Cambridge Alumni MagazineIssue 68 Lent 2013

In this issue:

Secret CambridgeOxbridge, Camford

NeighboursMan vs robot

Hamilton Kerr

CAM 68 01

CAM is published three timesa year, in the Lent, Easter andMichaelmas terms and is sent free to Cambridge alumni. It is available to non-alumni on subscription. For furtherinformation contact the AlumniRelations Office.

The opinions expressed in CAMare those of the contributors and not necessarily those of theUniversity of Cambridge.

EditorMira Katbamna

Managing EditorMorven Knowles

Design and Art DirectionSmithsmithltd.co.uk

PrintPindar

PublisherThe University of CambridgeDevelopment Office1 QuaysideBridge StreetCambridge CB5 8ABTel +44 (0)1223 332288

Editorial enquiriesTel +44 (0)1223 760149cameditor@alumni.cam.ac.uk

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Services offered by advertisersare not specifically endorsed by the editor or the University of Cambridge. The publisherreserves the right to decline orwithdraw advertisements.

Copyright © 2013The University of Cambridge.

Cover: Christine Slottved Kimbriel restoring “Christian Charity” by Luca Giordano (private collection) at theHamilton Kerr Institute.Photograph by Marcus Ginns.

Regulars

Letters 02Don’s diary 03Update 04Diary 08My room, your room 10

The best... 11Secret Cambridge 12

University matters 41My Cambridge 42Reading list 44Cambridgesoundtrack 45

A sporting life 47Prize crossword 48

CAM /68CAMCambridge Alumni MagazineIssue 68 Lent Term2013

Contents

Features

Good neighbours 14Whether you live in a street or on a college staircase, good relations with the neighbours are essential. Dr Emily Cockayne explores an intriguing history.

Oxbridge(andCamford) 18Loved by newspaper columnists and politicians alike, William Ham Bevan uncovers the secret history of Oxbridge.

Man vs robot 22Professor Huw Price argues that artificial intelligence poses a real and existential threat.

Scratching the surface 26The Hamilton Kerr Institute is one of the world’sleading centres for the conservation of easel paintings.Becky Allen takes a tour.

A physician’s library 32The first medical scrolls were used by priests and kings; now doctors – and patients – go online. Lucy Jolin examines the changing role of the medic’s textbook.

Lara Harwood

Extracurricular

This publication containspaper manufactured by Chain-of-Custody certifiedsuppliers operating withininternationally recognisedenvironmental standards in order to ensure sustainablesourcing and production.

A detail fromSt. John’s,Cambridge (by Fred Taylor)is used onpage19.

47

14

Marcus G

innsMarcus G

inns

26

© NRM / S

cience & Society P

icture Library.

02 CAM 68

Welcome to the Lent edition of CAM.No one forgets their College

neighbours. Whether they end up lifelongfriends or just feature in an anecdote about a missingpiece of cheddar, neighbours form the heart ofstudent life (K Block, Harvey Court, 1995 – Iremember you all with fondness). So it is perhaps no surprise that when historian Emily Cockaynestarted to investigate the history of neighbourlinessin Cambridge, she hit on such a rich seam. You canread about why corridor neighbours were asessential in 1800 as they are today on page 14.

Could undergraduates of the future have robotsfor neighbours? It’s hard to imagine, but Huw Price,the new Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy,says that when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) we underestimate technology at our peril. On page 22, he discusses the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and why the implications of AIneed to be carefully considered.

Did you attend Oxbridge? I can’t say I knowanyone who did, yet the word appears withremarkable regularity. On page 18, CAM takes a long, hard look at the etymology of the word, andwhy it holds such power.

Finally, on page 26 we visit the Hamilton KerrInstitute – a magical place where a painting can be restored, recovered or even transformed throughscholarship and skill into an entirely different work of art.

Mira Katbamna(Caius 1995)

Artificial intelligence

EDITOR’S LETTER Your letters

The name gameIf Herschel, the discoverer ofUranus, wanted to call it“George” because he “needed ajob and the King would have lovedto have had a planet named afterhim”, then good for him. Unlikemany of his rival astronomers, hehad no private income and spentthe daylight hours playing andteaching music, regularly givingeight hour-long lessons a day.Luckily, King George III agreedand appointed him the King’sPersonal Astronomer on a salaryof £200 per annum, remarkingthat “Herschel should not sacrificehis valuable time to crotchets and quavers”.Adrian Bradbury (Churchill 1985)

I am reminded of a story that Dr Peter Armitt, a colleague ofmine at The Glasgow Academy,used to tell his pupils concerningSir William Ramsay, a formerpupil of the school and 1904Nobel Laureate in Chemistryfollowing his work on the NobleGases. Peter’s story suggests thatSir William named krypton as itwas “hidden”, xenon as it was“foreign” or “strange”, neon as it was “new” but that he namedargon after the pupils at his oldschool. Peter’s pupils were quite

chuffed by this until theydiscovered that argon translates as lazy!David Comins (Downing 1971)

Of man bornAs a Cambridge alumnus and a transgender man, I would like tothank you for including such aninsightful and well-written articleabout Dr Jens Scherpe’s research.One of the most striking thingsI’ve been confronted by during myown gender transition has been the sheer scope and depth of igno-rance that exists within Britishsociety about both trans peoplespecifically and issues of gender ingeneral.

It is, then, vitally important that we foster greater knowledgeand understanding of these issues. I welcome this article with openarms and heartily applaud bothDr Scherpe and CAM magazinefor taking such a positive steptowards opening alumni minds.Felix Clarke (Jesus 1996)

Just to let you know we’re payingattention at the back: are therereally 700,000,000 peopleworldwide affected by genderissues? If that is so, I am surprised;and if they are 0.1% of thepopulation, the Earth is moredensely populated than I hadimagined. Should I be allowed to marry my deceased brother’ssister? Well, since she would be my sister as well, I think the answer is that people wouldprobably disapprove.Adrian Williams(Peterhouse 1957)

With shame, we must admit toboth these errors – as you rightlypoint out, we should have printed“70 million” and “brother’s wife”.But we’re very glad indeed thatyou’re paying attention – Editor.

CAM 68 03

Don’sDiary

I spent much of Michaelmas Term pondering thesignificance of a major anniversary. Forty yearsago, in the autumn of 1972, three male Colleges –King’s, Churchill and Clare – admitted femaleundergraduates for the first time, and my own College, Lucy Cavendish, started to takeundergraduates.

In some ways, 1972 marks the beginning ofwomen moving into all areas of University life, a change made possible by the work that hadalready been done at Girton, Newnham and whatwas then New Hall. And so it was a great honourto be invited, along with colleagues and many ofthe 1972 alumnae, to celebrate the contributionwomen have made to Cambridge at a gala eventcomprising a tea at Clare, a concert in King’sCollege Chapel and a dinner.

A particular highlight for me was hearing thestories of alumnae from those years, many ofwhom have gone on to achieve great success intheir careers. The composer Judith Weir (King’s1973) and the cookery writer Tamasin Day-Lewis(King’s 1973) were among those first under-graduates. Fittingly, both contributed to thecelebrations, with a performance of Weir’s piecelittle tree and a gala dinner menu by Day-Lewis(cleverly designed to remind diners of the 1970s).

Speaking after dinner, the Vice-ChancellorProfessor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz reminded us that,despite the huge progress made since 1972, workstill needs to be done. Even today, only 26.8% of academic staff and 15.6% of professors at Cambridge are women – a sobering thought.

The desire to increase the number of femalestudents and scholars at Cambridge, as well as theresources available to them, helped spur thefounding of Lucy Cavendish, where I am proud toserve as a director of studies. It is the only maturewomen’s College in the country and our under-graduates range in age from 21 to over 60.

In the sociology supervisions I lead, studentsoften draw upon their previous experiencesworking in business, government, social servicesand many other fields as we discuss the relevance of classic texts. Such experiences help inform ourfascinating debates; indeed, my biggest challengeso far has been ending supervisions on time, as thestudents and I rarely want to end our discussions!

It takes great determination to apply touniversity as a mature student. As I have got toknow my students and heard about their variedand sometimes challenging paths to Cambridge,my admiration for them and for my College has

only grown. With their determination, I have no doubt they will go on to achievements no lessbrilliant than those of the 1972 alumnae whom I met at the gala event. It’s a teaching cliché, but I have learned almost as much from my students as they have learned from me.

Happily, Lucy Cavendish’s fellows are just asdiverse as its student body. One of the greatpleasures of life at all the University’s Colleges isthe opportunity to meet people outside of yourown discipline. I met Emanuela Orlando, the IsaacNewton-Dorothy Emmet Research Fellow inEnvironmental Law – an area as far from PPS as you could imagine – when we were assigned ashared College office. Together we are embarkingon an interdisciplinary research project, one of thefirst to bring together law and criminology in theenvironmental field, investigating the preventionof environmental crimes.

Environmental crimes include trade inendangered species, illegal dumping of waste and illegal logging, which cost societies around the world billions each year, according to UnitedNations calculations. In September 2012,Emanuela and I organised a conference, sponsoredby The Modern Law Review, to bring togetherlegal scholars and criminologists as well as prac-titioners from the European Commission, the UKEnvironment Agency and NGOs.

The conference at Lucy Cavendish highlightedclear ways in which criminological research couldcontribute to the design of environmental law and also provided a launching pad for the futureinterdisciplinary research that is urgently neededin this area.

We hope this work will impact on howenvironmental crimes are prosecuted, but it hasalso had a very positive impact on our ownindividual research – research we might not have been able to pursue had it not been for the determination of the women who have gonebefore us. We are very grateful to the women of 1972, and of Girton, Newnham and New Hall,who helped open the doors to the opportunitiesthat are now available to us. We hope and expect that their legacy will endure, and that in the coming decades women will achieve evergreater levels of participation in all aspects ofUniversity life.

A second 1972 event will take place at Churchill and Lucy Cavendish on 20 April 2013. For more information,please visit 1972cambridge.co.uk.

Hot metalWhat a great article on the pre-digitalera of news publishing. Oh, how ittook me back. I came up in 1966 andjoined Varsity as a photographer. I enjoyed it so much I nearly failed my Part I. There was also a seriousside. One night, one of the reporters and I drove to a disused airfield inHertfordshire where families werebeing housed by the local authority in virtually derelict barracks. That story was sent to one of thenationals and made a big splash. It came at about the same time as thebroadcast of Cathy Come Home and I like to think we played a smallpart in the change in social attitudesto homelessness that followed.Howard Gannaway (King’s 1966)

I was fascinated to read Hot Metal,which revived many memories. I joined Varsity in 1966 as a photog-rapher and my main recollection is of the darkroom. The whole roomstank of spent photographic hypo, no doubt spilt on the wooden floor. Idoubt that the smell has gone yet, andpity the present occupier of the room!Paul Ambler (Clare 1965)

The printers at Bury St Edmundstreated Varsity staff politely butfirmly. On 3 November 1962 we ledwith the story that, for the third timethat year, a Cambridge scientist hadwon a Nobel Prize. I checked thefinished front page and we left. Thatnight, the papers arrived and we saw that the father of the chapel hadcorrected the typo in the headline. In gothic bold type it read “THREENOBLE SCIENTISTS”. Colin Morris (Trinity 1961)

It was slightly ironic that one of thefirst CAM articles I read, havingdownloaded the CAM Reader Appfor my iPad, was entitled Hot Metal!Keep up the good work.Dr Tony Bell (Wolfson 1995)

We are always delighted to receive your emails and letters.

Email your letters to:cameditor@alumni.cam.ac.uk

Write to us at: CAM, Cambridge AlumniRelations Office, 1 Quayside, Bridge Street,Cambridge, CB5 8AB.

Please mark your letter ‘for publication’. You can read more CAM letters atalumni.cam.ac.uk/cam.Letters may be edited for length.

