To set the scene, we live in Beaumont Buildings which - although in the centre of Oxford, a stone's-throw from the Randolph - is a very quiet backwater full of trees, shrubs and flowers. At the back we benefit from our neighbours' gardens, many given…
"At first I enjoyed the peace and quiet, and the cleaner air with hardly any traffic. Once I was the only person on High Street; on another occasion I seemed to have Christ Church Meadow all to myself. In spring the city would be thronged with the…