Isaiah Berlin lived here

This plaque is tucked away on a side-street in Headington.

I read some of Berlin's work at university, and still associate him with his two concepts of liberty - 'freedom from' (interference) and 'freedom to' (do as we want) - which of course often clash.

The Independent's obituary noted he was often described by means of superlatives: "the world's greatest talker, the century's most inspired reader, one of the finest minds of our time".

He also founded Wolfson College - 'a centre of academic excellence which, unlike many other colleges at Oxford, would also be based on a strong egalitarian and democratic ethos'.

Most importantly of all, he was friends with Boris Pasternak, and smuggled the typescript of Doctor Zhivago out of Russia - without him there would have been no Lara's tune!