Views of Oxford by Victorian watercolourist John Fulleylove in 1903 were reproduced in A&C Black's Oxford colour book - one of a series designed to show off the then new technology of colour printing. The publisher commissioned paintings - colour photography was not invented until the 1930s - with commentary from Edward Thomas, later a war poet, who apparently regarded it as 'hack work'.

The paintings are the focus of a new book in the Memories of Times Past series, Oxford (Worth, £25). As Tim Healey - a writer for The Oxford Times magazine Limited Edition - points out in his introduction, you would not guess from Fulleylove's peaceful images that in 1903 traffic jams were already causing problems in Oxford streets, nor are there signs of factory production, by then already in full swing at Lucy's in Jericho and Cooper's in Park End Street.

Healey sets the historical scene, while text by Su Box gives the background to each painting, juxtaposed with period maps, postcards, magazine adverts, railway tickets and cigarette cards. Lots of fascinating details about a peaceful town on the cusp of great change.

Tim Healey will be signing copies at 2pm on December 1 at Borders, Magdalen Street, Oxford.