Student doodles reveal 1950s college life
06 Oct 08
Exeter College, Oxford, has published a book of undergraduates’ doodlings and comments from the 1950s.
The ‘Exeter College JCR Suggestion Book’ contains a series of witty dialogues and drawings by Exonians, including writer and priest Brian Brindley, television writer and director Ned Sherrin, and TV presenter and broadcaster Russell Harty. It offers a vivid insight into undergraduate life in the 1950s at one of Oxford University’s colleges.
The Junior Common Room (JCR) Suggestion Book exists for undergraduates to write comments about aspects of college life for the attention of fellow students, and in particular the annually elected JCR President.
The late 1950s has become known as the ‘golden age’ of the book, as the number and content of suggestions expanded greatly, especially with the addition of drawings and cartoons.
The publication features a foreword by Alan Bennett, who was an undergraduate at Exeter in the 50s and himself made contributions to the book.
Frances Cairncross, Rector of Exeter CollegeThis book is a work of both literary genius and scurrilous schoolboy humour.
Contributions vary widely. 'This is the first time that I have looked at this book for over twelve months,' writes Christopher Bryant on one page, 'and five minutes’ perusal has been sufficient to convince me that most people here start off with the enormous advantage of having nothing to say and are consequently able to devote all their energies to saying it.'
On another page Ned Sherrin contributes some verse:
To Pun
Is fun,
But Spring’s
A Thing
That has been slightly overdone.
Elsewhere Alan Bennett writes in a parody of sentimental poet Patience Strong:
Marcel Proust had a very poor figure
He hadn’t the chest for sexual rigour.
He lay with Albertine tout nu;
‘Ce n‘est seulement le temps qu’il a perdu’.
Old Members John Speirs (1956) and John Leighfield (1958) compiled the book at the suggestion of former Rector Marilyn Butler. The book can be bought through Exeter College Development Office, and is currently available at Blackwell Bookshop on Broad Street.
The Rector of Exeter College, Frances Cairncross, said: ‘This book is a work of both literary genius and scurrilous schoolboy humour. Exeter is proud of the talents of its students, and immensely grateful to the Old Members who have brought this project to fruition.’
A cartoon of Alan Bennett after he got a first in his History BA finals and returned to the college the next academic year to pursue graduate studies.
