All Souls in My Time is really a love story. A. L. Rowse reveals his deep love for the College, which he served well by introducing some sensible reforms and wise innovations. He was able to combine this love with another: a deep and pulsating love for England's history and literature.
In All Souls in My Time, A. L. Rowse recalls his life in this college without undergraduates, a college that was devoted to scholarship, to power, and to good fellowship. He achieved that most coveted of Oxford prizes, an All Souls fellowship, in the 1920s. He never forgets his own humble origins in Cornwall and he did not use All Souls as a place to pass a comfortable retirement. He used the freedom it gave to write history that could be read by both experts and ordinary folk. In this book he carries on that tradition. A few remarks such as, |one Gibbs who sat on the chair for fifteen years and did nothing at all' can only be enjoyed by those with knowledge of Oxford. However, almost all of the book can be relished by those who want an enjoyable insight into the politics and history of Britain in this century.
Book Review Excerpt by Richard Mullen
April 1, 1994
All Souls in My Time is really a love story. A. L. Rowse reveals his deep love for the College, which he served well by introducing some sensible reforms and wise innovations. He was able to combine this love with another: a deep and pulsating love for England's history and literature.
In All Souls in My Time, A. L. Rowse recalls his life in this college without undergraduates, a college that was devoted to scholarship, to power, and to good fellowship. He achieved that most coveted of Oxford prizes, an All Souls fellowship, in the 1920s. He never forgets his own humble origins in Cornwall and he did not use All Souls as a place to pass a comfortable retirement. He used the freedom it gave to write history that could be read by both experts and ordinary folk. In this book he carries on that tradition. A few remarks such as, |one Gibbs who sat on the chair for fifteen years and did nothing at all' can only be enjoyed by those with knowledge of Oxford. However, almost all of the book can be relished by those who want an enjoyable insight into the politics and history of Britain in this century.
Book Review Excerpt by Richard Mullen
April 1, 1994