THE DONS: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses

by Noel Annan

A wonderfully engaging and entertaining history of the great dons of the last two hundred years, by one of our leading historians of ideas. Rich in anecdote, and displaying all the author's customary mastery of his subject, The Dons is Noel Annan at his erudite, encyclopedic and entertaining best. The book is a kaleidoscope of wonderful vignettes illustrating the brilliance and eccentricities of some of the greatest figures of British university life. Here is Buckland dropping to his knees to lick the supposed patch of a martyr's blood in an Italian cathedral and remarking, ?I can tell you what it is; it's bat's urine.' Or the granitic Master of Balliol, A.D. Lindsay, whose riposte on finding himself in a minority of one at a College meeting was, ?I see we are deadlocked'. But, entertaining as it is, The Dons also has a more serious purpose, no other book has ever explained so precisely - and so amusingly - why the dons matter, and the importance of the role they have played in the shaping of British higher education over the past two centuries.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Education, British Literature

384 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was disappointed that Annan seemed to write the book only for an initiated audience. Knowing little of the governance of British colleges and universities and the general culture, I sometimes struggled to understand. It seemed to me a mistake since it limits the book to the same people who might, in a hundred years, feature in a similar book. There can't be a huge audience there. Anyway, as someone who has always been fascinated with the British academic life (and who has fantasized about it a bit), I still found it interesting especially in later sections like the one on Isaiah Berlin. But I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who not of the above two categories (the initiated and the obsessed).

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book. The book includes Annan's famous paper, "The Intellectual Aristocracy," as an annex, which is worth reading. It's a light read, and I already have many of the autobiographies/letters of various dons mentioned, like Bowra, Newman, Berlin, etc. Came across two interesting figures, Dadie/George Rylands and William Buckland. Annan rightly discusses the devastating impact on higher education, especially the Oxbridge kind, by neoliberalism and Thatcherism, which turned education into a merchantilist capitalist pursuit.

[Matthew Edward Dardet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I would love this book. Alas, my feelings are mixed.

There are a few notable issues with the book. The first is that it was somewhat poorly written and edited, with grammatical and referential errors throughout.

Second, the book felt poorly organized. It was chronological, though it jumps around a bit. The selection of dons to profile seemed haphazard, with some glaring omissions, and was never justified. Sometimes chapters purportedly about the particular don listed in the title were actually about a completely different don.

Third, the book was focus was more on inter-don gossip and university-college procedural matters than intra-don biography.

However, the chapter on Bowra was quite compelling and informative, perhaps due to the author's affiliation with the man. If only more of the other chapters were written of the same stuff!

[Balloon Bruce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kept waiting for really colorful characters, but they never made an appearance.

[James Dempsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

bowra berlin and browning. no more no less. oh and jowett too