Thursday, May 1, 2025

Books

Review: Allegro Pastel by Leif Randt

Tanja Arnheim and Jerome Aimler are Millennials in a long-distance relationship. Tanja is a Berlin-based novelist and Jerome a Frankfurt-based web designer. They text regularly and occasionally visit one...

Writers on Writing: Reflections on the 2025 Oxford Literary Festival

The Oxford Literary Festival is one of those events I hear about every year,...

Joanna Miller’s ‘The Eights’: Unapologetically, indulgently Oxford

Do not worry: despite the title, this is not a rowing novel. Instead, the...

A Trinity trail of Oxford’s best reads and retreats

Trinity Term has come upon us faster than the lovely magnolia has blossomed, which...

2019 Booklist: The Best is Yet to Come

With the new year comes a fresh calendar of book releases to look out for. Chung Kiu Kwok shares a few of her most anticipated titles hitting shelves in the coming twelve months.

Books to buy in the first few months of 2019

A quick guide to the highly anticipated books coming out in 2019

Sequels and Spinoffs: serving commercial or creative interests?

What are the impacts of adding to a fictional universe?

‘A bit of Bah Humbug’: Christmas in Great Expectations

Dickens is the perfect post-Christmas antidote to anyone exhausted by the festive season

Beyond Juvenal: “who will guard the guardians?”

One line in Juvenal’s Satire VI finds itself reincarnated in countless modern pop culture references.

The Bookshelf: Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Villette’

In the first of our blog series on your favourite books and poems, Jenny Scoones finds the passionate love and faith in Bronte’s later, lesser-known novel to rival the author's more canonical works

Milkman by Anna Burns: a pertinent portrait of life during the Troubles

An exploration of Anna Burns' The Milkman and its chilling relationship to the violence of the Troubles.

Poetry in motion: the nature of lyrics

Should lyrics be given the same respect as poetry?

Armitage’s Gawain: translating in wylde wayeȝ

"Translation is not without flaws – it cannot help but alter authorial voice, although the degree to which this takes place is certainly not consistent."

Autumn by Ali Smith: a seasonal portrait of post-Brexit Britain

The first book in Smith's ongoing quartet reminds us that sympathy is possible in our polarised times

Strange creatures: monstrosity in Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’

The world of literature is abundant with monsters: physical monsters, psychological monsters, benevolent monsters, evil monsters. However, there is hardly a monster as puzzling...

Normal People Review – ‘a novel that speaks to the current climate’

Jenny Scoones discusses the portrayal of masculinity and friendship in Sally Rooney's second novel

Factfulness review: On the importance of truth

Dr Hans Rosling's final book reminds us of the enduring importance of truth, says Harry Lloyd

Idle reading: books in praise of laziness

A consideration of two books with different approaches to the same philosophy: the art of laziness.

Stephen King’s It: the horror novel that sparked a love affair

The pleasure and terror of reading Stephen King

Characters we love to hate

Sam Millward surveys the rise of the antihero as a problematic but compelling character

The ‘Brideshead Revisited’ reputation haunting Oxford

Is there any truth in the fictional portrayals of the University?

‘I have only ever tried to show you beauty’: Florence Welch’s ‘Useless Magic’

Kate Haselden considers how the publication of Florence Welch's first book proves her affinity for beauty, and talent as an artist, extends beyond music into poetry

Review: Charly Cox ‘She Must Be Mad’

Charly Cox's poetry confronts the reality of life as a young woman in the age of social media

Modern China from a new perspective

Jacob Cheli talks to BBC Correspondent Michael Bristow about his travels around China with a cross-dressing language teacher

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