Philip Purser experiences wartime Cambridge
“… By 1943, as I shamefully put into the mouth of a character in one of my own novels, the town was more like Sodom and Gomorrah on Saturday night, except that every night was Saturday Night.”Stephen Bann brings the avant garde to King’s
“… My role as custodian of the Loan Picture Library involved me in one minor embarrassment, and several exciting opportunities. The embarrassment came on the occasion when borrowers were late in returning their pictures, and left them against the locked door of the store, which happened to be just next to the access to E.M. Forster’s bedroom on A staircase. I still have the polite little message on a white card to which I immediately responded: ‘Art now blocks my bedroom door, and to anyone who could divert it I should begrateful’. The opportunities were for the purchase of more pictures to be added to the stock. Francis took the enlightened view that, as I did all the administration, I should also select any new works that might be bought from the receipts.”
James Cox’s first scoop in King’s
“… It was King’s which gave me my first – very-mini – scoop and proved there was money in this game. There was for some reason a walk-out – in effect, a strike – in Hall one evening … As the protesting diners milled about the court, I bumped into a fellow who turned out to be the East Anglia staff man for the Daily Express. With a chutzpah that now surprises me … I told him of my connection with the University newspaper, offered to tell him the full story and, with even more breath-taking impudence, asked if there was a fee. He duly printed his paragraph, I received my two guineas – in those days newspapers always paid tip-offs in guineas – and formed a bond with the Expressman which lasted throughout my University career, to the profit of both of us …”
Martin Bell becomes less insufferable
“… I was an insufferable young man. But King’s was used to insufferable young men, and no doubt in due course insufferable young women, as I suspect that it still is … There was something about its composure that made you think outside yourself …”
Alan Macfarlane and the tribesmen of King’s
“… There are certain distinct similarities between King’s and the tribal worlds described by Meyer Fortes, Edmund Leach, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Caroline Humphrey and the other distinguished anthropology Fellows of King’s … It is a big College and has no army or police force. The ‘College Officers’, Provost, Vice-Provost, Bursar and Dean have little formal power. They can only cajole, encourage, arbitrate and mediate …”
Charles Saumarez Smith tries not to go mad in King’s
“… the King’s that I found in 1972 was a massive disillusionment. It was bound to be. It was not an Edwardian moral universe, but a modern college … I found myself in a claustrophobic room in the then relatively new building designed by Fello Atkinson in the space between Kings and Cat’s for the conference trade: studiously anonymous, the doors had been painted bright orange and muck green to prevent its inhabitants going mad. I took one look at the college bar and retreated to eat my meals in Shades, a subterranean wine bar on the other side of King’s Parade …”
