Alumna wins place on Creative Writing summer school

The first woman graduate of Corpus Christi has won this year's Creative Writing Summer School competition for University alumni. Congratulations to Dina Gold (pictured below with a portrait of Bishop Fox, the founder of her College) who has many interesting stories to tell.

'When I arrived at Corpus Christi College in 1975, I already had two degrees (BA and MA). I came to do an M Litt in Social Anthropology. There were eight women graduates at Corpus and no female undergraduates.'

'During my first year I lived in college - a strange experience being with so many boys so much younger than I, and who were, in my eyes, terribly immature. Many were from all-male public schools and tended to be excruciatingly shy with me.'

'I met many fascinating people during my time at Oxford, perhaps the most glamorous being fellow Corpuscle, the then exiled King of Lesotho, Moshoeshoe II. We used to have an occasional drink together at The Bear Inn, just up the road from our college.'

'I was the first woman to gain a degree since the college's foundation in 1517. I went through the graduation ceremony in 1978.'

'After graduating I spent two years working at the "Investors Chronicle" as a financial journalist, and then I joined the BBC. I worked as an investigative reporter/producer on Radio 4 "Checkpoint", then on TV "Watchdog", "Money Programme", "Breakfast News" and various news and election programmes. I then joined the BBC Secretariat, working on policy and journalistic standards as well as representing the BBC at Ofcom. I was seconded, in September 2001, to the Metropolitan Police, New Scotland Yard, for one year.'

'After I emigrated with my family to the USA in 2008, I decided to write the story of a legal claim with which I have a personal connection. My mother was born in Berlin and fled the Nazis in the 1930s. I helped her win restitution for the family business headquarters, seized by Hitler's Railways (the Reichsbahn) in 1937. The building was in the Soviet sector of the city at the end of the war but is now part of the German Ministry of Transport. I hope it will attract a lot of interest but I have found writing a book is very different from journalism.'

'At this summer's course I hope to learn how to write exciting prose and realistic dialogue, which will hold readers' attention. I also look forward to meeting people doing interesting projects - and maybe a few literary agents or publishers as well!'

Our Creative Writing Summer School takes place at Exeter College for three weeks each summer. The 2012 programme is now closed to new applications, but those wishing to know more about the programme should visit: http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/W800-36

Published 16 May 2012