Dr Tiffany Bergin is the Sutasoma Research Fellow and Director of Studies for Politics, Psychology and Sociology at Lucy Cavendish

04 CAM 68

UPDATELENT TERM

Ten leading poets have taken upresidencies in the University as part of Thresholds, a project

curated by Carol Ann Duffy, the PoetLaureate. The writers are based inmuseums, galleries and collectionsthroughout the University including the Fitzwilliam, the Botanic Garden andKettle’s Yard.

During their spring residency, thepoets will meet with researchers andstaff, and draw inspiration from thecollections – which include artefacts suchas Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s farewellletter to his wife at the Polar Museumand Isaac Newton’s copy of the PrincipiaMathematica at the University Library.

The poets taking part are SeanBorodale, Gillian Clarke, ImtiazDharker, Ann Gray, Matthew Hollis,Jackie Kay, Daljit Nagra, Don Paterson,Jo Shapcott and Owen Sheers. Each has been commissioned to write a poem

inspired by the materials and exhibits at their disposal.

Thresholds also aims to bring in youngpeople from areas of low cultural engage-ment to explore the University collectionsand develop their writing skills. Thepoets will work with around 150 pupilsat nearby schools, and the initiative is supported by Arts Council England,Cambridge City Council and Cambridge-shire County Council in partnership withthe University.

Duffy said: “This is a stunning level of commitment to poetry and poets.These 10 residencies will create a uniquecollaboration of poets, creating a meetingof minds and disciplines and providing a catalyst for ideas. They will berenaissance poets for Cambridge in thetruest sense. This really is an unprece-dented initiative, and very exciting foreveryone involved – myself, the poets and the University.”

WOMEN’S EDUCATION

A year to celebrate

Forty years ago, women’s education at Cambridgetook a leap forward. Female undergraduates wereadmitted for the first time to Clare, King’s, Churchilland Lucy Cavendish, extending the path firstpioneered by female students 100 years earlier atGirton (1869) Newnham (1871) and New Hall(1954), now Murray Edwards. This academic year,the anniversary is being marked with a series ofspecial events.

The first celebration took place on 17 November,with a tea at Clare College and a concert and galadinner at King’s. More than 400 members of all fourColleges were welcomed back to Cambridge for theevent, and were addressed by the Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said: “I amdelighted to have this opportunity to celebrate notonly the landmark year of 1972, but also thiscollaboration between four very different Collegeswhich has brought tremendous dividends: anexample of Collegiate Cambridge at its best.”

A second event – the Conversation – will takeplace at Churchill and Lucy Cavendish on 20 April.

1972cambridge.co.uk

Poets in residenceMUSEUMS

1 972

Carol Ann Duffy

UPDATELENT TERM

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can now download the free CAM Reader App from Apple’s App Store – giving access to all content fromrecent editions of the magazine on your device.You can bookmark your current page, and sendpages to a printer if you prefer to read them onpaper – a boon for the crossword!

Get the CAM Reader app from the iOS AppStore or via iTunes. An iPhone, iPod touch or iPadwith iOS 4.0 or later is required.

ART

Fitzwilliam Museum saves Poussin for nation

CAM 68 05

RESEARCHGraphene Centre

Graphene is a true wonder material: a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that’s exceptionally strong,lightweight and flexible and which can function as a transparent electrical conductor. A new researchcentre at Cambridge is now aiming to harness itspotential, taking it from the laboratory to a range of real-life applications including storage batteriesand wearable electronics.

Funded by a £12m government grant, theCambridge Graphene Centre will first look intoways of producing the material on an industrialscale. Its director, Professor Andrea Ferrari, said:“We are targeting applications and manufacturingprocesses. These new materials could bring a newdimension to future technologies, creating faster,thinner, stronger and more flexible broadbanddevices.”

Plant SciencesDr Beverley Glover has been named directorof the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.She will take up the post, and the associatedchair in Plant Systematics and Evolution, inJuly. Dr Ottoline Leyser has been appointedDirector of the Sainsbury Laboratory,established in 2011 to investigate theregulatory systems underlying plant growthand development.

New Year HonoursThree Cambridge academics were named in the New Year Honours list. Professor Frank Kelly, Master of Christ’s College, wasappointed CBE for services to mathematicalsciences. Professor Mary Beard of NewnhamCollege was awarded an OBE for services to Classical scholarship, and Professor Janet Todd, President of Lucy CavendishCollege, received the same award for services to higher education and literaryscholarship.

The Fitzwilliam Museum hassucceeded in its bid to save a masterpiece by Nicolas Poussin

for the nation. Extreme Unction, painted around

1638, was made available to theMuseum for just under £3.9m – far less

than its market value of £14m – thanksto the Government’s Acceptance-in-LieuScheme. The painting, one of a seriesdepicting the sacraments of the CatholicChurch, is to be displayed as part of the museum’s permanent collection.

David Scrase, the Fitzwilliam’s ActingDirector, said: “We are extremelygrateful to the thousands of individualsand the many charities and organisationsthat have given so generously to thiscampaign. Now this masterpiece will be available to all, transforming ourexisting collections at the Fitzwilliam.”

fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Extreme Unction, 1638-1640 © Fitzwilliam Museum, C

ambridge

06 CAM 67

CAM 68 07

New Heads of House

Rowan Williams, Lord Williams of Oystermouth, has been installed as Master of Magdalene, andProfessor Dame Carol Black has taken office as Principal of Newnham. Homerton has electedProfessor Geoffrey Ward as its next Principal,Downing has elected Professor GeoffreyGrimmett as the next Master and MichaelProctor is Provost-elect of King’s. All three willtake up their posts in October.

University Enterprise Fund

Last year, alumni and friends played a vital role in turning Cambridge innovation intocommercial success, through the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund. Now there’s a second chance to support new companiesharnessing University research – and there aregenerous tax incentives to get involved.

The new fund, classed as a Seed EnterpriseInvestment Scheme (SEIS) and EnterpriseInvestment Scheme (EIS), aims to raise £1m inthe 2013-14 tax year.

“The response from alumni last year wasoutstanding,” said Dr Anne Dobrée, Head ofSeed Funds at Cambridge Enterprise.“Programmes such as this enable youngcompanies to grow and contribute to thecontinued success of the Cambridge Cluster.”

enterprise.cam.ac.uk

New Groups

Wherever you are in the world, local alumnigroups offer the chance to network, socialiseand make new friends. Among the newestadditions are three groups that welcomegraduates of both Oxford and Cambridge.

In Malta, you can email Dr Edward Dalmas(Wolfson 2007), edward.m.dalmas@gmail.com,and in Peru contact Ana Maria Huaita Alfaro(Wolfson 2009), amhuaita@gmail.com. Tri Bui(Downing 2003) runs the new group in Vietnam – contact him at buitri84@gmail.com.

There’s also a new shared-interest group, the Cambridge Alumni Energy Society. Contact Antoine Huard (Queens’ 2010) atantoine.huard@cantab.net.

alumni.cam.ac.uk/groups

CAMCard discount at HeffersThe Heffers’ Cambridge alumnidiscount is 15% – a perfect incentiveto go on a book splurge. Shop inperson with your CAMCard at TrinityStreet or online at alumni.cam.ac.uk/benefits/camcard/bookshops.

UPDATELENT TERM

CAROE: contact@alumni.cam.ac.uk

T: +44 (0)1223 332288W: alumni.cam.ac.uk

The Cambridge Alumni TravelProgramme offers a unique chanceto see the world’s wonders

accompanied by trip scholars who are topexperts in their field.

Among this summer’s destinations arethe Arctic island of Spitsbergen in thecompany of Professor Julian Dowdeswell,Director of the Scott Polar ResearchInstitute, and a trip to Herculaneum joinedby eminent classicist Professor AndrewWallace-Hadrill. Other upcoming tripsinclude the Galapagos Islands, Indonesia,the Himalayas and Rome. It’s a greatopportunity to meet like-minded alumniof Cambridge (and Oxford) and tosupport the University, which receives partof the revenue from each booking.

Discover the world with Cambridge

TRAVEL PROGRAMME

Request a brochure by emailingcontact@alumni.cam.ac.uk or visitalumni.cam.ac.uk/travel

08 CAM 68

DIARYLENT TERM

Join us in one of the most dynamic places on earth to investigate two of thekey issues facing governments acrossthe globe: public health and finance.

To discuss these key challenges,Cambridge experts, Professor MartinDaunton, Dr Simon Taylor, ProfessorDame Carol Black and Dr JenniferBarneswill join the Vice-ChancellorProfessor Sir Leszek Borysiewiczto discuss history and the financialcrisis, what the future holds for globalfinance and what lessons can be learntfrom the Singaporean healthcaresystem.

The afternoon academic programmewill be followed by an evening receptionhosted by the Cambridge Society of Singapore, giving you the chance to debate and discuss the points raisedduring the day with fellow alumni.

The conference will take place at theInterContinental Hotel, 80 Middle Road,Singapore, and tickets cost £50 orSGD 97.87. For more details and tobook, visit the website.

Events with the Vice-Chancellor will alsotake place in Melbourne, Australia on 12 April and in Hong Kong on 17 April.

alumni.cam.ac.uk/events

Global Cambridge: Singapore7 April 2013InterContinental Hotel, 80 Middle Road, Singapore.

CAM 68 09

Cambridge at the Hay Festival23 May – 2 June 2013

Cambridge is back by popular demand at the Hay Festivalthis May. As well as lectures from experts including Tim Minshall,Barbara Sahakian,Simon Blackburn and Tony Badger, there will be an opportunity to attend anexclusive event with speakers and alumni in Hay-on-Wye.The festival runs from 23 May to 2 June.alumni.cam.ac.uk/events

Quentin Blake:Drawn by Hand12 February – 12 MayCambridgeQuentin Blake is one of the best-known illustrators of hisgeneration. This exhibition at theFitzwilliam brings together workfrom the past 10 years, includingetchings, lithographs and bookillustrations. fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Henley Boat Races24 MarchHenley-on-ThamesFounded in 1975, the Henley Boat Races take place eachspring on the Thames. Join fellowenthusiasts to cheer on the Light Blues from the riverbank.cubc.org.uk

BNY Mellon Boat Race31 MarchLondonIt’s the big one: the 159th Boat Race. First raced in 1829,the Boat Race is one of the oldest sporting events in theworld. cubc.org.uk

Endellion String Quartet8 MayWest Road Concert HallCambridgeCelebrating its 21st season inresidence at the University, the Endellion’s final concert of the academic year will take place at the West Road ConcertHall. Music will include Haydn’sOpus 50 Prussian Quartet andBartók’s First Quartet. Booking is recommended. westroad.org

Varsity Cricket15 JuneLondonWhen Paddy Sadler leads theLight Blues into battle with the old enemy at Lord’s this summer,Cambridge will be going for a fourth successive one-dayvictory. Cambridge women willalso play on 15 June, taking onOxford at the Nursery Ground.Full details are available online,including travel and hospitalitypackages for students and alumni.lords.org

Save the date!Alumni Festival 201327–29 September

Festivals

CARO eventsE: events@alumni.cam.ac.ukT: +44 (0)1223 332288W: alumni.cam.ac.uk

Other events

DIARYLENT TERM

Lucinda R

ogers

Bo Lund

berg

10 CAM 68

We all gathered here to watch the Frost-Nixoninterviews because I had the only TV in the building,” remembers Robert Harris,

standing in the tranquil, light-filled surroundings ofRoom 6, 23 West Road. “I remember hanging out of thewindow with the aerial.”

The television was not, he hastens to add, a perk ofthe room. “I knew I wanted to be a journalist and at thetime, National Union of Journalist (NUJ) rules werevery strict. If you wanted to work in London, you hadto work on the Financial Times or at the BBC.

Otherwise, if you wanted to be a journalist, you hadto start in the provinces. I was born and bred inNottingham. I’d had my fill of the provinces, and I hadno interest in finance. So I rented a TV so I could seewhat was going on at the BBC.”

