The term New Oxford Wits was applied, around 1980, to a group of young English writers who had been at the University of Oxford in the 1970s. It alludes to the Oxford Wits of the 1920s. Those supposed to be in the New Oxford Wits were Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Tina Brown, James Fenton, Ian Hamilton, Ian McEwan and Craig Raine.
Famous quotes containing the words oxford and/or wits:
“The logical English train a scholar as they train an engineer. Oxford is Greek factory, as Wilton mills weave carpet, and Sheffield grinds steel. They know the use of a tutor, as they know the use of a horse; and they draw the greatest amount of benefit from both. The reading men are kept by hard walking, hard riding, and measured eating and drinking, at the top of their condition, and two days before the examination, do not work but lounge, ride, or run, to be fresh on the college doomsday.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)