SayersSomerville alumna and award-winning novelist Michèle Roberts returned to the College earlier this month for a reunion of those who came up in 1967. Speaking about fellow writer and Somervillian Dorothy Sayers (above) who came up to Somerville in 1912, Roberts reflected in particular on the themes and images of ghosts in Sayers’ Oxford 1935 detective novel Gaudy Night, and on how Somerville gave her ‘a community of friends; a community of sister readers’. Read the full text of Michèle’s talk.

Further reading?

Professor Dale Dorsey (1976-2026)

Learn More
22 April 2026
Professor Dale Dorsey (1976-2026)

Mistletoe, Mythology, and Somerville’s Mistle Thrushes

Learn More
15 April 2026
Mistletoe, Mythology, and Somerville’s Mistle Thrushes

Profile: Professor Loeske Kruuk, FRS

Learn More
14 April 2026
Profile: Professor Loeske Kruuk, FRS