From Martin: My new photobook, Bartlemas: Oxford’s hidden sanctuary was published at the beginning of October. 2026 marks the 900th anniversary of the founding of the leper hospital at Bartlemas.
My book charts in 99 photographs, the magic and mystery of the place, including rituals and ceremonies, and its wider influence on the locality to the present day. It focuses on the contemporary neighbourhood and its influence on everything from street art to the cricket club, medical centres and allotments to the abandoned day nursery. And it explores the echoes of its medieval power in Oxford and beyond, properties, land, tithes and pilgrims which can still be found today. In other words a social and cultural history, rooted in contemporary stories with side orders of place, spirituality and edgeland. Topped off with a 4,000 word essay on medieval hospitals by Prof Ian Forrest, it is already attracting interest with an accompanying exhibition in the biennial Photo Oxford. Link here: https://photooxford.org/exhibitions/martin-stott
Copies are now available from me and I’d love it if you bought a copy of the book, an edition of 100 signed and numbered; £20 p/b, £35 h/b (hand delivery in Oxford is perfectly feasible and saves me a fortune on postage). Let me know if you are interested. Please let your friends know too, and give it a plug on social media.
The book launch will be on Saturday 1 November at 7.30 pm at Caper Books (74-77 Magdalen Road) who are managing the launch. Ian Forrest and I will be in conversation with poet Kate Clanchy. We are already fully booked for this event. https://martin-stott.com/
