Mervyn Morris attended Oxford from 1958 to 1961 and "loved it".

"I worked harder, academically, than I had before. The system works that way. The tutorial system meant that you were writing an essay once a week. You would read your essay aloud to your tutor, or one other tutor or two. They would make comments, then decide on what you should the following week," he said. It may sound rather informal, but Morris says until one goes through the process and comes up short because they are not prepared, they won't realise how embarrassing it can be.

extensive reading

So Morris had to do a lot of reading for school and read other books for pleasure. He would read West Indian books as they came out and was able to invite writers to Oxford. "In England, one really read with great pleasure. Samuel Selvon, in particular. Ever so often, you get the feeling that the new generation does not pay enough attention to Selvon's greatness," Morris said, naming The Lonely Londoners among the outstanding novels. "Part of what we enjoyed were the short stories too," Morris said.

book of poetry

"I think the first book of poetry, apart from light verse I bought, just because my attention was drawn to it, was in a bookstore at Oxford," Morris said. It was by a Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas, Morris said it was "very concise, disciplined stuff". He also read "short poems that were worth paying attention to" by Robert Graves.

Larkin probably spanned Munro and Oxford and there was D.J. Enright. A lot of poets that we were reading in magazines and sometimes books in that period were the movement poets," Morris said. Included in the group were Kingsley Amis, Elizabeth Jennings and Robert Conquest. "They were reacting to people like Dylan Thomas," Morris said, his voice rising in an example of that more extravagant style.

Then from Larkin he quotes the stark, "nothing like anything happens anywhere", following with the Donald Davie assessment that a neutral tone is nowadays preferred.

- Mel Cooke