Hassan Akram
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...
Ten Years to Save the West by Liz Truss review: Revenge of the lettuce
I have met Liz Truss only once. It was in Oxford Town Hall in November of last year and I had tried (without success)...
The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States, and the Middle East 1979-2003 by Steve Coll review
Tyrants should only be brought down by their own people; they become martyrs when brought down by foreigners.
‘The Godfather: Part II’ at fifty
The Godfather: Part II is a film about gangsters. It is also a film about corruption, power, betrayal, succession, revenge, religion, marriage, generational change,...
Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy and our Sanity by Robert Peston and Kishan Koria- Review
"So long as we have an economic system geared towards the accumulation of wealth rather than the acquisition of it, inequalities will continue to widen"
The Roaring Twenties
"The Roaring Twenties (1939), freshly remastered this year in 4K, is the last and greatest gangster film of the 1930s."
The man of the moment: Review of Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin
"Baldwin does his best to humanise Starmer and to deflate the view of him as “Mr Boring”."
Empireworld: How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe (Sathnam Sanghera, 2024): Review
Without confronting the wrongs of the past, the wrongs of the present will go on unabated.
The Oscar Best Picture Winner You’ve Never Heard Of
"With the Oscar nominations for 2024 having been released in anticipation of March’s ceremony, it is worth looking back on a former Best Picture winner that has never got its due."
Flapping wings: taking the chicken scene by storm
There are two KFCs in central Oxford – one on Cowley Road and the other on Cornmarket – and until a few years ago...
