OXFORD COLLEGE ARMS | Kirkus Reviews It!

May 1, 2020—The following enthusiastic review of Oxford College Arms was just issued by New York-based (since 1933) Kirkus Reviews: 

“Marlin meticulously covers each college, discussing its unique history, the meaning of its coat of arms, and its specific educational mission. 

"Each coat of arms is loaded with nearly esoteric symbolic meanings, and the author expertly interprets—to borrow an apt coinage from Richard Lofthouse’s preface—the “peculiar language of heraldry.” … 

"The author’s descriptions are composed in unfailingly clear language, and the entire work is as rationally organized as it is informative. This idiosyncratic slice of history actually opens an intriguing portal into the whole of British history since the heraldic symbols signify what should be praised as well as what should be condemned. … 

"[F]or those in search of a confident guide to these meaningful hieroglyphics, it would be difficult to find one superior to Marlin’s effort. An astute exploration of Oxford’s coats of arms.”

Here is the review in its entirety:

OXFORD COLLEGE ARMS | Review in QUAD "Off the Shelf"

Richard Lofthouse in "Off the Shelf", QUAD, 4 September 2018

https://bit.ly/2xwNizA

Imminently available to order is John Tepper Marlin’s Oxford College Arms (Boissevain Books, 2018. £15). If you ever wondered what your college coat of arms means, and where it came from,  here is the answer.

The heraldic expert in our midst and distinguished former Chief Economist for New York City and of course Oxford alum (Trinity, 1962),  John delves into every college coat of arms while a heraldic glossary provides valuable guidance to those uninitiated by the formal language used to describe coats of arms.

When he wrote about this subject for the Michaelmas, 2015 issue of Oxford Today, John explained that even late 20th century colleges scrambled to establish coats of arms. Not out of vanity and not even to flog scarves and trinkets to eager parents. No,  they fell into the tradition in order to have a sustainable identity in the broader context of a collegiate university, particularly on sports field and river.

As such the book is a delight because John has taken recent images to journalistically nail his theme. In one instance a Mansfield wall hosts a perfectly recreated, chalk-rendered coat of arms, alongside the results from rowing Torpids in 2015.

Whether or not any generation of students really thinks about their coat of arms, and I suspect most of us blanked it,  John’s point is that we enthusiastically embrace it as the token of belonging to a particular community. This is so strong that modern arguments to ditch coats of arms have come to nought.

[The author is speaking at the Oxford Reunion on Saturday 15 September. The book is on sale at Blackwell's.]