6th May 2025 - Book: Changing Places
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Another book finished. This time something different called Changing 
Places by David Lodge. This is the first in the Campus trilogy, a set 
of books which, unsurprisingly, relate to a university. It is a 
British take on the typically American college campus novel. 

I found out about David Lodge via a Birmingham local newsletter, the 
Birmingham Dispatch. Lodge was a lecturer based in the English 
department at Birmingham University. He came to the city from the 
outside and seemed to love it. Seeing as I am similarly from outside 
Birmingham but have spent rather a long time living in the city or the 
surrounding area, I felt it was worth a punt to read. 

The book concerns an English lecturer at Rummidge University. We can 
see how Lodge is writing from experience.. Rummidge University has an 
exchange programme with Plontius, a college in Euphoria, USA. Rummidge 
seems to be Birmingham while Euphoria is California. We meet the key 
characters, Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp as they fly across the 
Atlantic. We then follow their experiences in the 2 different 
locations with rather different academic cultures. 

The book is surprisingly well written and an easy read. There are a 
wide variety of techniques used to avoid sounding to repetitive. At 
one point, the book becomes a film script. 

Essentially Philip finds himself in ever more strange circumstances 
which challenges his quiet and indecisive nature. Morris on the other 
hand seems to excel in the staid English department of Rummidge 
through taking some action. There are lots of twists and turns, all 
with a humourous edge.

I found this a slightly difficult book to start. I thought it might be 
staid and ploddy but soon found Lodge's techniques kept me turning 
pages. I was partly not in the mood when starting, I think. It is 
clear how Lodge loves Birmingham as it is a city of contrasts. There 
are points where he describes Rummidge as somewhere you can just exist 
in a sort of drudgery but with a little looking, find an exciting 
cultural city. This certainly aligns with how I see Birmingham. 

Will I read the remaining 2 parts of the trilogy? Most likely seeing 
as I bought the trilogy in one go. Do I recommend reading this? Yes, 
if you want to see some of the differences between the US and UK from 
a 1975 perspective. Particularly with academia. Things have changed 
since then but echos of attitudes still pervade.