Mark Davies(XLVI)
Mark Davies is an Oxford local historian, author, public speaker, guide, and publisher specialising in the history of non-University Oxford, with a particular focus on the city's waterways. Most of Mark's early life was spent by the sea - in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, and South Wales - but his interest in inland rather than coastal waters grew as a result of a chance decision to live on a canalboat in central Oxford in 1992, after living in Abingdon for a couple of years.
Since then Mark has written and published seven Oxford local interest books, four of which are currently in print: A Towpath Walk in Oxford (2001/2012), Alice in Waterland (2010/2012), Alice's Oxford on Foot (2014/18), and Stories of Oxford Castle (2005/19). In 2015 his biography of the Oxford pastry cook James Sadler (who became the unlikely first Englishman to build and ascend in an air balloon in 1784 - see 'King of all Balloons' page) was published by Amberley Books.
Since then Mark has written and published seven Oxford local interest books, four of which are currently in print: A Towpath Walk in Oxford (2001/2012), Alice in Waterland (2010/2012), Alice's Oxford on Foot (2014/18), and Stories of Oxford Castle (2005/19). In 2015 his biography of the Oxford pastry cook James Sadler (who became the unlikely first Englishman to build and ascend in an air balloon in 1784 - see 'King of all Balloons' page) was published by Amberley Books.
