The Eights of Oxford with Joanna Miller

Submitted: 30th March 2025

In the footsteps of The Eights with Joanna Miller

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students…. Joanna is here to show you around….. Ssh no talking at the back!

The Sheldonian Theatre (c) Joanna Miller

Map of locations in The Eights

Oxford is one of my favourite cities in the world and I have studied there three times. In 2020, I came across a Facebook post celebrating the century of women getting degrees at Oxford. Looking at the hopeful and determined faces in the images, I knew I’d found the subject for my novel. I decided to write about four very different women who become friends because they move into corridor eight of St Hugh’s College.

St Hugh’s College (c) Joanna Miller

When I was an undergraduate at Exeter College, the setting had a profound impact on me. It is a unique experience living and studying in buildings that are seven-hundred years old. Beatrice, one of my characters, is very fond of architecture and feels exactly the same way.

While researching The Eights, I was inspired to return to Oxford as a mature student. This meant I had access to the University’s many libraries. It was a huge bonus to be able to call up any book I wanted and to trawl the archives.

Map of locations in The Eights

Did you go to the place in real life to research?

Luckily, I only live an hour from Oxford. As well as being a mature student, I played the role of tourist and took tours of the Bodleian library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Oxford Union. I visited every location in the novel at least once, some multiple times.

Dog walks around Oxford (c) Joanna Miller

My husband and I walked our dog Dickens around the city every weekend after lockdown was relaxed. We followed a six-mile route which included most of the locations in The Eights. This meant I was familiar with how the city looked in every season. This was important to me, as the novel spans one academic year. I wanted to know when my students would be freezing cold and what the trees would look like that they could see from their windows.

The Sheldonian Theatre mural:

Map of locations in The Eights

How else did you do your research into location and setting?

During the first few months I began writing, it was still lockdown and I had to use Google maps. I remember pouring over an image of the mural on the ceiling of The Sheldonian Theatre for hours! Later on, I made a private Instagram account of old photographs and maps of the city. I like to be thorough and read many books about Oxford’s architecture. Detailed research that probably gave rise to five or six lines of description in the entire novel!

The Sheldonian Theatre

Map of locations in The Eights

Can you tell us more about the setting/location in your book?

I chose St Hugh’s as the main setting for two reasons. Its location worked well, being in North Oxford and on Banbury Road. It also had a fascinating past, with a lot of intrigue surrounding its enigmatic principal, Eleanor Jourdain. Emily Davison, the famous suffragette also studied there. Both women have cameos in the novel.

St Hugh’s College (c) Joanna Miller

I visited St Hugh’s twice and was lucky to have a tour from a senior member of staff. I also stayed the night there which was a dream fulfilled! In the first draft, I had imagined the women living on staircases, but after my stay I had to amend these to corridors. The college was newly built in 1920 and the principal had requested long corridors so that women’s movements could be easily monitored.

The women’s colleges were all out of town and began in large family homes. Hence, they do not resemble the flat-fronted sandstone buildings traditionally associated with the men’s colleges. All colleges are mixed now and have been since 2008.

Map of locations in The Eights

My research also took me outside Oxford. I drove to the village of Culham, selecting it as Marianne’s home because it’s on the Thames and has a railway line. I also visited Boars Hill where the women go to watch the sun set over the city. Honestly, I find it helpful to base my writing on real places –it generates so many good ideas!

Where in real life do you recommend readers travel to in order to ‘see’ your book?

I suggest a circular walk around Oxford! I like to start at St Hugh’s and walk down Woodstock Road, past Somerville to Martyr’s Memorial. Then I usually walk up Broad Street, and through the Bodleian to Radcliffe Square. I take New Lane to the High Street and visit the Botanic Garden. Or sometimes I wander around Christchurch Meadow watching the punters and rowers before returning via St Aldates. I may visit the Covered Market, the Oxford Union or Jericho on the way back.

Thank you much Joanna!