Oxford Blood

Last updated

Oxford Blood
AntoniaFraser OxfordBlood.jpg
First edition
Author Antonia Fraser
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Jemima Shore Mysteries
Genre Mystery novel
Publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK)
W. W. Norton (USA)
Publication date
6 June 1985
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages208 pp (hardback edition)
224 pp (US paperback edition)
ISBN 0-297-78606-7 (hardback edition)
ISBN   0-393-31824-9 (US paperback edition)
OCLC 11666793
Preceded by Cool Repentance  
Followed by Jemima Shore's First Case  

Oxford Blood is a crime novel by Antonia Fraser first published in 1985. [1]

The novel begins with reporter Jemima Shore making a television documentary at Oxford University. Most prominent among the undergraduates is Lord Saffron, a wealthy, twenty-year-old heir to a former (British) Foreign Secretary. Soon she discovers that there is a mystery about Lord Saffron's birth and bloodline, based on the confession of a dying midwife. Later another undergraduate is murdered, and a series of attempts are made to kill Saffron, including a night-time attack while punting on the River Thames.

Related Research Articles

<i>Gaudy Night</i> 1935 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers

Gaudy Night (1935) is a mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the tenth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and the third including Harriet Vane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Oxford</span> Collegiate university in Oxford, England

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balliol College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Balliol College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brasenose College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mid-17th century and the new quadrangle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Trinity College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope, on land previously occupied by Durham College, home to Benedictine monks from Durham Cathedral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wadham College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Devon and Somerset family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worcester College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was adopted by the college. Its predecessor, Gloucester College, had been an institution of learning on the same site since the late 13th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. Founded as a men's college, Worcester has been coeducational since 1979. The provost is David Isaac, CBE who took office on 1 July 2021

A Staircase in Surrey is a sequence of five novels by Scottish novelist and academic J. I. M. Stewart (1906–1994), and published between 1974 and 1978 by Victor Gollancz in London. The word "Surrey" in the title of the quintet refers to student accommodation in an imaginary Oxford college.

<i>Brideshead Revisited</i> 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, especially his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion, Brideshead Castle. Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Lord Sebastian and Lady Julia. The novel explores themes including Catholicism and nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy. A well-received television adaptation of the novel was produced in an 11-part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981. In 2008, it was adapted as a film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saffron Walden</span> Town in Essex, England

Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, 12 miles (19 km) north of Bishop's Stortford, 15 miles (24 km) south of Cambridge and 43 miles (69 km) north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15,504 at the 2011 census and 16,613 in the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurora (mythology)</span> Goddess of dawn in Roman mythology

Aurōra is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas, Aurōra continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashok Banker</span>

Ashok Kumar Banker is an author and screenwriter. His writing spans crime thrillers, essays, literary criticism, fiction and Indian mythology. The author of several well-received novels including a trilogy billed as "India's first crime novels in English", he became widely known for his retellings of Indian mythological epics, starting with the internationally acclaimed and best-selling eight-volume Ramayana Series. His books have sold over 2 million copies and have been published in 16 languages in 58 countries. His Epic India Library is an attempt at retelling all the myths, legends and itihasa of the Indian sub-continent in one story cycle comprising over 70 volumes.

George Mann MacBeth was a Scottish poet and novelist.

Saffron is a shade of yellow or orange, the colour of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived. The hue of the spice saffron is primarily due to the carotenoid chemical crocin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crocus (mythology)</span> Greek mythological figure

In Classical mythology, Crocus was a mortal youth who was changed by the gods into a saffron flower.

Keith Brooke is a British science fiction author, editor, web publisher and anthologist from Essex, England. He is the founder and editor of the infinity plus webzine. He also writes children's fiction under the name Nick Gifford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friends' School, Saffron Walden</span> Defunct independent school in Saffron Walden, Essex, England

Friends' School was a Quaker independent school located in Saffron Walden, Essex, situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge, England. The school was co-educational and accommodated children between the ages of three and 18.

Maurice Hugh Keen was a British historian specializing in the Middle Ages.

Saffron Walden Free Grammar School was a school in the Essex town of Saffron Walden, which for over four hundred years educated the boys of the town and surrounding villages in a manner designed to be after the model of Eton College and Winchester. It was notable for its longevity and for some of its illustrious alumni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faculty of Law, University of Oxford</span> Law school of the University of Oxford

The University of OxfordFaculty of Law is the law school of the University of Oxford. It has a history of over 800 years in the teaching and learning of law.

References