Monday 19th January 2026

Culture

‘Songs, skits, and a third thing beginning with S’: Jack McMinn in conversation

If there’s one thing I believe Oxford’s theatre scene is missing, it’s a button-down-shirt-wearing ex-zoology student with a penchant for writing songs about Pret A Manger.

The Oxford art calendar: Hilary 2026

Oxford’s frosty Hilary term is best spent looking at new exhibitions. This art calendar will guide you through some of the upcoming highlights.

‘Beautifully we may rot’: ‘Madame La Mort’ in review

In a small, black-painted room on the top floor of a pub in Islington, known as The Hope Theatre, Madame La Mort was staged for the public for the first time.

Damaging detachment: Reflections on the Booker Prize 

This Christmas vac, I made up my mind to get out of my reading slump using the Booker Prize shortlist, revealing toxic masculinity as a key theme.

A bombastic celebration of Europe, sexual freedom, and gelato

Phoenix’s unabashedly optimistic latest album is hard to dislike

Philosophical economists and privatised oceans

Barney Pite reviews Varoufakis’ Talking to My Daughter About the Economy

Restoring the silenced voices in Wide Sargasso Sea

The prequel is politically necessary to the original, writes Musty Kamal

Reimagining the Ordinary

  This week, Amber Sidney- Woollett explores the work environment by restructuring dark space, whilst Georgia Heneage uses expressive brush strokes and texture to add...

Kabakov Tate Review- ‘an exercise in alternative perspectives’

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's 'Not Everyone Will Be Taken into the Future' illustrates the horrors of the Soviet Union through a series of juxtaposing perceptions

‘The worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen’

'Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow' offers an unconventional take on the 'Chosen One' genre

My album of the year: Leonard Cohen’s valediction

The Canadian's swansong ranks among his greatest albums

2017: The year of Jack Antonoff

Few producers expose the emotions of female artists like the man who has come to define pop

Review: Fall Out

Tim Shipman reveals the chaos and bitterness of post-referendum politics

Modigliani Tate review – ‘a delight to walk through’

Tate Modern's Modigliani show is tame, but beautiful

Toxic Masculinity and the Mythopoetical Movement

Books like Michael Meade's Men and Waters of Life are just as important as Feminist classics in the fight towards equality

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

‘League of Gentlemen’ review – meaningful, powerful and incredibly funny

This revival of the BBC cult classic still packs a punch

Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time review – ‘the show regenerates, and not a moment too soon’

Peter Capaldi's final turn as the Doctor is over, but was that Christmas special the swansong he deserved?

Transforming light into flesh

Netflix's new series of The Crown entrances with nuanced links between love and photography

Why ‘The Polar Express’ is a creepy Christmas classic

Despite its peculiarities 'The Polar Express' might be the most magical Christmas film of all

2017: A feminist turning point?

A glance at the powerful women who have dominated this year's pop culture.

Five playlists for all your vac moods

Tunes to help you survive the different stages of the Winter vacation

The death of Fullscreen

A YouTube rival is closing down in January, and it’s a bigger deal than you’d think

Imagining Idris Elba

How the film industry is failing black actors

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