My Oxford Year: A Novel

My Oxford Year (2018) is the debut novel of actor, writer, and audiobook narrator Julia Whelan. Whelan won a Society of Voice Arts award for her narration of the audiobook of the text. In 2022, Whelan published a second novel, Thank You For Listening, which was Amazon Audible’s Best of the Year Pick, an NPR and Goodreads Choice Award nominee, and won the California Independent Bookseller’s Alliance’s 2022 Golden Poppy for Romance. My Oxford Year is a romance novel that combines subgenres of travel and sick lit, bringing American Ella Durran to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where she meets and falls in love with Jamie Davenport.

The novel focuses on Ella’s struggle to balance her desire for a career in politics with her burgeoning relationship with Jamie, which is quickly complicated by Jamie’s illness, multiple myeloma. Whelan explores themes of Illness as a Catalyst for Reevaluating Life Choices, The Transformative Power of Love and Loss, and Career Ambition Versus Personal Fulfillment, as Ella must choose whether she will stay at Oxford or return to the US when her scholarship ends. My Oxford Year was adapted into a film by Netflix in August 2025, receiving mixed reviews. My Oxford Year was originally an adaptation of Allison Burnett’s screenplay, Oxford, and Allison Burnett and Melissa Osborne co-wrote the screenplay for the Netflix film.

This guide uses the 2018 digital edition of the novel, published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, death by suicide, sexual content, and substance use.

Plot Summary

Ella Durran arrives at Heathrow Airport and receives a call from Gavin Brookdale, the former White House chief of staff. Ella explains that she is in England to study at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, but Gavin offers her a job with Janet Wilkes’s presidential campaign. Ella wants to study Victorian literature at Oxford but agrees to work remotely and return to the US on June 11. Ella goes to Oxford, finds her college, and goes to the Happy Cod, a fish and chips shop. Ella argues with a man named JD and leaves.

Ella rushes to the Rhodes orientation but takes a call from Gavin. Another “Rhodie,” Connor, gives Ella his phone number. Ella goes to her first class, but Professor Styan leaves the class with her teaching assistant, Jamie Davenport, or JD. As Jamie leads a class discussion, Ella feels inferior to the other students, but she notes certain authors and dates that impress the class. As she leaves, Ella notices another student, Cecelia, who seems close to Jamie.

In class, Ella meets Maggie and Charlie, who invite Ella to buy a bike and get lunch after class. Ella and Maggie visit Tom, a tutor who Maggie likes, and buy a bike from him. Ella, Maggie, Tom, and Charlie go to tea, and Ella tells them about her encounter with Jamie. They think Ella is attracted to Jamie. Jamie has a reputation for dating many women. Ella writes an essay for class, choosing a poem that disparages men’s attitudes toward love to provoke Jamie. After sending her essay to Jamie, he asks her to come to his room. Jamie tells Ella that her essay is too analytical, and poetry is about emotion. They read a poem together and feel a connection, but Cecelia interrupts them.

Ella goes to a pub with Tom, Maggie, Charlie, and she gets in a fight with a drunk man. Ella leaves the pub, runs into Jamie, and goes to a different pub with him. They talk about Ella’s work and Jamie’s thesis on Tennyson. Ella imagines Jamie kissing her, and they leave in a taxi. When Ella wakes up, she is naked in bed, and Jamie is getting dressed. They agree that they do not want a relationship. Ella gets dinner with Tom, Maggie, and Charlie, but she finds Jamie, and they have sex in a pantry. Over the course of six weeks, they grow closer, gradually spending more time together and having sex frequently.

When Jamie brings Ella on a small boat, she confesses that her father was killed in a car accident on her 13th birthday, exposing her fear of loss. Jamie brings Ella to his home and prepares dinner. The next day, they get breakfast at the Happy Cod and run into Jamie’s old friend, Martin, and his fiancée, Sophie, who ask about any “improvement” for Jamie. Ella pushes Jamie about the question, and Jamie claims his brother, Oliver, has multiple myeloma. Jamie says he spends a lot of time taking care of Oliver and needs a month-long break from their relationship.

Ella hangs out with Tom, Maggie, and Charlie, and she runs into Connor, who invites Ella to Thanksgiving dinner in London. Sophie finds Ella and tells her about Jamie’s illness. Oliver died years prior, and Jamie has the same diagnosis of multiple myeloma. Ella rushes to Jamie’s house, finds him receiving treatment, and tries to leave, but Jamie stops her. Jamie says Ella was supposed to be his last romance, but Ella says she does not love Jamie and leaves. Ella goes to Thanksgiving dinner with Connor and talks to her mother. After describing Middlemarch, Ella decides to leave Connor and go back to Jamie.

Jamie explains how Oliver died and how the treatments Jamie needs interfere with his life. Ella stays with Jamie while he sleeps and decides to become Jamie’s girlfriend. Jamie decides to come with Ella on her European vacation over the winter break. Ella insists on going to the Blenheim Ball with Jamie, Charlie, Tom, and Maggie. Jamie reveals that Cecelia was engaged to Oliver before he died, which is why Cecelia is close with Jamie and his family. The group has fun at the ball, and Ella meets Jamie’s parents, Antonia and William. Though Antonia is lovely, William attacks Ella, accusing her of manipulating Jamie for money. Ella and Jamie start their European vacation, but Jamie faints at the wheel, forcing Ella to call an ambulance and Jamie’s parents.

Jamie goes home with Ella, and his parents arrive. William criticizes Jamie for avoiding treatment, and Jamie tells William to leave. Ella pushes Jamie to do a drug trial, and Jamie only agrees on the condition that his parents do not interfere. The trial lasts three months, during which Ella lives with Jamie and works on both school and the presidential campaign. They discuss life and death, and Jamie says he wants to die at Oxford on his own terms. Ella pushes Janet Wilkes to continue campaigning despite finding out that she is pregnant. Ella worries that the campaign is the only thing preventing her from staying with Jamie. Janet wins a debate against her opponent, which ensures her success in the campaign, and Gavin offers Ella a position in the administration. Jamie offers to take Ella anywhere she wants to go, and Ella chooses to visit Jamie’s family’s home in Scotland.

Jamie and Ella go to Scotland on her birthday, and Antonia shows Ella around their estate. Tom, Maggie, and Charlie come, and they eat dinner together. Antonia gives Ella a ring, which she says represents Antonia and William’s approval of Ella. When William sees Antonia and Ella in the kitchen, Antonia sends him to get wine. Jamie enters, and Ella tells him to get wine, planning to force Jamie and William to reconcile. Antonia and Ella listen from a secret corridor as William and Jamie fight. Jamie tells William why he took over Oliver’s power of attorney before he died, and he expresses his fear that William will prevent him from living his last months as he wants. William understands, and they reconcile. At night, Maggie sneaks to Tom’s room, and Ella sneaks to Jamie’s, where they have sex.

In the morning, Jamie has a fever and is unresponsive, so they take him to the hospital. Dr. Corrigan puts Jamie in a medically induced coma to treat pneumonia, and Antonia, William, and Ella stay at the hospital. Cecelia arrives, and comforts Ella. Ella decides to quit her job to stay in Oxford, and she tells Jamie, though he is unconscious, that she is going to stay with him. Ella tells William that she and Jamie are going to travel after he recovers from the pneumonia, and William agrees. After Jamie wakes, it takes six weeks to recover. He and Ella then travel around Europe. Ella accepts that she could lose Jamie at any time and focuses on enjoying the time she has with him.