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Hassan Akram

Review: Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Oxford Playhouse – “Nic Rackow is revelatory” 

This new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a glamorous, engrossing period drama, showing at the Oxford Playhouse, is elevated by its stars into one of...

Alan Johnson on his time as Home Secretary, raising tuition fees, and why he loves Harold Wilson

"This idea that higher education should be completely free is ludicrous."

Review: Joker: Folie à Deux

Joker: Folie a Deux is ultimately too disjointed and unnecessary to win Oscars or make headlines.

Lord Peter Mandelson on New Labour, his time at Oxford, and why he is running to be University Chancellor

"Oxford is a global university, and I believe it needs a global Chancellor"

James O’Brien on Brexit, Boris Johnson, and making radio go viral

"Nigel Farage thought he was coming in to have his tummy tickled. I helped him soil himself."

On Leadership by Tony Blair, Precipice by Robert Harris, and Oxford crime – Books of the Month

On Leadership by Tony Blair; Precipice by Robert Harris; Lessons in Crime: Academic Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards

North Korea and the Global Nuclear Order review – “An excellent account”

Dr Edward Howell, whose columns in the Spectator and the Telegraph are among the few intelligent and readable things left in those outlets, has...

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. 

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...

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...

The Orwell Tour review: ‘A unique and first-rate travelogue’

Within the last year there have been countless new books on George Orwell, but Oliver Lewis’s The Orwell Tour, just released in paperback, is...