Close was a pupil at King's School, Peterborough (then a grammar school), where he was taught Latin by John Dexter, brother of author Colin Dexter.
Among those who have lived and worked in the local area are the author of Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, also Iris Murdoch, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Philip Pullman, Crime writers PD James and Colin Dexter (author of the Inspector Morse series), the poet Philip Larkin, and more recently novelist and screenwriter Ian McEwan (Atonement).
The pub features in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited and in Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series, which was written and filmed in and around Oxford.
Wytham village and Wytham Woods have frequently featured in the "Inspector Morse" detective novels by Colin Dexter.
Colin Powell | Dexter | Colin Farrell | Dexter (TV series) | Dexter Gordon | Colin Firth | Colin Baker | Colin James | Colin Davis | John Dexter | Dexter, Michigan | Colin Meloy | Colin McCahon | Colin Friels | Jean-Claude Colin | Dexter and sinister | Colin Wilson | Harry Dexter White | Colin Todd | Colin Dexter | Colin Mawby | Colin Jackson | Colin Hanks | Colin Blakemore | Sir Colin Campbell | Colin Welland | Colin Montgomerie | Colin Mochrie | Colin McRae: Dirt 2 | Colin Mackenzie |
Diogenes Small, fictional character created by Colin Dexter in the Inspector Morse series of books
Colin Dexter based the novel on the 1839 murder of 37-year-old Christina Collins as she travelled the Trent and Mersey Canal at Rugeley, Staffordshire on the Staffordshire Knot en route to London.