Sadly, those raucous gatherings (which involved, at various times, a future senior Conservative MP and a future top advertising executive) are no more, thanks to the TV room downstairs. “Though my friends did come back here for my birthday, which was reallynice,” says Rumbi Makanga, the room’s current

MY ROOM,YOUR ROOM

Robert Harris (Selwyn 1975) is the author ofPompeii, Enigma, and Fatherland. He has worked onBBC programmes such as Panorama and Newsnightand for newspapers such as the Sunday Times. Hisnovels have sold more than 10 million copies.

Rumbi Makanga is a second-year land economistwho, like Harris, is addicted to buying books. “I leaveall my books at home so I have to buy new books tofill up my bookcase. My mum visits and says, ‘You’vebeen buying books again!’ But I really can’t help it.”

Words Lucy JolinPhotographMarcus Ginns

ROOM 6, 23 WEST ROAD, SELWYN

“

CAM 68 11

It is a truth universally acknowledgedthat Cambridge students love books.Nowhere else have I heard people so vehemently defend their favouritebook or speak with such passionabout reading rooms. But when days buried in the pages of the latestreading list melt into weeks, even themost dedicated bibliophile can startto feel weary. And that’s when it’stime to visit the Haunted Bookshop.

Hidden just off King’s Parade anddwarfed by surrounding buildings,this unassuming shop is easy to bypass. Step inside and inhaledeeply, and you may just detect thearoma of sweet violets, the perfumeworn by the ghostly figure said toguard the stock at this most unusualof bookshops.

Be prepared: this is no Water-stones. Specialising in children’s and illustrated books, the shop wastaken over by its current owner in1994 and has remained unaltered fordecades. The minuscule space islined with floor-to-ceiling bookcasesthat spill their contents onto a fadedred carpet.

At the top of a narrow staircase isanother room of ramshackle shelves,with books heaped precariously and crammed into cardboard crates.Just visible among this haphazard

arrangement is an ornate mantel-piece, a reminder that the buildingwas once student accommodation.In the corner hangs a sign warningthieves that they will be – ratherunconventionally – castrated.

The best time to visit? Dusk. Then, as the light fails, a mysteriouswoman clad in white has beenspotted scaling the stairs. I like tothink she was a guest at an under-graduate party and had such a goodnight that she just can’t keep away.

But even in the daytime, the place has an unnerving atmosphere.In dark corners the temperatureseems to drop dramatically. Oddplaythings adorn the walls: a toyacrobat, a glow-in-the-dark skele-ton, a voodoo doll. But despite this,the bookshop is not a scary place.How could it be when childhoodcomforts such as Winnie-the-Pooh,Peter Rabbit and the Famous Fiveadorn its shelves?

And perhaps it is these lostdelights, rather than its ghoulishhistory, that make up the HauntedBookshop’s real pleasure. As inchildhood, I have lost whole after-noons wandering among its stacks. I invariably leave with some newcuriosity, and my love of books firmlyrestored.

occupant. “But we just don’t do drunk antics. I thinkRobert’s generation were far worse for that, whateverthe Daily Mail says!”

Her laptop sits on the bookshelf by the windowwhere Harris’s TV (“which would be a museum piecenow,” he says) was once positioned. There’s no need to risk her life hanging out of the window to make itwork, either. “Although we do complain that the Wi-Fiis slow and doesn’t cover everywhere,” she says with a grin.

“And that’s the biggest change – technology,” says Harris. “Our music was on enormous reel-to-reelmagnetic-tape recorders, with Elton John and CatStevens. I used to have to find a phone box to call myparents on a Sunday evening. But I think that gave usmore independence as students. You weren’t beinghassled by texts. You were more on your own.”

Being allocated one of the largest rooms wasn’t anaccident, says Harris, who read English and lived in “agarret room” on the second floor during his first year.“I was editing what was then called Stop Press [nowVarsity] when the allocations for second-year roomscame up. So I swung a line – I knew about this roomand I could say that I needed the space to hold editorialmeetings. I was here for two years. I loved the space,the big windows and the high ceiling.”

Makanga is originally from Zimbabwe and says shelikes to surround herself with things that remind her ofhome. “I have a little Zimbabwe table, with ornamentsthat I’ve picked up. I also have my jewellery out ondisplay. I like having it out as it cheers me up. It reminds me of formal events when you have to dressup, as it can get a bit depressing just working.”

Harris says he was rather less organised. “All Iremember having in the room was books – I still havethem all. A lot of people used to take books out of thelibrary but I liked to buy them. I used to make shelvesfor them out of planks and bricks.”

He and Makanga agree that what you have in yourroom doesn’t matter – it’s what you take away thatcounts. “Though I always leave my hangers,” saysMakanga. “When you come to university you neverhave enough.”

“There’s nothing that was in my room then that Ifeel I’d like to pass on,” says Harris. “Student roomsare temporary. You take everything with you, like a snail. And I don’t think you leave anything behind.” Nonetheless, Room 6 has nothing but good memoriesfor him. “I was the first in my family to go to univer-sity,” he says. “And because of that, I sensed thatcoming here was playing with the casino’s money, andthere was nothing to lose. Cambridge, for me, was thegateway to the world.”

Our music was on enormous reel-to-reel magnetic-tape recorders,with Elton John and Cat Stevens.

Henrietta Kelly is reading History of Art at Trinity Hall

Marcus G

inns

The best...bookshopinCambridge

Murdermostfoul

CAM 68 13

SECRET CAMBRIDGE Johnians had one of their own – Henry Moule – tothank for this innovation. Graduating in 1821, he wenton to become vicar of Fordington, Devon. Following the“Great Stink” of 1858, when the Thames seethed withsewage, he grew increasingly concerned about sanitationand disease.

In 1860, Moule patented the first mechanical earthcloset, thus preventing the dumping of waste directlyinto the river.

Sadly, the closets’ impact on the Cam seemed mini-mal. In the Cambridge Review of 1884, student andaspiring oarsman RC Lehmann wrote: “I visited the riverwith a crowd of other freshmen, enthusiastic like myself,and like me, arrayed in the fresh glory of the boatinguniform. To many of us, that first visit was also the last.Those who fell away declared they had not come toCambridge to spend their leisure time in helping to stirup an open sewer.”

The following year, Charles Taylor, Master of StJohn’s, received an angry note from alumnus WL Wilson:“I was at dear old St John’s yesterday, and was notmerely horrified, I was positively disgusted and madealmost sick when I looked through our beautiful coveredbridge into the river beneath... our Johnian drainage is a disgrace to the College.”

In 1897, St John’s replaced Moule’s invention withwater closets, a vast plumbing project that took 50 mensix months to complete. According to the work’s SewageDiary, kept by the college’s larger-than-life Junior Bursar, William Heitland, the refurbished Third Courtconveniences comprised bay wood seats over “Doulton’simproved open trough latrines closet in salt glazedstoneware” for undergraduates’ rears, and DoultonQueensware WCs with “polished mahogany hingedseats” for fellows.

But it was the construction of a pumping station onthe banks of the Cam in 1895 that had the greatestimpact on Cambridge’s sewerage. Powered by steamproduced by burning residents’ rubbish, it pumpedsewage through two miles of cast-iron pipes to Milton,where it was treated and used as manure.

Within a decade of its construction, Cambridge’sdeath rate fell by 15%, says local historian and formerstreet cleaner Allan Brigham. “When I stand on CastleHill and look over Cambridge, the most significant thingI see is the chimney of the pumping station. It’s a moresignificant memorial to 19th-century engineering and the spirit of social reform than any other building,” he explains.

But the darkest chapter in the history of St John’sThird Court latrines is the small part they played in a grisly College death. Recounted by College historianDr Peter Linehan in his story Unfinished Business, a tripto the latrines formed part of John Brinkley’s defencewhen in 1746 he was accused of murdering fellowstudent James Ashton. His throat had been cut – with a porcelain shard from a broken chamber pot.

Guides telltourists thedoor was handyfor catchingswans for hightable, but intruth the dooropens onto an altogethermurkier past.

Look carefully and you will see it: a small, blackdoor set into the grey brick and stone of St John’s,flanked by mooring rings and often partly

submerged in the waters of the Cam. Empty beer bottles occasionally appear on its narrow step, left byenthusiastic punters. Guides tell tourists the door washandy for catching swans for high table, that it was used for offloading goods from barges, or that it was part of a 1960s prank in which students reoriented fire-escapesigns, set off the alarms and sent fleeing freshers hurtlinginto the river. But in truth, the door opens onto analtogether murkier past.

Small clues exist in St John’s archives. Victorian plans,inked on thick paper and delicately washed with colour,show that the corridor behind the door led to eightundergraduate “bogs” and three fellows’ WCs. The 1875drawings mention “bins for daily supply of dry earth”. On the construction of the present door to the river, theystate: “Here make an exit doorway to barge – dry earth to be taken across in dustmen’s barges once in two weeks.Earth manure to be removed daily.”

WordsBecky AllenPhotographSteve Bond

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Almost everyone has neighbours. Theycan enrich our lives – or, with disputesabout noise or giant leylandii, become,

in a thousand tabloid headlines, ‘neighboursfrom hell’.

But what is a good neighbour? Over thepast nine centuries, ideas of neighbourlinesshave changed. Historically, poor neighboursliving on streets and in courtyards wereenmeshed in reciprocal networks of mutualsupport. They read and wrote for each other,they nursed the nearby sick, put fires out, lent money to each other and cared for thenippers next door. New neighbours could take some time to adjust to each other, butthey often become involved in the lives of the people around them.

City dwellers today may complain thatthey “never see the neighbours” but in Collegestaircases and corridors, the notion of neigh-bourliness – in all its myriad forms – is stillstrong. As freshers soon discover, living on a staircase is to live in a microcosm of neigh-bouring in wider society. Quickly adjustingyour own behaviour and expectations toaccommodate the lifestyles and sensitivities ofthe people who live nearby is one of the essen-tial first lessons of coming up.

Shared facilities – from a cold tap to thecoal box – often form a catalyst for neigh-bourliness. My PhD supervisor had rooms inJesus College which shared a bathroom withthe rooms on the other side of the staircase.The bathroom had two doors into it, both ofwhich could be locked from within.

Forgetting to lock the neighbour’s entrancewhen using the facilities held the potential foracute embarrassment. Forgetting to unlockthe neighbour’s entrance on evacuating couldstrain relations.

Although that particular arrangement wasodd even in Cambridge, historically house-holds shared back-to-back privies and waterclosets. Nationally, the proportion of house-holds lacking their own loo has dropped from 21% in 1951 to about 1% today, butmany Cambridge students continue to share.Sharing facilities means that neighbours rou-tinely encounter one another.

In the wider world it was women who weremost likely to meet and talk at communalpumps and around shared washing resources.Women would pin out their laundry togetherin shared courts – literally “hanging outtogether”. Today, undergraduate neighboursoffer similar care and support. They are, andwere, surrogate family members as well asneighbours; friendships are formed over cupsof cocoa and games, whether whist or SuperMario Brothers.

George Nugent Bankes, a student at King’sin the late 1800s, recorded his lively observa-tions of College life in A Cambridge Staircase(1883) and reveals a fascination with andfondness for his neighbouring students.Nugent Bankes thought it would be “exceed-ingly inconvenient to be on bad terms with therest of one’s staircase”, and valued his neigh-bours as sources of “sugar, tea, or tobacco” –borrowing also being common among neigh-

Whether you live in a street or on a college staircase, good relations with the neighbours are essential. Dr Emily Cockayne(Girton 1991) explores an intriguing history.

Illustration Lara Harwood

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bours on streets at this time. The staircaseneighbours became “a regular happy family”,cared for by “our common gyp and our com-mon bedmaker”. At a time when neighbour-ing on streets was usually restricted to conver-sation on the doorstep, undergraduates onNugent Bankes’ staircase often visited eachother’s rooms.

