Alannah weston biography definition

Thinking of the first day you walked through the Merton Lodge arch, what was your first impression?

It was exactly as I thought it should be – I had very romantic notions of what Oxford would be like, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Even in those days it seemed steeped in the past – the Porter’s Lodge with the pigeonholes, the dining tables and benches, the eccentric tutors… but that gave it a hallowed feeling. As a Canadian, I was seeking out something that felt foreign to me, and yet comforting and home.

Do you have a particular memory that stands out from your time at Merton?

There are many – being the only person with a computer and a ‘brick’ phone and more importantly, a mini-fridge in the whole College, they used to call my room ‘Silicon Valley’.

I remember once my printer broke and I asked John Carey if I could read my essay off the laptop and he looked quite alarmed and said that someone else could read their essay that day.

John Carey taught