Eccentric Oxford Walking Tours

Oxford Student Pranks: A History of Mischief and Mayhem

Oxford University is famed for the intelligence and innovation of its students. However, not all the undergraduates have devoted their talents to academia; instead they spent their time devising ingenious and hilarious pranks to play on their unsuspecting dons.

Richard O. Smith recalls some of the greatest stunts and practical jokes in the University’s history, including those by Oscar Wilde, Percy Shelley, T.E. Lawrence, Richard Burton and Roger Bacon. Ranging from the stunt that gave Folly Bridge its name and a nineteenth-century jape that resulted in the expulsion of all the students from University College, to the exploits of the infamous Bullingdon Club.

• Includes pranks by Oscar Wilde and the Bullingdon Club.
• Explores the long-running rivalry between Town and Gown.
• Includes stories centred on well-known Oxford landmarks.

I was expecting OXFORD STUDENT PRANKS to be a jape-filled jamboree of jollity, but it
turned out to be full of sex and violence as well. All human life is here, served up with a light
touch and keen sense of the ridiculous.
Author & broadcaster Lucy Worsley

“Gripping, witty and very informative” – comedian Adam Bloom

Oxford Student Pranks: A History of Mischief and Mayhem