Close living brought the danger that secretscould be uncovered. During the lifetime ofJohn North, the late-17th century Master ofTrinity, College living arrangements were fair-ly intimate: many students lived with theirtutors, occupying truckle beds and studying in carrels off the main rooms. But even in the early 20th century, living cheek by jowlcould produce an unlooked for intimacy. One winter in Oxford, an Oriel undergradu-ate claimed to have overheard LancelotPhelps, the fellow who lived below him, breakthe ice in his morning bath while uttering the mantra, “Be a man, Lancelot, be a man”.

More serious was the risk of disease andfire. Plague epidemics had seen Colleges closeduring the 17th century, and coughs and coldsstill circulate College corridors on a regularbasis. In 1962, seven people on one Pembrokestaircase were vaccinated after an undergrad-uate was suspected of contracting smallpox.Neighbours along streets would heed prover-bial wisdom to “look to thyself when thyneighbour’s house is on fire”, and staircaseneighbours were also threatened by confla-gration.

Until gas fires became more commonlyused, many College rooms were warmed byopen fires. It is surprising not how many firesbroke out, but how few. One Trinity under-graduate returned to his rooms one winter’sday in 1914 to find them to be “thoroughlyablaze”, and the fire went on to gut severalsets of rooms. Fifteen years later, four sets inthe front court at Caius were burned out andanother four were affected by water damageafter an early morning fire.

Neighbouring holds another risk – the riskthat new neighbours will have differentlifestyles and antagonise each other. Staircasesand corridors have always included a mix ofpeople; these are places where a young under-graduate might have a room next to an elderlyfellow. People in different stages of life canmake difficult or remote neighbours. Therooms opposite Nugent Bankes were occu-pied by “a non-resident fellow” who usedthem so rarely “as to prevent us forming any-thing but the most distant acquaintanceshipwhen we meet him on the staircase”.

Clashes are not inevitable: many peoplefrom very different backgrounds have becomefriends by dint of being College neighbours.When Jasper Rootham came up to St John’sCollege in 1929 he noticed how living closetogether threw grammar-school and public-school boys together. “Brilliantly articulateIndians” mixed for the first time on the stair-cases with “knobbly-kneed” rugby playersfrom Giggleswick.

The arrival of female students in previouslyall-male environments caused fluster amongthe College heads and fellows, who fearedoutbreaks of carnal neighbourliness. In 1964,movements towards co-education were dis-cussed in an editorial in The Times, pointingto fears about what would happen if male and female undergraduates were able to live“hugger mugger on the same staircase”.

Writing about her experiences at Girton inthe late Sixties, then still a women’s College,Jane Ellison recalled “a steady troop of slip-per-clad feet to the chocolate machine at theend of the corridor” and “tearful sessions indressing gowns round the gas fire in the com-pany of friends”. Cocoa was a late-night pal-liative to be enjoyed in company; a function itcontinues to perform to this day.

In the outside world, neighbourly assis-tance once mitigated the effects of poverty,squalor and disease, but after the mid-20th

century neighbours become less vital. Morepeople owned their own things and less neigh-bourly borrowing occurred. Laundry wascleaned indoors and, increasingly, it was driedindoors too. At the same time, architecturaldevelopments improved privacy and carsextended geographic mobility. Old-fashioned,involved neighbouring declined; henceforththe key to good neighbouring was the abilityto “keep oneself to oneself”.

In Cambridge, too, staircase and corridorrelationships were beginning to change.Bonds that used to last for several yearsbecause the students tended to stay in thesame room were becoming more fleeting, as students started to move room every year,usually by ballot. From the mid-20th century,neighbouring in the outside world begins todecline, triggering loneliness on streets and insuburbs. In 1959, a spate of suicides prompt-ed a senior University health officer to blamestress caused by high expectations – and tonote that the College staircase could “lead toloneliness and encourage brooding”.

Neighbour nuisances are so common onour streets that the phrase “neighbours fromhell” has passed into cliché. Today, institu-tional living and modern technology helpneighbours to live more amicably together.The Murray Edwards College handbookreminds the students that Colleges “are dense-ly occupied spaces”, and asks them to modifytheir behaviour to avoid disturbing other people and invest in a set of headphones.Helpfully, the handbook also gives guidance about how to deal with noise issues, by firstapproaching the noise-maker and trying to resolve things amicably. A couple of yearsago, the students of Newnham were sentemails reminding them to be discreet in theirnight-time activities, following complaints to the student union about noises down corri-dors that “funnel sound”, and which wereeasily heard through thin walls.

In a hyper-mobile digital world, do corri-dor neighbours still knock on each others’doors? They are more likely to first check thelocation of their neighbour by text, and leavea message on their Facebook wall rather than scribble a note to stick on their door. On Facebook there is a page for ‘P Staircase,Christ’s College’, although at the time of writing, this had only one like. More success-ful is the closed Facebook group called ‘North Court Q Staircase’ which 20 residents of an Emmanuel staircase have signed up to.Staircase neighbouring will always providecomfort for most and annoyance for some.Some College neighbours will become friendsfor life. Twenty years ago, long before I eversaw him in outdoor clothing, I used to spot a neighbour on my college corridor in his slippers and dressing gown. I still see him inhis slippers. Reader, I married him.

Dr Emily Cockayne is the author of Cheek by Jowl: A History of Neighbours, published byThe Bodley Head.

Thin walls between neighbours provide a rich harvest for eavesdroppers. One winter in Oxford, an undergraduate claimed to have overheardthe fellow who lived below him break the ice in his morning bathwhile uttering the mantra, ‘Be a man, Lancelot,be a man’

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IT IS A WORD BELOVED of journalists, co-opted by crammers and essay mills, swattedaround mercilessly by politicians and for the

most part loathed by those to whom it refers. For a place that has no earthly existence, “Oxbridge”has quite a hold on the public imagination; andCambridge’s Vice-Chancellor is typical of manymembers of the two universities in his exasperationat the word’s popularity.

“We work closely together on many things,but we are not one institution,” says Professor SirLeszek Borysiewicz. “Oxford and Cambridge havedistinctive contributions to make, and fusing themin one term invariably masks the differences – andadds a wash of unnecessary negativity.”

What’s more, Oxbridge seldom means just“Oxford and/or Cambridge”. Few other words lugaround so much semantic baggage. Recently, theterm speaks most loudly of privilege (and indeed,one newspaper website has an entire section on“Oxbridge and elitism”). But unlike its Americananalogue, the Ivy League – which is a real athleticconference of eight north-eastern universities –

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Oxbridge does not refer to any formal associationbetween the two places.

Yet it is certainly no upstart word. TheOxford English Dictionary has Oxbridge’s earliestcitation in 1849, in the first volume of WilliamMakepeace Thackeray’s Pendennis – and accord-ing to James Clackson, University Reader inComparative Philology, this places it in a selectlexical group. “Even up until the 1960s and1970s, there weren’t so many of these portman-teau words in use,” he says. “There are a fewexamples such as ‘brunch’ or ‘smog’ that werecoined in around 1900 and have survived – andactually, we’ve got a good idea as to the very indi-viduals who came up with these.

“But since the Sixties, there has been a rush ofnew words like this, and it has become one of themore productive ways of adding to the language.We are used to this type of word formation, sonow we have examples like ‘Brangelina’ for BradPitt and Angelina Jolie. People are able to decodethem more easily: when you hear something like‘staycation’ or ‘Movember’, you pick it up andpass it on.”

In Pendennis, Thackeray does not useOxbridge as a collective term for the two seats oflearning, but as a fictional stand-in for one or theother. The titular hero attends St Boniface Collegein this familiar university town of “gownsmengoing about, chapel bells clinking (bells inOxbridge are ringing from morning-tide till even-song), towers and pinnacles rising calm and statelyover the gables and antique house-roofs.”

The book also introduces Oxbridge’s rival.Thackeray mentions the son of the College cook,who “took the highest honours in the otherUniversity of Camford”, and again this suppliesthe OED’s first citation of the word. But althoughCamford crops up sporadically over the next150years – perhaps most notably in HG Wells’ satiri-cal sci-fi novels The Camford Visitation andTheHoly Terror – it never achieved the currency ofOxbridge, and there are few examples of it used inthe modern sense.

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th cen-turies, fictional Oxbridges abound; and an oddityis also to be found in the pages of Hansard from1886. Henry Seton-Karr, MP for St Helens, com-plains to the Secretary to the Treasury that theNew University Club in St James’s had paid the

Post Office for the abbreviated telegraph address“Oxbridge” – and then found out that it had toadd the words “care of” to telegrams, renderingthe whole exercise useless.

But the next significant stage in the word’sjourney does not arrive until 1929, with VirginiaWoolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own, based onher series of lectures on “Women and Fiction” atNewnham and Girton Colleges. The first chapterintroduces a fictional narrator, walking aroundthe riverside of “Oxbridge”, enduring snubs fromfellows and servants of the men’s Colleges, andcomparing their grandeur with the grey drabnessof “Fernham”, the women’s College in which sheis staying.

In places, the way in which Woolf usesOxbridge seems prescient of the modern concernsand attitudes that are bound up with the word.Alison Hennegan, Fellow and Director of Studiesin English at Trinity Hall, says: “She values verymuch the ambitions, aspirations and standardsthat Cambridge – or Oxbridge – espouses, andtries to transmit and pass on. The trouble is, some-thing has gone wrong, or perhaps was never right,about who is allowed to share that dream. One sexdoesn’t really have access to it, and also some mendon’t have it, coming from too low an economicbase.

“I don’t think that one is anachronisticallyfoisting these views on her. Although her mainprism for looking at the things that Oxbridgedoesn’t do well is female exclusion, she genuinelydoes see in that scrutiny the same core anxietiesthat people might have now, fairly or unfairly.”

There are ample clues that the setting is a closefacsimile of Cambridge – so why did Woolf dis-guise it with the word Oxbridge? Hennegan says:“I think she felt that although those of us at eitherOxford or Cambridge might get cross about thetwo being rolled up together, that’s the privilege ofan insider. To those outside the two universities,they’re the same. Her essay is about female exclu-sion from what’s best in university education, andthat means both universities.

“So her thinking is, ‘Even if I’ve come toaddress two different women’s societies, one inNewnham and one in Girton, as the germ for thispaper on women and fiction, it’s a bit accidental. Icould just as easily have had an invitation fromLady Margaret Hall or Somerville in Oxford, and

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everything I’m saying here would be just as rele-vant.’”

After A Room of One’s Own, it would stilltake the better part of two decades beforeOxbridge settled into its current mode of usage.“It gets more common after the Second WorldWar because then you get the expansion of univer-sity education, so you get people distinguishingother types of degrees from Oxbridge degrees,”says James Clackson.

Throughout the immediate post-war years,Oxbridge is most frequently used in opposition to“redbrick” – originally a collective term for the sixcivic universities established in the early 20th cen-tury, and often used more liberally to include othernew places of learning. Both terms were popu-larised in the works of “Bruce Truscot” – actuallythe pseudonym of Edgar Allison Peers, a professorof Hispanic Studies at Liverpool University. His 1943 volume Redbrick University and its twosequels were hugely influential tracts about highereducation, arguing forcefully that the ancientfoundations should not be allowed to starve neweruniversities of resources.

Truscot’s true identity was not revealed untilafter his death in 1952, when The Times obituaristgauged it necessary to flag up his words as neolo-gisms. He wrote that Peers had produced “somewise and powerful little volumes pleading for... arecognition of the potentialities of the modern uni-versities. ‘Oxbridge’ and ‘Redbrick’ (to use hisgraphic barbarisms) each has its vital part to playin the scheme of education, and few can quarrelwith his conclusions.”

Within a short time, though, Oxbridge hadsuch currency that it was appearing in the newspa-per of record without inverted commas. In a 1957letter to the editor, the High Master of St Paul’sSchool notes that “it is now no longer possible fora boy – a good boy with three subjects at advancedlevel – to be sure of a place in an Oxbridge col-lege.” A swift tally of newspaper citations suggeststhat its incidence has remained fairly stable eversince.

