The Days of Our Vanity (From The Oxford Times)

The Days of Our Vanity

8:10am Thursday 9th February 2012 in Books By Maggie Hartford

Musician Richard Leigh Harris spent nearly 30 years in Oxford composing, performing, teaching and lecturing — and reviewing for The Oxford Times.

His memoir The Days of Our Vanity (SilverWood, £9.99) describes the late 20th-century Oxford arts scene and his friendship with writer John Wain.

He arrived in Oxfordshire in 1979 to take up a teaching post in Bicester, but left after a couple of terms. While on the dole, he met Frank Dibb, arts critic of The Oxford Times, 'exploited as cheap labour' by the group who owned the newspaper, and began to write reviews.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, it's an entertainingly written memoir, with a moving description of the love affair of his life, and the death of his lover in 2007 at Sobell House in Headington.

Fortunately, he is now happily married and living in Bristol.