In 1967, an advertising agency asked actor Peter Sellers to define style. Thrilled at the prospect, Sellers typed up a list of things which he thought were indefinably stylish. Here’s a selection of the things he chose:

1. My wife
2. A red Lamborghini Miura
3. El Cordobés
4. Private Eye magazine
5. Habit Rouge de Guerlain
6. The music of Antonio Carlos Jobim
7. A Baglietto 18m motor-yacht
8. The Daily Mirror
9. Hi-fi
10. Vodka
11. Shakespeare
12. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

“Style is something we should take very seriously, but not something we should think about very hard”

To my mind, Peter Sellers is an incredibly stylish man: the actor who brought Inspector Clouseau to life in Pink Panther, wearer of Saville Row suits and thick-rimmed spectacles, and capable of the finest Michael Caine impression that one could be lucky enough to hear. Despite this, some of Sellers’ choices don’t seem particularly stylish today. Regardless of your opinions on The Daily Mirror, unmixed vodka is certainly not one of the most stylish drinks on offer: it’s not that the act of drinking vodka is unbecoming, but I’d wager that the consequences of drinking it, more often than not, are.

In honour of Sellers, I thought I’d attempt to list things in and around Cambridge that have something indefinably stylish about them:

1. St Edmund’s Passage
2. The Orchard Tea Garden
3. Cobbles
4. The 48-minute train from Cambridge to London
5. Some buskers
6. The University Grocers & Newsagents on Magdalene St.
7. The Pimm’s punt
8. The Jesus College accommodation near The Maypole
9. The Maypole

This was a hard list to put together. I don’t think it nails the opulence and effortlessness of Seller’s list, but I’m more than happy to attribute that to Cambridge’s lack rather than anything on my part. I’ve turned to minds greater than my own and asked others to round out a list of Cambridge’s stylish things:

1. The Wren Library
2. Welfare reps
3. The Backs
4. Clare Cellars
5. A Benet’s flat white
6. The Jerwood Library
7. College brunch at midday
8. A takeaway pint from The Mill in the sun
9. Jesus Green Lido
10. A thick scarf on Sidgwick Site
11. The Gardie’s blackboard

In one of my first supervisions at Cambridge I was asked how I would define style. I didn’t so much answer the question as stutter and writhe until he put me out of my misery. By following Seller’s example, I would’ve saved myself a lot of time and embarrassment. Style is something we should take very seriously, but not something we should think about very hard.

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