Other words to describe places of higher edu-cation have enjoyed less longevity, thanks to themany waves of institutions that have acceded tothe title of “university”. “‘Redbrick’ became lessuseful as you had different types of universitiesappear,” says James Clackson. “People then talked of the newer ‘Plateglass’ Universities and soon, but then it became clear that you couldn’t clas-

Thackeray mentions theson of the College cook,who “took the highest honours in the otherUniversity of Camford”, and this supplies the OED’sfirst citation of the word

sify Redbrick as being one class above Plateglass – more recent foundations skipped over older insti-tutions in the perceived top 20 or top 30 universi-ties in the UK, so classification in terms of timewas less useful.”

More recently, universities have built up for-mal alliances, such as the 1994 Group,Million+and the Russell Group. But it is only the last ofthose – representing large, research-intensive uni-versities, including Oxford and Cambridge – thathas permeated beyond the education supplementsinto the main newspaper sections and commonusage. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that manywriters still feel the need to specify “Oxbridge andthe Russell Group” or “the Russell Group, whichincludes Oxbridge”.

The past 20 years has also seen the rise ofworld university rankings – most of which placeImperial College and UCL alongside Oxford andCambridge in a putative UK first division. And asRobert Lethbridge, the Master of FitzwilliamCollege, has noted, mentions of Oxbridge in themainstream media are now more associated withtheir cultural and historical similarities, ratherthan academic pre-eminence.

“What strikes me most is that whenever yousee ‘Oxbridge’ mentioned in the media, and there’sa pictorial complement such as a photograph, it’s never of the modern Oxford or Cambridge,”he says. “You don’t see a science lab, or a newCollege such as Churchill or Fitzwilliam, or StCatherine’s in Oxford.

“Rather, Oxbridge in the public mind is iconicbecause of this image – this ‘stately home’ worldwe associate with Brideshead Revisited, or the picturesque backcloth to Inspector Morse orChariots of Fire. And from there, you get to thesociological, ideological and political connota-tions. If you were to do an opinion poll of whatpeople associate with the word Oxbridge, it wouldall be to do with this grandiloquent architecture,and the embedded privilege and elitism of earliercenturies.”

At present, “Oxbridge” may be loathed with-in the two universities themselves, but can theterm be reclaimed, bleached of its overtones and even – at some point in the distant future –used with pride? Jane Chapman, Professor ofCommunications at Lincoln University and aVisiting Fellow of Wolfson College, believes so.“I think we have to accept that the word is wellestablished within our culture, and is likely to

remain,” she says. “Therefore we have to reclaimit with alternative communication strategies thatwiden the concept: proactive PR to show thatwhat we do is in the national and internationalinterest.

“What I think is contradictory and two-facedis the use of Oxbridge in a pejorative sense, whenit’s used to signify elitism, and then that’s miscon-strued as meaning upper-class. Elitism itself can be given a positive connotation – in China, theConfucian educational philosophy reveres elitism.We need to demonstrate how important we are to the future; but the problem is that good news isnever really news.”

There is a loose end to tie up. Why was it thatOxbridge, rather than Camford, lodged in thepublic consciousness? “These portmanteaux nor-mally follow the order of the words when they’renot blended together,” says Clackson, “and we generally don’t say ‘Cambridge and Oxford’ –we’ve always said ‘Oxford and Cambridge’.That’s one way people can pick up what these newwords mean when they are coined.”

Robert Lethbridge believes there may be more to it than that. “I think Oxbridge has thatHome Counties, bucolic sound to it,” he says. “It’s a much more resonant word than Camford.

“Lots of English place-names end in ‘-bridge’,and it helps conjure up this mythical place, withpeople playing cricket in the shadow of cathedrals– the same thing that was alluded to in theOlympic opening ceremony last year. It justsounds appropriate for this idea of an imaginaryEngland that we cling to.”

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It would be nice to make sure that the University of Cambridge survives to celebrate its millennium,” says Huw Price, the new Bertrand Russell Professor

of Philosophy. In the quiet, civilised surroundings of theFellows’ Parlour at Trinity College, the kind of threat he is talking about – artificial intelligence (AI), developed to a point where it could threaten the survivalof the human race – seems remote, even fantastical.It’s the stuff of Terminator and Robocop, not real life.

But as Price points out, in an age where technology isevolving faster than ever before, it makes perfect sense to consider how it might affect us – not just in the 200years until Cambridge celebrates its 1000th birthday, but way beyond that. That’s why Price is seeking to set up the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk with JaanTallinn, one of the founders of Skype, and Martin Rees,Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, a former Master of Trinity College and the currentAstronomer Royal.

Professor Huw Priceargues that artificial intelligence poses a real and existential threat.

Words Lucy JolinPhotographs Marcus Ginns

CV

1975 Double honours degree in pure maths and philosophy at ANU

1981 PhD in philosophy,Cambridge (Darwin 1977)

1989 Joined the University of Sydney

1997 Personal Chair inNatural Metaphysics,University of Sydney

2001Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, Edinburgh University

2002 Establishes the Centrefor Time at University of Sydney, becoming Challis Professor of Philosophy

2011 Appointed Bertrand Russell Professor ofPhilosophy at Cambridge Man

vsRobot

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The Centre will be a place where scientists,philosophers and other interested parties canevaluate and investigate threats such as rogueAI and other potentially cataclysmic effects ofhuman technology, and ask what we can do tosteer ourselves away from them. “We just don’tknow whether these ideas are going to turn out to be science fiction or reality,” says Price.“Inevitably, some things will turn out to benovel in ways we did not predict.

“Predictions made in the past missed hugethings, like the internet. Presumably that will be the case again. But given the potential of artificial intelligence, and in particular of technology that enables machines to think a lot faster than we do, the idea that some day it will have a huge impact on us does not seem to me to be very controversial – even if puttinga date on it is.

“Still, if you think in terms of the age of theUniversity, it’s going to be short compared tothat. The odds that it will not have happenedby the end of the next century are extremelylow, in my view... unless something else gets usfirst, of course!

“You need to be extremely pessimistic aboutprogress in AI and in brain science to think thatthese lines are not going to converge. To takecomfort in the thought that these problems arehard, and that perhaps we won’t solve them,seems to me to be irresponsible. So it’s a bit of a concern that these issues are presently portrayed as a little flaky, and that most of thethinking about them is taking place outsideacademia.”

The original idea for the Centre was sparkedwhen Price met Tallinn at a conference inCopenhagen in 2011. “We shared a taxi oneevening,” Price recalls. “He told me of his con-cerns about AI and the future. He said that inhis pessimistic moments he thought he wasmore likely to die from an AI accident thanfrom cancer or heart disease. I was intrigued,and impressed by his commitment to doingsomething about it.

“We talked more a few weeks later, and itstruck me that there might be a role for me as a catalyst between Jaan and his contacts, onthe one hand, and Cambridge, on the other. I already knew Martin [Rees] through philoso-phy of cosmology circles, and knew of his interest in existential risk. We organised forJaan to visit Cambridge to deliver a public lec-ture, hosted by the Centre for Science andPolicy (CSaP) and have been gathering a distin-guished advisory panel, both in Cambridge and elsewhere.”

The Centre, Price hopes, will be a placewhere science and philosophy will intersect;and he is well placed to facilitate this, as hisown career has straddled both disciplines.Originally hoping to become a physicist or anastronomer, he discovered philosophy as anundergraduate at the Australian NationalUniversity (ANU). He came to Cambridge todo his PhD with Hugh Mellor, who had visitedthe ANU while Price was doing his first degree,

and encouraged his interest in philosophy of time. It became an enduring interest, and10 years ago he established the Centre forTime in Sydney, now known internationallyfor its work in the philosophy and founda-tions of physics and time.

Earlier, in the late 1980s, these interests ledhim to brief notoriety as “the philosopherwho took on Stephen Hawking”. “I’ve alwaysbeen interested in problems such as the direc-tion of time, and the relationship between phi-losophy and physics about these matters,” hesays. “The 1980s were a fascinating period,thanks to the work of people like RogerPenrose and Stephen Hawking.

“But when I read A Brief History of Time,there was something that puzzled me, a logicalgap I thought Hawking hadn’t filled. I wroteto him and two of his collaborators, but didn’tget a response. So I wrote it up as a light-hearted commentary and sent it off to Nature,who published it [Scientific American thenpicked it up]. A couple of years later I sent acopy to Penrose, and was greatly reassuredwhen he said that he had been saying that sortof thing to Hawking for years.”

A second strand of Price’s thought contin-

ues a tradition of pragmatic philosophy atCambridge, embodied most recently by SimonBlackburn, his immediate predecessor asBertrand Russell Professor. As Price explains,pragmatists reformulate traditional philo-sophical issues such as “What is truth?” or“What is causation?”

Many philosophers approach these ques-tions by thinking of truth or causation as a dis-tinctive kind of “thing”, or property, and ask-ing about its nature – what kind of thing itreally is. “A pragmatist thinks that’s the wrongquestion,” he says. “The right questions areabout language or psychology: what are creatures like us doing with notions like truthand causation? What role do these concepts play in our practical and cognitivelives?” Causal concepts, for example, getexplained in terms of the fact that we are decision makers, who can intervene in ourenvironment. “Pragmatism is a practical wayof doing philosophy,” Price says.

This practicality lends itself to the big ques-tions that the new Centre might consider.What does it mean to be human? How do wedefine intelligence? AI throws up all kinds ofproblems, says Price – some directly philo-sophical, such as ethical questions, and otherswhich would benefit from philosophers’breadth and abstract thinking. “For example,it is important to understand the range of pos-sible intelligences that might arise in AI, espe-cially any kind of runaway AI. We ourselveshave evolved under very specific conditions.

“It is probably a mistake to think that anyartificial intelligence, particularly one that justarose accidentally, would be anything like usand would share our values, which are theproduct of millions of years of evolution insocial settings.”

He explains that this abstract issue bringsup the practical question of whether it’s possi-ble to design AI in a way that makes it morelikely that any self-enhanced descendant of itwould be “like us” or at least “friendly” – thusavoiding a potential danger.

Then there are more immediate problemsof time. “To what extent should we allocateintellectual resources for the near future or thefar future?” asks Price. “There is a tendency todiscount the far future. But when you are deal-ing with risks on this scale, that is not a sensi-ble policy. We at present have a very long-terminterest in the survival of the species, in myview.”

Price hopes that before the end of thedecade, the Centre will become well estab-lished and recognised for the quality andimportance of its work. “I don’t want to beunrealistic; these are not problems that will besolved overnight,” he says. “But as Jaan oftenputs it, we’re trying to pump probability fromone place to another. When we put on a seatbelt, we’re shifting a bit of probability fromthe bad outcomes to the good outcomes. Andthat’s what we can hope to be doing here, assoon as we set up the pump.”

It is probably a mistake tothink that any artificial intelligence, particularly one that arose accidentally,would be anything like us and would share our values, which are the product of millions of yearsof evolution

SCRATCHINGTHESURFACE

The Hamilton Kerr Instituteis one of the world’s leading centres for teaching and research in the conservation of easel paintings, and a department ofthe Fitzwilliam Museum.

26 CAM 68

Words Becky AllenPhotographs Marcus Ginns

Left:View of the Hamilton KerrInstitute, over the Cam.

Right:Christine SlottvedKimbriel consolidating the paint layer on Luca Giordano “Christian Charity” (private collection).

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28 CAM 68

Below:Adele Wright treating the“Portrait of Slingsby”(Fitzwilliam Museum).

Bottom left:Anna Cooper retouchingpaint losses on Peter Lely’s “First Earl ofAilesbury” (Deene Park).

Below:View of the studio.

Opposite:Radoslaw Chocha (left)and Youjin Noh (right)retouching paint losseson Antonio Verrio’s “The Sea Triumph of Charles II” (Royal Collection).

eside the Cam at Whittlesford, inside the formerwater mill that houses the Hamilton Kerr Institute, secrets are being uncovered.

A Tudor portrait by an unknown English artist is at firstsight an unremarkable affair. Dressed in a black coat, hisblack curls falling from beneath his black hat, a young mangazes wistfully up at a blue and cloudless sky. In the middle distance, behind his left shoulder, is the Tower of London.

