[3] His best-known work is The Oxford Latin Course (1987–92, with Maurice Balme, new ed, 2012), whose popularity in the USA led to the publication of a specifically American edition in 1996.

[16][17][18] He also taught adult courses on Classics and English Literature at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall.

The Medea was part of a major project undertaken with Oxford University Press to provide new translations of all 19 of Euripides’ extant plays, including the disputed Rhesus.

"[24] Nevertheless, the availability of a fresh translation of Rhesus did lead to at least one new dramatisation of that play, presented at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, under the direction of George Adam Kovacs in 2001.

In her review, Elizabeth Scharffenberger has this to say about the status of this controversial play:[25] Kovacs, I learned at the ACA conference, is convinced that Euripides was the author of Rhesus.

In her review, Aurelie Wach of Université Lille contrasts this work with the rival edition from Christopher Collard (1975)[26] which Morwood himself describes as "magnificent" in his introduction:[27] Morwood's work does not compete with Collard's: not only does he refer to recent studies which have made discussion about the play still richer over the last thirty years, but, more importantly, he has neither the same aim, nor does he have the same audience in mind.

Each part of the book, the Introduction, Translation and Commentary, aims to facilitate reading and stimulate interest, without drowning the reader in technical details concerning Euripides' language or the editing of his work.

[29] It was soon adopted in America, among others by Professor Jeffrey Wills, University of Wisconsin-Madison, who characterised the "readings" by their "reuse of basic vocabulary and their length – both of which fulfill tenets of the inductive approach.

[31] The First Part is set in the late Republic, and introduces Quintus, the son of a freedman, who studies under the local schoolmaster, and learns the story of Aeneas and the Trojan War.

Quintus travels to Rome, where he continues his studies, and interacts with various levels of society, from an innkeeper to the son of a lawyer, and is there at the time of Caesar’s assassination.

Morwood’s final collaboration was with Stephen Heyworth,[37] his colleague at Wadham College, Oxford, with whom he had worked on A Commentary on Propertius, Book 3 six years previously.

[38] Heyworth and Morwood reject this view as outdated, preferring to concentrate on Vergil’s poetics and influences, with James Taylor noting the usefulness of its "panoply of intertexts.

The final chapter of his book Carpe Diem, published two years later in 2006, is entitled “Dumbing up, or death to the Cambridge Latin Course”.

"It is a form of drowning where the water hits his larynx and sends shockwaves to his heart.”[42] His funeral, held at Oxford on 13 October, celebrated the warmth of his personality, his love of fun, and his role as an inspirational teacher, motifs which were reiterated in several obituaries.

Ed Gorman in The Times[5] quoted the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis, who edited The Harrovian with Morwood while at Harrow, saying, 'It's no exaggeration to say that everything I do now started with James.

'[5] Christopher Tyerman in The Guardian described Morwood as “A cultural omnivore, at all levels he impressed pupils with his tastes in drama, music (especially opera), film, freedom of ideas and principled mischief, inspiring as much by example as precept.”[3] Stephen Heyworth[4] in The Daily Telegraph wrote that working with James (on academic studies of Propertius and Vergil) was one of the best things he had done, ‘I learnt so much, not least about getting on with it and bringing work to completion .

but above all I had enormous fun.’[4] On Sunday 4 February 2018, Wadham College hosted a memorial service for James Morwood in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, attended by 400 people.

Perhaps the last word can be left to Edmund Stewart, who attended the Greek Summer School at Bryanston twenty years ago: ‘Morwood said to me, “When I die, Classics will long since have ceased to be taught in this country”.