The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books

John Carey’s memoir is a lively reflection on a life spent thinking, teaching, and reading. Carey traces his journey from working-class roots to becoming one of Britain’s leading literary critics. His tone is witty, self-deprecating, and intellectually generous. The book is filled with reflections on education, class mobility, and the pleasures of the mind. It is warm, stimulating, and quietly radical in its belief in learning as liberation.