Universities often turn up in fiction, and Richard Howells, our Professor of Cultural Sociology, is always interested to see how they are represented in literature and popular culture.
A case in hand is Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Gate of Angels (originally published in 1991), set in the fictional St Angelicus College in Cambridge and nominated for the Booker Prize. In a review as part of the Times Higher Education’s “What Are You Reading?”column, Howells compares the quietly cerebral St Angelicus with another fictional Cambridge college, the famously riotous Porterhouse of Tom Sharpe. The food is considerably better at the latter.
Richard Howells is a regular contributor to the Higher’s book review sections. You can read his latest piece at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/reviews-what-are-you-reading-24-may-2018
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