Sunday 26th April 2026

Culture

Why you should spring clean your bookshelf this Trinity

In the Northern Hemisphere, astronomers mark the beginning of spring on the date of the spring equinox. This year, it falls on the 20th of March. For Oxonians, spring...

Does ‘Euphoria’ no longer speak to our generation?

Should I have been watching Euphoria’s first season as an innocent, bright-eyed 14-year-old? Probably...

Bridging Communities: Vocatio:Responsio’s Liverpool Tour

Vocatio:Responsio, meaning Call:Response in Latin, is an early music ensemble founded and directed by...

‘Comedy is very deceptive’: Seán Carey on ‘Operation Mincemeat’

As a history student, you occasionally come across stories so strange they feel almost fictional. Operation Mincemeat is one of them.

Preview: V-Card

"V-Card looks to be one to remember"

Review: Sufjan Stevens’ ‘The Ascension’

With access only to a drum machine and a computer, the rest of his instruments being in storage after moving, Sufjan Stevens’ September album...

The Lord Gave Me Brothers: Lockdown Lessons from Religious Lives

Angela Eichhorst writes about how we can learn from two religious communities, Greyfriars Franciscan Friary and the Buddha Vihara Temple, during the second lockdown.

The making of Bong Joon-Ho: Memories of Murder

Bong consistently backs up this technical precision with an attention to thematic and emotional detail that, combined with his now infamously anarchic approach to genre convention, renders him a singular force in the landscape of modern cinema

Damsels in distress? – The rise of the lesbian period drama

Kate Winslet catches Saoirse Ronan’s eye in the mirror, watching in the light of an oil lamp as she takes her corset off. Later, Ronan...

A Vision of Autumn

"It was uncommonly sultry and dark when I arrived at the Winchester water meadows. The scene was a near stereotype, and it reminded me of those decrepit - far too embellished - landscapes you see in many royal palaces."

Petrichor

"in a quiet hollow on the far side of this field rain patters through the leaves like twinkling glass"

Cherwell Recommends: Memoir

"Memoir is an exploration of the complex layers of human memory: fallible, emotional and moulded by subsequent reflection. Like life itself, memoir is messy - but all the more enjoyable for it."

What The Write Offs tells us about literacy in Britain

Nothing has hit me as hard as this minute of TV for months. I had been sat in my little ivory tower of ‘well, why didn’t they just learn?’, but now I felt all that come down.

Oxford artist spotlight: in conversation with LZYBY

Emerging from the depths of lockdown, Oxford-based singer LZYBY (George Cobb) has made light work of spelling ‘Lazy Boy’, and even lighter work of...

Atmospheric autumn reads: ‘Cemetery Boys’

"The novel shows us a utopian vision in which our ghosts can be cathartically released, in which rebirth and renewal is possible."

All treat, no terror – Halloween horrors for scardy cats

This year, Halloween is probably going to involve a movie night-in rather than a night out on the town. But not to fear! The...

Mercury Prize 2020: an apt event for a tumultuous year

It goes without saying that the music industry has faced more than its fair share of hardship this year. With gigs cancelled, arena tours...

Cherwell Recommends: Feminist Fiction

"Each of this week’s recommendations demonstrate that female voices are far more nuanced and diverse than fiction has traditionally led us to believe."

‘Change Is Your Responsibility’ – more than just a song

"When Paddy hit me up, I was like: this is 100% something I want to be the voice on."

Intimations of Closeness: what might a distanced theatre look like?

It would be a dramatic understatement to say that Covid-19 has been disruptive for the United Kingdom’s creative industry – but live drama is...

Identity and Identicality in Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half

"Tender and thought-provoking, The Vanishing Half offers a reflection on whether a person can choose who they are. In a world where Stella and Desiree represent black and white, Bennett embraces the grey area of personal, racial, and gendered identity."

A Letter To Those Whom my Light Will Guide, In Honour Of Those Whose Light Has Guided Me

"What you are, is complicated. And I love you for that, Because you are complicated, Because you are raw, and soft, and broken."

Return to Oxford

"A peal of percussive raindrops tumble from towering heavens. A lonely leaf joins the fray in a willowing, whispering wash."

Verbalisation

"Then there is a sudden pull – my loose thoughts spill over the pebbly surface of the page. Images crashing and breaking against sobering stillness, propelling seafoam into the air, rumpling the Edenic crispness of the page."

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