A 1933 Morris Minor Tourer called Sue has pride of place on the cover of Three Glorious Years, an entertaining account of the student life led by the author RJ ‘Dick’ Lloyd as he read for a degree in modern languages at Merton College in the mid-1950s.

In some respects, the scene he describes is not dissimilar by that surveyed by an undergraduate today, with a preoccupation – away from study – on sport, beer and birds, the last in much scarcer supply in those days of single-sex colleges.

In terms of creature comforts, his was a world removed from the cosseted existence of his 21st-century successors, with a single-bar electric fire to heat his college room and a freezing walk across the quad in winter to soak (but not for long, I guess) in a cold bath.

As for Sue, the companion of his Oxford days, her adventures at home and abroad are lovingly chronicled by Dick, giving her a star role in his book. Her many mechanical failures and foibles will seem incredible to the switch-on-and-go drivers of today.

While Sue’s very top speed was only 50mph, this was no bad thing, says Dick, owing to difficulties in stopping her.

“There were frequent occasions when minor collisions had to be avoided by evasive swerves because the brakes would not hold.”

On a summer jaunt into Germany by Dick and a student friend, Sue attracted so much attention that a policemen ordered the travellers to move on because they were causing an obstruction.

After all this, it might seem just a bit caddish of Dick to sell Sue, for the £45 he paid for her, to a lady on Boars Hill who told him: “We know nothing about cars.” The ‘we’ included a daughter of 17, the car’s intended driver.

Copies of Three Glorious Years are available in Blackwell’s bookshop or from Amazon and Lulu, priced £9.99.