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...

Review: ‘Women & Power: A Manifesto’ by Mary Beard

Beard’s new book shows that new trolls are using the same old tricks to silence women

12 books to get you through 2018

You may need these books to survive 2018, if it is as rocky as 2017

The legend of Sherlock Holmes

Erin O'Neill explores the iconic status of Arthur Conan Doyle's literary creation

The Christie Mystery

Raffaella Sero considers why Agatha Christie's characters still enthral us in the present day

We need diverse books now more than ever

Sally Christmas reflects on the importance of diverse literature in the current political climate

Poirot’s enduring appeal

Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express reminds us why the detective remains so intriguing, writes Raffaella Sero

Fairytales can show us the horrors of Hitler’s Germany

The stories of Günter Grass bring Germany’s repressed trauma into the light

The late Mr Salinger deserves his enduring reputation

The Catcher in the Rye encapsulates central tenets of our modern world, writes Barney Pite

A beastly tale of life and death

Josephine Southon reflects on the animals and beasts in Grimms' fairy tales

Science fiction that shaped the Revolution

Daniel Antonio Villar looks at the impact of Red Star, by Alexander Bognadov

Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage: His Darkest One Yet

Raffaella Sero reviews Philip Pullman's latest novel

Rock’s best storyteller

"Darnielle's new novel confirms the status that Rolling Stone granted him; Rock's best storyteller", writes Barney Pite.

House of Fear and the reinvention of fairytale

Libby Cherry writes about the feminist undertones to Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet

Nancy Drew – feminist icon or tired corporate creation?

Ellie Duncan explores whether the children's detective series Nancy Drew is progressive or not

Not Forgetting William Hazlitt

Despite critical acclaim, William Hazlitt is now scarcely read.

Turtles All The Way Down review: messy, clichéd, and pretentious

John Green’s latest novel is a messy, sprawling cliché, writes Barney Pite

Angel Hill review – ‘It may be simple, but it isn’t empty’

Michael Longley’s Forward Prize short-listed collection is elegant and timeless, writes Barney Pite

An improbable journey to the East

Sam Dalrymple reflects on mundanity and self-discovery in Bouvier’s The Way of the World

Reconsidering the Lobster: Wallace’s Dostoyevsky

David Foster Wallace cuts to the core of what makes Dostoyevsky invaluable, writes Barney Pite.

Project 1917: The revolution will be tweeted

The historical Project 1917 is bringing new life to the Russian Revolution, writes Lucy Enderby

Follow us