author
Cuthbert Bede
1827–1889
An English clergyman and novelist best remembered for the comic Oxford adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, he wrote with a light touch that made Victorian student life feel lively and human. Behind the pen name was Edward Bradley, whose humor and eye for everyday detail kept his work popular long after its first publication.
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About the author
Ordained as a clergyman, Edward Bradley wrote under the pen name Cuthbert Bede, a name he took from his time at Durham University. He was born in Kidderminster in 1827 and became known as a lively writer, illustrator, and contributor to magazines as well as a parish priest.
His best-known work is The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, a humorous novel about an inexperienced Oxford undergraduate finding his way through university life. Its cheerful satire of student customs, jokes, and social awkwardness made it his most lasting success, and it was followed by more stories featuring the same characters.
Bradley later served as rector of Stretton in Rutland, where he built a reputation as a genial humorist and local figure as well as an author. He died in 1889, but the Cuthbert Bede name remains closely tied to one of the most memorable comic portraits of Victorian Oxford.