“This is the kind of portrait people would normallywalk past without looking at,” says Dr Spike Bucklow, a senior research scientist at the Institute. “Because it’shad quite a complicated history of treatment, it lookslike a dog’s breakfast, so it’s really hard to know whatyou’re looking at. As a result, most people don’t bother.”

The portrait, which normally hangs in the FitzwilliamMuseum, is painted on a panel rather than canvas.It arrived earlier this year at the Institute, where post-graduate student Adele Wright is now working on thedamage to both the painting and the panel.

“The panel looks rather like a dried leaf in the way it’scurled up,” she explains. “It’s warped in different direc-

B

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26CAM 68

tions because of the lattice framework on theback of the painting. It was also heavily over-painted in the sky, on the face and along thejoins in the panel, which were filled with puttythe last time it was put back together.”

Wright’s initial task was to get back to theartist’s original by working through layers ofvarnish and overpaint. “The first thing I didwas to give the painting a surface clean usingwater to remove the dust,” she says.

“Then I did some cleaning tests to look atwhether I could remove the varnish and over-paints using solvents. We do tests in differentareas and on different colours because they all respond differently. The blacks tend to bemore sensitive than the whites, which are themost secure.”

But even with the aid of microscopes andUV photography, which help to reveal thestructure of the paint layers and the distribu-tion of overpaint, taking a solvent-dippedswab to the surface of a Tudor paintingrequires nerve as well as skill and judgement.

“It can be stressful,” admits Wright. “Andit takes a lot of determination and time care-fully looking at the layers to see if you canwork out where the overpaint stops and theoriginal begins. Sometimes you are alsorevealing badly damaged areas, which can bea bit alarming.”

Some of the damage was astounding ratherthan alarming, because as her solvent got towork on the painting, out of its clear blue skyemerged a sun ringed by a halo of billowingclouds. “It was scary at first but very excit-ing,” she says. “I was very excited about dis-covering the sun and clouds – it explained whythe sitter was looking in that direction.”

And it wasn’t the only surprise that the por-trait had in store. As she gently cleaned theyoung man’s face, Wright discovered his eyes,mouth and neck were scarred by deep scratch-es – a deliberate attack on the painting which,she believes, offers new clues about the sitter’sidentity.

Despite a label on the back of the panelidentifying him as Henry de la Pole, theFitzwilliam Museum has always believed theportrait to be of Sir Henry Slingsby because hebears a strong resemblance to a late 16th-cen-tury miniature also in their collection.

The painting’s newly revealed iconography,however, together with the violence done to it,tie it more strongly to what Wright has beenable to discover about de la Pole: that he wasborn in the Tower of London, remained a pris-oner there throughout his life, and wasbeheaded at the age of 26.

Wright has yet to decide how to rejoin thetwo parts of the panel, and how much repaint-ing is appropriate. But visitors to the museumwill be able to see the result of her work forthemselves when the portrait is re-hung in theFitzwilliam this year – provided they take thetime to stop and stare.

hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

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Left:Copies of paintingsexecuted by studentsfollowing proceduresand techniques of original artists.

Taking a solvent-dipped swab to the surface of a Tudor painting requires nerve as well as skill and judgement

Left:Spines from the ledgers in the Roberson Archive at the Institute.Roberson was a London company selling artists’ materials from 1819.

Left:A large range of pigments, of both ancient and modernformulation, are used in conservation treatments and technicalreconstructions; some of these are made by hand at the Institute.Frames in storageawaiting the completion of treatments on paintings; someframes need extensive conservation work themselves.

The first physicians’ scrolls were used bypriests and kings; now doctors – andpatients – go online.Lucy Jolin examinesthe changing role of the medical textbook.

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The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus waswritten in Egypt at some time around1600BC, but is based on material that

may be 1,000 years older. Its primary subject isthe physician’s role as a lay priest of Sekhmet,goddess of protection and destruction; yet it also describes the circulation of the blood,diagnosis by taking a patient’s pulse and how to suture a wound. It’s the earliest knownexample of triage. If you were unfortunateenough to sustain a severe wound in battle, you were likely to be given one of three prog-noses: “An ailment I will handle”, “an ailmentI will fight with” or “an ailment for whichnothing can be done”.

The scroll was once the preserve of priestsand kings, but it’s now on the internet; some-what appropriately, you can scroll through iton your screen. And if you want rather moreup-to-date information on suturing and thelike, you can easily access millions of pages ofmedical knowledge, once buried deep withinthe pages of dusty tomes. So have medical text-books – once the emblems of the all-knowingphysician – lost their importance, or do theystill retain their status on a doctor’s shelf?

“These days, most people get their informa-tion from online sources. Certainly, doctorsdo,” says Dr Stephen Gillam, director of publichealth teaching at Cambridge. “It’s a completetransformation, a huge shift in the power balance. So you could say that the audience for textbooks is limited and dwindling. But I would still argue that people like concreteproducts in their hands, as it were, and text-books still provide that.”

In fact, the way we approach textbooks hasgone full circle. In medieval times, they wereemblematic of entrenched wisdom. “You werenot going to argue with any text that had thename of Hippocrates, Galen or Avicenna onit,” says Peter Jones, Fellow and Librarian of

A physician’slibrary

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King’s College and a specialist in medievalmedicine and science.

“Avicenna, with his Canon of Medicine, is really a great summation of Greek classicalmedicine as interpreted by Arabic philoso-phers and doctors. He’s at the end stage of a long sequence of work from much earlier on,when the original Greek texts were translatedinto Syriac, into Persian and various other languages, and then into classic Arabic. But from the point of view of Western medicine,Avicenna is more or less at the beginning.”Greek classical medicine – in particular,Galen’s theory of the “four humours” – domi-nated Western medical thinking up until the early modern age. The texts themselves,including Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine andGalen’s vast series of works, became the basisupon which medical questions could be dis-cussed: a jumping-off point. Consequently,new thinking was expressed within commen-taries written on the traditional texts, ratherthan in entirely new texts.

Jones says: “From the 13th to the 16th century, the most commonly used set of text-books in the classroom was the Ars Medicine– the Art of Medicine. It consisted of shortworks of Hippocrates and Galen and otherclassical authors.

“Once medicine came into the universityclassroom, a typical teaching method was towork through key texts line by line, readingthem aloud, and then getting the students todispute the propositions taken from thesetexts. Which was the most vital organ for life,for example? How do you decide which is themore significant organ – heart or brain? It alldepends. If you stress the role of blood thenyou are tending to pay more attention to theheart. But if you are more interested in the roleof sensation and movement and so on thenyou are probably looking more towards the

Opposite page:Planet Man, from a Book ofHours printed by PhilippePigouchet for SimonVostre, 1498 (vellum).

Left:De Motu Cordis, by William Harvey, 1628.Experiments demonstrating the function of the valves inthe veins.

Above:Illustration from De HumaniCoporis Fabrica by AndreaVesalius. Basel, 1543(engraving).

brain. There are a lot of very complicatedmedieval disputes about the relevant impor-tance of such things.”

This approach was about to undergo dra-matic change. At the end of the period, text-books themselves started to become the meansthrough which new ideas could be communi-cated. In 1628, the anatomist William Harveypublished his seminal work on the circulationof the blood, Exercitatio Anatomica de MotuCordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (On theMovement of the Heart and the Blood inAnimals), the result of his many years of prac-tical experience in dissection.

It wasn’t strictly a textbook – more of a treatise that he “had no purpose to swell…into a large volume by quoting the names andwritings of anatomists, or to make a parade ofthe strength of my memory.” Indeed, Harveyhimself was dismissive of the role of the traditional texts: “I profess both to learn andto teach anatomy, not from books but fromdissections; not from the positions of philoso-phers but from the fabric of nature.”

Harvey’s idea that the heart circulatedblood around the body was initially dismissedby the entire medical establishment. It washard to dislodge a belief that had been in forcefor hundreds of years – Galen’s notion that thebody contained two kinds of blood, “nutritiveblood” made by the liver and “vital blood”made by the heart. Yet by the end of the 18thcentury, Harvey’s idea had become main-stream, along with dozens of others enshrinedin now-classic treatises and books.

“At that time, there was a fundamental revolution in knowledge, and specifically inmedical knowledge,” says Nick Hopwood ofthe Department of History and Philosophy of Science. “A big shift in the social relationsof medicine transformed the way medics saw disease.”

The vast hospitals of post-revolutionaryParis saw a new credo skewed towards practi-cal knowledge rather than dusty old tomes.Authority was now founded far more than

CAM 68 35

The vast hospitals of post-revolutionary Paris saw a new credoskewed towards practicalknowledge. Authority was now founded in actualengagement with bodies,both live and dead

Above:Illustration of human viscera: exploded thorax.From Anatomica universaXLIV tabulia aeniis juxtaarchetypum hominis adultirepraentata by PaoloMascagni (1823-1831).

Top right:Gray’s Anatomy:Surgical anatomy of the arteries of the neck,right side.

before in actual engagement with bodies, bothlive and dead. Physicians focused not on thebiographies of the patients but on their bodies,on the signs that they elicited from them on thewards and how they could correlate what theyfound on the ward with what happened post-mortem in the morgue.

The doctrine ran “read little, see much, domuch”. A real doctor had to get his handsdirty. But in practice, textbooks still matteredand so did the lectures to which they werelinked. In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert,himself the son of a doctor, has his traineephysician Charles Bovary standing stunned atthe range of courses at his hospital: “Lectureson anatomy, lectures on pathology, lectures onphysiology, lectures on pharmacy, on chem-istry and botany, on diagnosis and therapy…all names of unknown import to him: doorsinto so many sanctuaries filled with an augustobscurity.”

Journals were increasingly the places toreport discoveries. But textbooks were the keys to those doors. They began to define new fields, of which there were soon rather a lot – pathological anatomy, experimentalphysiology, psychology, bacteriology.

One of the best ways to establish a buddingdiscipline or speciality was to write a text-book, says Hopwood. “If you wanted toknow what knowledge a field contained, youwent to a textbook or a more comprehensivehandbook. So a discipline-builder wouldteach a course, have it published as a text-book, and try to persuade the authorities thatstudents should be made to learn this materialbefore they could qualify.

“The textbook defined what they had tomug up for the exam. A huge expansion inmedical education in the 19th century greatlyincreased demand. The industrialisation ofprinting and publishing allowed that demandto be met by both cheaper and more highlyillustrated books. In one edition after another,textbooks surveyed fields over manydecades.”

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Perhaps the most famous of these field-defining books is Gray’s Anatomy, first published in the middle of the 19th century.Originally written by the British anatomistHenry Gray, it is currently in its 40th edition.It has become more than simply a textbook:it’s part of popular culture, its name borrowed for a long-running US television drama. In Ian McEwan’s Atonement, the correct draftof a fateful letter lies unsent across an openedGray’s, while the wrong draft is delivered, setting in motion a terrible chain of events.By the middle of the 19th century, journalshad largely taken over from books – both text-books and research monographs – for thecommunication of new knowledge. “Therewere still important exceptions,” points outHopwood. “For example, around 1870, theperiodic table in chemistry began as a device in a textbook. You could still find that kind ofinnovation. But generally speaking, journalspresented new claims, while textbooks kept a big role in recognising them as discoveries.”

So what part does the textbook play today,in an age when a new discovery, idea or studycan be flashed around the world in seconds?The internet has revolutionised the wholebusiness of disseminating and sharingresearch, says Stephen Gillam. “They havemuch more online, and they advance-publishmaterial online, which goes through a quick-fire review process. The whole process ofreview and publication has been potentiallyspeeded up. And there’s much more openaccess to published papers and the data onwhich they are based.”

