Friday, May 2, 2025

Culture

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...

Please, no more biopics!

A few weeks ago, Sam Mendes announced his casting for the Beatles biopics he...

Writers on Writing: Reflections on the 2025 Oxford Literary Festival

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

Your essential guide to the music of May Day

May Day: It’s unique, convivial and quintessentially Oxford. Only once a year does the...

A Revolution Betrayed by Peter Hitchens review – In Defence of Grammar Schools

Review – A Revolution Betrayed: How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System by Peter Hitchens. ISBN: 9781399400077  Most people accept that the British education system...

Veranilda by George Gissing review – The best historical novel never written

George Gissing remains the most underrated novelist in the English language. He wrote twenty-three novels, although the average bookshop today only contains four of...

Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart review – “The prime minister we never had”

This is a marvellous book, a memoir of Rory Stewart’s nine years in Parliament, and its greatest flaw is that it is not long...

The Conservative Effect, 2010-2024 review: “Comprehensive and damning”

If you only read one book on British politics this year, make it this one. 

How Sabrina Carpenter Won the Summer (With Just Two Songs)

The people called for a shot of espresso and Sabrina Carpenter answered. 

Leonardo da Vinci and his devilish… boyfriend?

When we think of Leonardo da Vinci, the first things that come to mind are usually the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, or his...

Soundtrack to my degree

When I first came to Oxford, my Dad sent me the playlists he listened to for each year at university. His second-year playlist in...

Blue Monday: Forever a New Order

Everybody knows Joy Division, everybody knows New Order. If the former’s post-punk gloom is the gateway drug for 80s bands like Bauhaus and The...

Queen’s garden play review: ‘If you are a fan of the film you would have loved this theatrical rendition’

Honestly, I was more than happy to be spending my hungover Saturday relishing in the summer heat whilst watching Queen’s garden play last weekend...

Blindness review: ‘Unique first-person experience’

Blindness is performed entirely via sound, forgoing expectations of a traditional stage set and impressing the audience with its skillful immersion. The play is...

A Eulogy for Tommy

Ea! It’s so cold! I cried from me bedwhen I pulled down the coovers an raised up me edto see bright rays of sunlightstream...

P.G. Wodehouse’s Ukridge at 100

It is unfortunate that P.G. Wodehouse's reputation in Oxford takes such a blow from his being a popular favourite among OUCA members. Still, he...

In The Beginning

I was alone with the earth and the sunbefore you came along: there was no life, notthen, not even song. My hope had been...

The Oxford Imps Game Show (Live) review: ‘If improv is risky, here you’re in safe hands’

The Oxford Imps Game Show was both hilarious and wacky, the two hosts playing with improvisation extremely well.

Top 10 Summer Reads

Summer, Edith Wharton, 1917 I’m going to start with an obvious pick: Summer by Edith Wharton. I read this for the first time recently, in...

Lost in translation?

As someone who is half Japanese, I’ve become accustomed to reading literature in different languages. Some books I’ve enjoyed so much that I’ve read...

Arcadia by Christ Church Dramatic Society review: ‘Mad, bad and brilliant to watch’

“The best prophet of the future is the past” – Byron In the sweet-preserved garden behind Christ Church Cathedral there stands a table decked with...

Film around the world: Japan’s Harakiri

It is not The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption or any Hollywood epic that is the highest rated film on the app ‘Letterboxd’ (a...

The many voices of Franz Kafka: Reading The Metamorphosis

Spilling out of the gates of the Sheldonian Theatre and onto Broad Street, the lengthy queue for a public reading of Franz Kafka’s The...

Romeo and Juliet review: ‘Seamless and brilliantly acted’

If he was trying to build tension then Jamie Lloyd does it well, because I couldn't wait for the play to start. By the time I found my seat I was practically shaking with excitement (and a slight twinge of fear for what was in store). 

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