Benedict le Vay, a former resident of Oxford's Old Marston, is a national newspaper sub-editor who wrote his first book, Eccentric Britain, more or less by accident after collecting oddities about his home country. He describes himself as frankly rather ordinary and is hard-pressed to think of anything eccentric to say about himself.
‘At a push, I'd say, yes, I'm Honorary Secretary of the Friends of the A272, and I've asked for my ashes to be blasted from the chimney of my favourite steam locomotive at my funeral. Hasn't everybody?'