Journals may be where new ideas can befound. But as their numbers continue to pro-liferate, the medical professional faces a newproblem of information overload. Whichstudies and ideas are truly relevant? Who hasthe time to go searching among thousands andthousands of online sources? Perhaps that’snow where the textbook’s true function lies– as a trusted source that vets and validatesideas. “Textbook authors have always had a gatekeeping function in deciding what to include and what to accept,” points outHopwood. “So a new idea may not have to be accepted before it’s included in a textbook. It may rather be the act of inclusion thatmakes it accepted.”

Speed is good, says Gillam, and so is patientempowerment. But the challenge will be get-ting the information to doctors as it is needed. “The next frontier is making that informationavailable to the practitioner on their desktop,”he says. “This process is well on the way. Thefuture is here now. Because it’s one thing talk-ing about research but it’s another getting it tothe practitioner who wants to see the researchthere and then, when they see the patient.Patients are what matter, first and foremost.”Just as Hippocrates first wrote, thousands ofyears ago.

CAM 68 37

Above:Semiologie des Affectionsdu Systeme Nerveux by J. Degerine, 1914 (colourlitho).

Extracurricular CAM 68 39

University matters 41My Cambridge 42Reading list 44Cambridge soundtrack 45A sporting life 47Prize crossword 48

JillC

alder

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For 800 years, some of the world’s bestacademics have called a little town in theFens home, thus linking the success ofGown to Town. In 2013, that means that boththe University and city need to expand –which is the key driver for the University’sNorth West Cambridge development. Thedevelopment will accommodate the need forgrowth and will also see enhancement ofpublic facilities that will directly benefit notonly new residents but also those existing inthe surrounding areas.

In August 2012, the local authoritiesresolved to grant outline planningpermission (subject to conditions) for thedevelopment of a site owned by theUniversity to create an extension of the cityin its north-west quadrant. This £1bnscheme on a 150-hectare site will include1500 homes for qualifying University andCollege employees, 1500 homes for salethrough residential developers,accommodation for 2000 graduate students,100,000 square metres of research facilities,a wide range of community facilities andsubstantial areas of public space.

The challenges are immense. Perhaps thegreatest is to create a new place in a city thatis already extraordinary and wonderful. Theintention is to create a scheme with an urbanrather than suburban grain and to supportdesign that complements the existinglandscape of the area, while enhancingconnectivity to and within the development.

The residential accommodation will besupported by public facilities, located mainlyin the local centre, including a primaryschool and nursery, GP surgery, communitybuilding, supermarket, shops, public house,restaurant, police office, hotel, senior carehome and market square. The University willcontribute towards a new secondary school,and both University and public access toindoor sports facilities, with extensive newsports pitches, is being provided on thenearby West Cambridge site. The provisionof these public facilities will enable the establishment of a strong and vibrantcommunity from the outset.

Another major challenge is affordability.Rising house prices and rents mean thatyoung academics are priced out ofCambridge – reducing our competitivenesswhen it comes to recruitment. Consequently,homes for University and College staff willbe established within a unique rental modelrelated to paying 30% of individual nethousehold income.

Sustainability – both in terms ofenvironment and community – has been akey driver. The development will be the firstin the country on this scale to be built to theCode for Sustainable Homes Level 5(residential) and BREEAM Excellent (all otherbuildings).

The landscape and infrastructure planswill encourage people to lead sustainablelives through carefully consideredmeasures, including a green travel plan withan emphasis on cycling and movement onfoot, plus public transport and local parkingcontrols. In addition, site-wide features such as an energy centre, extensive use of photovoltaic panels and water and wastemanagement systems will enhance the site’ssustainable characteristics. Furthermore,extensive tree planting will be undertakenwith other measures to protect and add tothe local biodiversity and ecology of the site.

Community building doesn’t start withbricks and mortar; it begins with people. The foundations for a new, strongcommunity are being laid before buildingworks commence. An important strand ofpublic engagement is an integrated publicart strategy. Although work on archaeologyhas only just started, local residents arebeing invited onto the site to work withartists, who are currently exploring themesinspired by astronomy, earth sciences andarchaeology.

North West Cambridge, as thedevelopment is still known, is designed toaccommodate much of the University’slong-term growth and will be delivered overthe next 20 years. Preparatory andconstruction works for phase one of thedevelopment began over a year ago andconstruction works will begin later this year.The first buildings are programmed forcompletion from late 2015, when North WestCambridge will begin to welcome peoplewho will shape the future of the University.

But building places that people will wantto live in for the long term is hard. It takescommitment and much effort, and there areno guarantees. By putting the community– both existing and future – first, we plan that the ambitions of the University will bemet, and we will produce a development that grows and thrives, with affection, for thenext 800 years.

Extracurricular

UniversitymattersA newsite for Cambridge

Roger Taylor is Project Directorfor North West Cambridge

nwcambridge.co.uk

The challenges areimmense. Perhaps thelargest is to create a new place in a city that is already extraordinary and wonderful

Lyndon Hayes

42 CAM 68

A brief history of ICE

1951Study bedroomscreated from oldstable block

1951Hall used asresidence for adultstudents on shortcourses

1975Board moves itsheadquarters toMadingley Hall

1994First accreditedcourses offered

2001Board re-establishedas Institute ofContinuing Education

2011Lord Rees givesinaugural MadingleyLecture

2013ICE launches The Friends ofMadingley Hall in its140th year

Interviews Becky AllenPortraits Jim Spencer

This year, Cambridge’s Instituteof Continuing Education – ICE – celebrates its 140th anniversary. Becky Allen investigates what it is like to be one of its students.

Extracurricular

I emigrated to the USA fromUganda in 2006. In Uganda I didn’tgo to school for 10 years becausemy parents couldn’t afford it, but I played sport after leaving school.By the age of 19, I was in Uganda’sDavis Cup team, and taught tennisat the US International School in Kampala. That’s how I got a scholarship to study in America.Now I’m in New York, on my own,going to college. My major is ininternational relations but I lovehistory – it’s my favourite subject to date. I’ve taken four historyclasses, even though I only needone, because I fell in love with thesubject.

I came to ICE in 2012 for theHistory Summer School. I’d neverbeen to England and couldn’t wait to come to one of the world’s oldest and best universities. It wasa remarkable experience, but it

wasn’t just about learning in class; it was also about being part ofthe Cambridge community.

Everyone at Cambridge was very dedicated to learning, andthat’s something I took home with me. And now I have friends fromall over the world. We forged great relationships on campus as a group and we’re already talking about returning in 2013. I’ve notfinished with Cambridge and I want to come back.

Tolbert Oringicame to ICE for the HistorySummer School

1873Professor JamesStuart founds theLocal LecturesSyndicate, thecountry's firstcontinuing educationdepartment

1923First InternationalSummer Schoolstake place

1924Syndicate is re-established as Boardof Extra-MuralStudies

1948Cambridge acquiresMadingley Hall

Find out about the courses that ICEoffers at ice.cam.ac.uk/courses, or become a Friend of Madingley Hallat ice.cam.ac.uk/friends.

MyCambridge

CAM 68 43

The Institute of Continuing Education(ICE) catalogues are so beguiling – full of things you haven’t had time topursue when you’re working. I startedby going to weekend courses nearly20 years ago, then did some modulesfrom a Diploma in the History ofDrama. After that I just couldn’t stop. I did a Diploma in History of Art and I’m currently doing a Diploma in English Literature, catching up on things I didn’t study when I readEnglish Literature at Lucy Cavendishin the 1970s.

After Easter we have a module on modern poetry. That will bebrilliant because it’s taught by a published poet and a member of the English Faculty. You get access to all these wonderful minds.Even though I retired in 2011, I want to use my time productively. I want retirement to be something where I keep my brain active, notput my feet up. I don’t like the idea of winding down.

And ICE courses are more challenging than a book group – I wantto be made to do some writing. Writing essays really clarifies yourideas, and it makes you spend time in libraries, with a goal in mind. I go to the University Library to read and have a bowl of soup in thetearoom. When I’m there, everything else disappears. You just buryyour head in what you’re doing, and it’s lovely.

There are eight of us on my current diploma. The youngest is 23 and the oldest is a man in his 70s. We’re an incredibly multi-ethnic group – a Syrian, an Iranian, an American and someone fromSingapore. It’s a good mix and people bring different experiences to the course.

The building makes it special, too. I still have lots of contact withmy own College, Lucy Cavendish, but for many people, MadingleyHall has become their college. It’s so beautiful.

Judith Robertsis doing a Diploma in History of Art

I’m 22 and live in Zagreb, where I’m doing a degree in integrativepsychology. In 2011 I did theCertificate in Coaching at ICE, and now I’m doing the Diploma. I chose coaching because it’s a nicesupplement to studying psychologyand I chose ICE because of thedistance learning.

I come to Cambridge three times a year for lectures, and in between I write an essay. We also have a Virtual Learning Environment with video conferencing, so we can

discuss our personal coaching journeys with tutors and otherstudents. We have coaching sessions with our course-mates,which helps us see our blind spots. It’s also our support system,and because we have all sorts of cultures and ethnicities on thecourse, it’s really interesting to see how differently people usecoaching.

Keith, our tutor, is a bit enigmatic. You expect to be told what todo and how to do it, but he doesn’t do that. He’s a good facilitator,and sometimes stretches you beyond your comfort zone. That’swhy he’s a great tutor.

When I look at what education and Cambridge means to me, it’sabout personal development, not prestige. The course has mademe more aware of my own thinking, patterns of behaviour, andlistening. There’s a big difference between hearing and listening.It’s a real skill and takes a lot of energy.

I’d like to return to Cambridge to study in future. I love thehistory and the architecture, and the fact that there are so manymuseums and cultural events in such a small place. And there areso many young people, studying diverse subjects and interestedin intellectual study. It’s fantastic to be around smart people.

In 2011 DarioOstojiccompleteda Certificate in Coaching; he is now doing the Diploma

Steve Bond

Forget the political intrigue, sexualfrustration, violence and ambition. “It was the magic,” says Sue Brindley of

her childhood fascination with Macbeth. “All children are caught up by the idea ofmagic – and that, of course, is exactly whereMacbeth scores points. The world and itscurious presentation; the world is not always as it seems. Children are so brilliant at destroying our notions of reality.”

But Brindley didn’t just happen uponMacbeth. The play was introduced to her insuch a way that she was caught up in itspower. For this, she thanks Mr Jardine, herEnglish teacher at Greenford CountyGrammar School.

“I love Shakespeare as I do because of Mr Jardine,” she says. “He taught us Macbeth in what I now see are quite modernways – interpretation, standing up, acting,recognising language and its power andimpact. We weren’t just sitting there, reading.It was absolutely enchanting to me to betaught in that way. I felt completely immersedin the power of Shakespeare.

“But the real turning point was when myparents moved and I went to another grammarschool. The teaching there was completelydifferent. We just read round the class. We were given a character and told to say the words. I could not believe the contrast.People in my class hated Shakespearebecause it was ‘dreary’. I thought, how couldyou possibly say Shakespeare is dreary? That was my bright light. I began to thinkabout the role of teachers, and of course thatbecame a career choice.

“It got me thinking about how being ateacher is very like being a director: you have a profound understanding of the materials inhand, a clear version of how those could beinterpreted, an ability to involve all participantsfully, incorporating others’ views, recognisingthe actors’ own interests and strengths, and the ability to draw on other sources and texts to illuminate both the materials andthe pathways to engagement. The outcome is a production. And of course, we hope our

audiences go out talking about the play too.”Brindley says she continues to be amazed

at the myriad ways in which the play can bemade new. Setting a group of teachingstudents the task of doing something newwith the ubiquitous “Double, double, toil andtrouble” speech, she found herself spellboundat their interpretation. “They sang it very softly, to the tune of ‘Here We Go Round theMulberry Bush’, rocking like disturbedchildren,” she remembers. “It made the hair onthe back of my neck stand up. I think about it

Extracurricular

ReadinglistSueBrindley

InterviewLucy Jolin

Sue Brindley is Senior Lecturerin Education, Fellow and Director ofStudies at Lucy Cavendish College and winner of a 2012 Pilkington Prize.

