Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey
by James Attlee
University of Chicago Press ₤12, 296 pages

Don’t let the pretentious title put you off this book. Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey suggests Oxbridge self-importance, but an isolarion turns out to be a 15th-century map showing a small area in great detail. In this offbeat, personal exploration of his city, James Attlee takes not the historic colleges but the prosaic Cowley Road in east Oxford as his chosen map.