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Oxford In Literature And Other Media
Oxford University is the setting for numerous works of fiction, an early example being when Chaucer referred to a “Clerk [student] of Oxenford" in his 'Canterbury Tales' in 1400.
More recently, Sir Humphrey Appleby attended the imaginary Baillie College in 'Yes Minister', and 'The Complete Yes Minister' book's introduction was written from the equally fictitious Hacker College.
Other famous literary works range from Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' to Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which features an alternate-reality version of the University.
By 1989, 533 Oxford-based novels had been identified, and this number is still rising.