She remembers settingstudents the ‘Double, double,toil and trouble’ speech.“They sang it very softly, to thetune of ‘Here We Go Round theMulberry Bush’, rocking likedisturbed children. It made thehair on the back of my neckstand up”

44 CAM 68

CAM 68 45

now, and it still does.” She also remembers a particularly notable version of Macbeth atthe Globe, in which the witches wore eveningdress and threw black feathers around to symbolise evil, and the cast spoke insyncopated jazz rhythms. “It divided us!” she remembers. “And I think that’s good.Shakespeare’s plays are a marvellousillustration of the idea that there are manytruths. That’s why whenever I revisit theseplays, they have a different story to tell me.”

Brindley’s twin passions for Shakespeareand teaching inspired her to set up the MEd Understanding Shakespeare throughPerformance module in partnership with theGlobe Theatre. Her work on the modulecontributed to her being awarded a UniversityPilkington Prize for outstanding teaching. A conference on teaching Shakespeare willrun next year, and a major research projectis also planned. “Working with the Globe isfantastic,” says Brindley. “It’s the only timeyou’re ever likely to sit in a meeting and watcha bunch of Roman centurions wander by.

But despite her own formative experienceof being taught Macbeth, Brindley doesn’tagree that Shakespeare should be imposed on schools. “That obligation sets up barriersand difficulties,” she says. “Rather, I wantteachers to have the opportunity to teachShakespeare’s plays and sonnets creatively.It’s bold, it’s innovative, it’s risk-taking, it’s enjoyment. I think we should neverunderestimate the power of enjoyment inlearning.

Extracurricular

CambridgesoundtrackEwan Pearson, DJ

InterviewDorian Lynskey

Aliya Naumoff

Ewan Pearson is a DJ, producer, remixer and blogger.ewanpearson.com

CAMCard discount at HeffersThe Heffers’ Cambridge alumni discountis 15%. Shop in person with your CAMCard at Trinity Street or online at: alumni.cam.ac.uk/benefits/camcard/bookshops.

Primal Scream – LoadedThe record that reminds me of freshers’ weekWhen the original house records came out, I really wasn’t sure; but when AndrewWeatherall remixed Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine, my head exploded.Weatherall was my hero at university and now he’s with the same DJ agency as I am.This record reminds me of meeting this guywith a little blond bob, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt. He looked slightly ravey. He became a really good friend of mine: Mike. He’s anarchitect now.

Saint Etienne – Foxbase AlphaThe record that reminds me of my first summer in CambridgeIt was always on. It’s definitely the soundtrackto that period in my head. I remember finding a promo of Saint Etienne’s second single in a shop called Andy’s Records on Mill Road. I would scour the shop for things like that. Ah, when the internet didn’t exist!

Chimo Bayo – Así Me Gusta A Mí (X-Ta Sí, X-Ta No)The record that reminds me of DJing at college partiesMike and I bought a Technics turntable each,and they’d live in one or other of our rooms as we desperately learned to beat-mix. We couldn’t afford two each. This is a Spanishrave classic that we would ping-pongbetween each other as we tried to learn. There were a lot of bad white jazz-funk bandsat university, and DJing as a replacement forthat had only just started to happen. When wewere first years, we were hassling the olderpeople to let us play and they’d say: “Piss off!”But by the time you’re a third year, they’vegone and someone has to put on a party.

A Certain Ratio – Shack UpThe record that reminds me of my College ballPeople used to laugh at our little crew whowere interested in dance music. I suppose wemust have seemed cliquish and full of it,

because we were leaving Cambridge to dostuff in London and Nottingham. There was abit of friction, but as you got older and startedorganising events, people would come andenjoy them. It’s not that we brought rave toGirton, because we really didn’t; but we didput [punk-funk band] A Certain Ratio on at ourCollege ball, which was peculiar – a load ofpeople dancing in dinner jackets to Shack Up.

South Street Player – (Who?) KeepsChanging Your MindThe record that reminds me of the last time I was in CambridgeWe went back to DJ at one of the Colleges theyear after we graduated. I remember fallingasleep drunk outside afterwards and gettingsunburnt. It has been 18 years since I’ve been to Cambridge. The only thing I ever did in terms of paying something back was sending a copy of my book to Girton Library. The English department was where I got myhead blown open by critical theory. I moved on to a Masters in Cultural Studies and co-authored a book on dance music, so therewas something that combined the twointerests. It was lovely being able to finish itand dedicate it to people like Mike.

Recent reads

Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning by HA Giroux (Bergin and Garvey)“I’m working on a teaching knowledgeproject so am deeply immersed in workbooks at the moment – this isn’t my bedtimereading! Giroux sets out why he believes that the politicisation of the curriculumshould be resisted.”

Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identityby Basil Bernstein (Rowman and Littlefield)“Another work book. This one is looking atthe way that teacher identity is constructed.”

Ewan Pearson(Girton 1990)

Before they were demolished in 1995,the three Rugby fives courts onPortugal Place had echoed to the

sound of ball and footfall for more than 100 years. They were built in 1892, and their passing was marked by a series offives matches – of both the Eton and Rugbyvariety – and a speech by the Cambridgebadminton coach Peter Ridgeon.

Ridgeon recalled his lifelong friendshipwith Sid Tabor, the rose-growing, chain-smoking squash pro who, despite having aleg and lung ulcerated by mustard gas,regularly beat undergraduates while wearinga long black overcoat, flannels and browntrilby – even after giving them a head start.

Today’s players, who travel to OundleSchool to train, miss having courts closer tohand. “There are 12 players at Cambridge,”says Rugby fives captain Ed Kay. “Becausewe don’t have courts, only people whoplayed at school tend to play here. It’s toughto advertise to newcomers when you don’thave facilities and there’s nothing you canshow them unless they travel to Oundle,which is 50 minutes away. Some have comealong but they don’t keep it up. It’s a big timecommitment because of the travelling.”

Kay, whose Rugby fives career began at the age of 13, took to the sport for itsphysical and social buzz. “It’s not everyone’scup of tea, but I really enjoy it and the atmos-phere around it,” he explains. “At most tour-naments you get the same players turningup, so it’s like meeting old friends.

“It’s physically very demanding, more sothan squash. It’s hard to play if you’re not fit.It’s hard to finish off a rally and games can be very long.”

If you’ve never seen a game of fives, thinkof it as squash minus the racket. “It’s played with a squash-sized baseball, and you wearpadded leather gloves to save your handsfrom getting bruised. It’s only possible to win points when you’re returning serve, andthe tactics are also similar to squash – youtry to wear your opponent down by makingthem run as much as possible, while runningas little as possible yourself.”

Despite being variants of the same game,Rugby and Eton fives have a number ofdifferences – most notably in the make-up of the court. A Rugby fives court is arelatively straightforward affair: four-sidedand smaller than a squash court, with lineson its usually black walls. The three-sidedEton fives court strongly echoes the game’s

origins. Before the advent of courts, boysplayed fives against the walls of Eton’s 15th-century chapel, and elements of itsarchitecture – most notably a small buttress– are reflected in the Eton fives court.

“Really, the only similarity is hitting theball with your hands,” says Kay. “I’ve onlyplayed Eton fives once but I found it reallyodd, all those strange bits of the court andodd angles because of the edges and thebuttress. And the rules are bit different, too.”

Although the Eton fives club at Cambridgestill has access to a court in the grounds of

Magdalene College, help is at hand for bothgames in the shape of the new Universitysports centre. Work began at the WestCambridge site in May 2012, and the fivescommunity raised sufficient funds for Rugbyand Eton fives courts to be included in the new centre, for the enjoyment of futuregenerations.

“In the past we’ve struggled to get a teamout for the Varsity match,” says Kay. “Newcourts will help get the sport out there, andencourage people from other sports to learnfives. We need to get more people playing.”

cu-sparrows.org.ukcuefc.co.uk

AsportinglifeRugby fives

Extracurricular

InterviewBecky Allen

Marcus Ginns W

ith thanks to Oundle School.

CAM 68 47

48 CAM 68

CAM 68 Prize Crossword

Oneor Otherby Wan

�Extracurricular

INSTRUCTIONS

In ten pairs of clues solversmust move one letter from oneclue to the other before solvingand in the other ten pairs moveone letter from one answer to the other before entry intothe grid. Solvers need to deduce the logic behind pairings. All answers in One or Other are in Chambers (2011) asare all entries left behind aftermodification. Entry lengthsare shown.

ACROSS

1 Intends to arrange a flow goingthe wrong way on motorway(8)

7 Nearly refuse support (4)11 Sexpert blunders undressing

(4)12 Only non-electronic tone in

games console (6)13 Stealing cattle from broken

ring (7)14 Mainly forage cover for head

(4)16 Lie in downstairs and cry

loudly (6)18 Muscle in immediately or one

may see (8)19 Consider backing out of poet's

gang with leader absent (4)21 Initially seems as if it is

yellowish-brown (5)22 An offence wrapping to flog

a class of drugs (5)25 Japanese fishes eating without

order (4)29 Rock formation—a trio

embracing African music (8)30 Correctly dress wearing hat

band (6)32 One served in paltry rusty dish

(4)33 British soldier once cracked

code piecing snippets of radioannouncements together (7)

34 Tenor, one tired and emotional,is returning for a hug (6)

35 Ample from butcher sellingtongue (4)

36 Scots long for an Irish symbol(4)

37 Guards samples losing someinitially (8)

DOWN1 Rainy cloud touching the

ground holding oxygen (6)2 Lass missing daughter

hardens (6)3 Brilliant choice heaving south

east to change course (6)4 Spill a bit of tea from cup or

mug (4)5 One might use them for bas-

ting tins and to capture the lastbit of juice when cooked (7)

6 Speaker has upset the oldqueen (5)

8 Teaching aides areundisciplined and troubleturning up (6)

9 Seat with head droppingforward forces transfer toanother(6)

10 Got on well together without a longing (6)

15 Unaccompanied mancollecting to travel in Scotlandis obtrusively conspicuous (6)

17 Roman Catholic for examplesplit off cheering (6)

20 Enters a cult as sign of thingsto come (7)

22 Prodding ruffian once with aterse rollicking (6)

23 The outside loo dropping bothends is proper (6)

24 Not after a way to flymechanically (6)

26 Asexual body that reproducesvery much without partnerprimarily (6)

27 Told Greek judge to back childas trial’s beginning (6)

28 Fool in charge spades rocks (6)29 Wort cultivated as produce (5)31 Occurring from time to time

through dropping of one halogen element (4)

The first correct entrant will receive a copy of The CambridgePhenomenon, the fascinating history of the last 50 years of this technological explosion (TMI, £50). Two runners-up will also receive £35 to spend on CUP publications.

Solutions and winners will be printed in CAM 69 and posted online at alumni.cam.ac.uk/cam on 21May 2013.

All entries to be received by 13 May 2013Send completed crosswords: • by post to CAM 68 Prize Crossword, CARO, 1Quayside, Bridge Street, Cambridge CB5 8AB

• by email to cameditor@alumni.cam.ac.uk• or enter online at alumni.cam.ac.uk/cam

Solution to CAM 67 CrosswordSacco Mala by SchadenfreudeWinner: David Steward (Sidney Sussex 1976)Runner-ups:Owen Britton (Corpus Christi 2002) and Professor AdrianGratwick (St John's 1961).Special mentions:David Tombs (Trinity 1982) for his most elegant andcomprehensive exposition of the puzzle's solution. Christian Skene (Girton1940) for the earliest matriculation date.

Encoded answers comprise the named dramatis personae(less the eponymous heroine) of “Princess Ida or CastleAdamant” which forms the 26-letter code string. In clueorder thematic answers are:Scynthius, Sacharissa, Ada, *Psyche, Guron, Chloe,**Hildebrand, *Blanche, Arac,**Gama, Lady*, Cyril, Florian,King**, Hilarion and Melissa.Pairings are shown by * and **.The title is an encryption ofHOTEL WORK, a reference tothe SAVOY OPERAS.