman #bookofdust #therosefield #hisdarkmaterials #blackwellsbookshop #visitoxford #oxfordtour #discoveroxford #oxfordguide #oxfordtourguide #experienceoxford #britainsbestguides

Last week our professional body, the @oxford_guild_of_tour_guides, met Oxford’s brand new Lord Mayor @oxfordlordmayor in her parlour for tea! She is our patron, and I had the great honour of being asked to do a speech to welcome her into her role. I decided to look back through all the past mayors of Oxford to see what lessons she might learn or inspiration she might be able to draw. Given the first mayor was Laurence Kepeharm in 1205 there were a lot to choose from! I covered incidents of town vs gown argy-bargy, complicated encounters with monarchs, one mayor who got drunk, tripped and stabbed himself in the neck, and Oxford’s first female mayor who was apparently on a mission to ban fun. But I particularly enjoyed talking about Oxford’s most inspiring mayor (so far!), Olive Gibbs, while standing next to her photograph on the wall, knowing this had been her office. Thank you Lord Mayor for giving us such a warm welcome. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 I’m an award-winning Oxford Green Badge tour guide. Message me to book a tour - link to my website in bio. #oxford #lordmayor #oxfordlordmayor #oxfordtownhall #oxfordshire #visitoxford #oxfordtour #discoveroxford #oxfordguide #oxfordtourguide #experienceoxford #britainsbestguides

Beating the bounds in Oxford today! A fabulous tradition dating back to medieval times involving a vicar up a ladder, a rare chance to draw on All Souls Library floor, delicious cherry cake in All Souls Hall, sweets being flung out the window into Univ’s Master’s garden and the traditional Cornetto in Oriel to end with. Thanks to @universitychurchoxford and the colleges for keeping this wonderful custom alive and trusting me to wield a big stick and hit ancient buildings with it 🙏

Today I did my regular Literary Oxford tour for the @bodleianlibraries, so it felt fitting to drop into Holywell Cemetery and pay my respects to Kenneth Grahame on my way home. Grahame is the only author named on the university’s major donors board. He never got to study at the university as his uncle refused to pay for it - something he regretted for the rest of his life. So he very generously bequeathed all the royalties from his works - including The Wind in the Willows - to ‘the University of Oxford for the benefit of the Bodleian Library’. He’s buried in this tranquil graveyard, along with his only son Alastair who tragically died whilst studying at Oxford. It’s a beautiful resting place, very close to the centre of town but tucked away so that most people don’t know it’s there. Lots of other Oxford luminaries are also buried there, including Inklings Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. 🌳🪦🌳🪦🌳🪦🌳🪦🌳🪦🌳 I’m an award-winning Oxford Green Badge tour guide. Message me to book a tour - link to my website in bio. #oxford #holywellcemetery #kennethgrahame #windinthewillows #literaryoxford #oxfordshire #visitoxford #oxfordtour #discoveroxford #oxfordguide #oxfordtourguide #experienceoxford #britainsbestguides

The best views in Oxford? Probably. ☀️🏛️ Popped up the tallest of the dreaming spires for this magnificent vista. Though I think I spent more time enjoying close-up encounters with the gargoyles and grotesques than looking down at the actual city, glorious as it is! I strongly recommend paying £6 and climbing the 127 steps of the @universitychurchoxford tower, especially when the sun is shining ☀️🏛️☀️🏛️☀️🏛️☀️🏛️☀️🏛️☀️🏛️☀️🏛️ I’m an award-winning Oxford Green Badge tour guide. Message me to book a tour - link to my website in bio. #oxford #universitychurch #universitychurchofstmarythevirgin #oxforduniversity #oxfordshire #visitoxford #oxfordtour #discoveroxford #oxfordguide #oxfordtourguide #experienceoxford #britainsbestguides