Full steam ahead to Oxford - the friendliest city

It’s official. Thomas and friends (another fantasy great!) has declared Oxford to be the friendliest UK city after a poll of 3000 people to mark International Friendship Day today. Those of us who live here would agree. In a very pleasing ceremony, the city mayor was joined by Sir Topham Hatt to unveil a sign twinning Oxford with Thomas the Tank engine’s home of the Island of Sodor. This sounds like an episode of our favourite children’s programme about steam trains but it actually took place this morning.

If you are planning to come and visit us, the good news is that the rail links to Oxford are less prone to derailments, sulky trains, and incidents with flocks of animals than Thomas’ home.

So if the legacy of Oxford as home of so many fantasy writers, such as Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, and Philip Pullman, hadn’t already persuaded you, this has to be the final piece of track to bring you here, surely?

You can read more about this fun summer story here.

And while we are thinking about steam trains, aren’t they a great way to get into a fantasy story? From Prince Caspian to Harry Potter, from The Polar Express to The Railway Children, they have been casting a spell over us for many years. We grew up with the charming animation Ivor the Engine who helped keep baby dragons warm in his stove. Perhaps it is the clouds of steam and the personality of the engine that is conducive to fantasy? Or the sense that it is really the closest thing to a mechanical dragon? What do you think?