A synopsis of her rejection letter to Oxford can be found on all the websites of all of the national papers. She eventually wrote a rebuttal to the growing condemnation it attracted, which explained that her refusal of Oxford was simply meant as a stand against snobbery and a way to get some chuckles from her friends. One of them subsequently put it on Facebook and the rest was, as they say, socially networked history.

All of the major papers vetted, quoted and critiqued Nowell’s statements. Few dared to laugh with her, fewer still took the opportunity to actually criticise the prestigious institution. Some went so far as to call her a reject. All startlingly similar to the kind of smug snobbery her letter was meant to rebuff. But perhaps worst of all, the reactions betrayed the lack of the one thing the late Oxford alumnus Christopher Hitchens held as the most unforgivable of sins: the lack of a sense of humour.

Which leads us to the published works of another successful and funny Oxford graduate, Evelyn Waugh. Those up in arms over Elly having a laugh at the university’s expense are probably not fond of the mockery masterpiece Decline and Fall, which goes to great comical lengths describing the debased debauchery and hooliganism of his alma matter. If you think Nowell's letter was iconoclastic, get a load of Paul Pennyweather’s fast times with the Bollinger Club, a tell-all tale based on Waugh's heady years at Hertford College. It's surprising that the infamous email in question caused such a stir, when right under their noses is a wildly popular, uproariously funny, satirical novel written by one of their own. Perhaps, they subscribe to the Old Boy’s view in Decline and Fall, that is, “we class schools, you see into four grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School and School.” The reputation of the first of which is not to be impugned.

So to Elly, you’re in good company. And, a piece of advice: you might have done well to start the letter with a quote from Waugh himself. For as he boldly stated in the Author’s Note to Decline and Fall’s first edition, thinking of the type of comically impoverished critic you’ve clearly encountered, “please bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY.”