Thursday 12th February 2026

Books

The mysterious posters in Oxford, and the novel behind them

I had assumed it was just another poster, lost in the usual blur of student plays, society termcards, and talks promising free pizza. But this one was oddly specific.
Books Charlotte Stuart -

Rory Stewart’s ‘Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders’ in review

Middleland (2025) is not his masterpiece, but it is as much worth reading as any of his work – erudite, perceptive, and beautifully written.  
Books Hassan Akram -

Lost and found: The art of translation

Translation should be more than mechanic substitution. It demands that the translator acts as a conduit, conveying the intricacies of emotion, style, and intention, while negotiating the hurdles of linguistic complexity.
Books Beatrix Arnold -

How does an Oxford student read for fun?

No matter which book is in front of me, I’m almost always reading in twenty-second bursts, and I’m constantly thinking about what else I could be looking at if I only picked up my phone.
Books Ben O'Brien -
Latest

Fact and Fiction: Where Should the Boundary Lie?

Novels, TV shows, films. They are a form of art. And in art there is no wrong answer. Yet this becomes more complex for historical...

Classic Letdowns: Proust

Disclaimer – I have not read the full 3000 pages of this story, nor do I intend to. The reasons for this will become...

Friday Favourite: David Harsent

There is something about poetry that makes it more potent than fiction in times of need. With its raw, brash and yet strangely beautiful...

Murakami’s ‘Killing Commendatore’: where art can transport you

Murakami’s Killing Commendatore got me thinking about art within literature. We can easily find examples of literature within art: Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Millais’ Ophelia,...

Classic Letdowns: Vanity Fair

Googling the words Vanity Fair brings up a popular publication, a 2004 movie starring Reese Witherspoon and a 2018 BBC show, and finally, the...

The Dangers of Genre-lisation

Within a week, the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People, which explores the oeuvre of two teenage lovers, was requested on BBC...

Friday Favourite: The Uninhabitable Earth

The book currently on top of my ever-growing ‘To Read’ pile is David Wallace-Well’s 2019 book The Uninhabitable Earth. Based on his 2017 essay of the...

Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes offers an origin story for everyone’s favourite evil-but-unequivocally-stylish dictator, President Snow. For the uninitiated, his achievements in the...

Thoughts on the gifting of a book

In search of a distraction in the gloom of mid-April, I sorted through my bookshelves, where half-read prelims texts obscured teen fiction and discarded...

Review: The Mirror and the Light

The final instalment of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy finds her writing with more lyricism and force than ever before, and cements her prestige as...

Students review their favourite audiobooks

'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman, read by Martin JarvisI love the idea of audiobooks but often struggle to find one I...

The societal consequences of the prosthetic womb in Helen Sedgwick’s ‘The Growing Season’

Imagining a world where reproductive technology has evolved to popularise prosthetic wombs, Helen Sedgwick’s ‘The Growing Season’ toes the line between utopia and dystopia...

Classic Letdowns: Ulysses by James Joyce

There are some rites of passage simply not worth the walk - just ask David Cameron. From pig’s heads to pyramids of naked would-be...

Friday Favourite: Revolutionary Road

If I were to tell you that this novel is great because it’s ‘mesmerising’ and ‘powerful’ and ‘you simply can’t put it down’, you...

All Greek to Me: Why we can’t get enough of modern takes on ancient literature

Greek and Latin works have inspired literature throughout the ages - authors were, and still are, constantly riffing off one another, with even Virgil,...

Debate: Is banning books ever justified?

The Case For Edward McLaren The case for banning certain works of fiction is often understated. While we like to pretend immoral books that focus...

And the winner is…? International Booker Prize postponed as book sales slump

"Restlessness gives wings to the imagination".Maurice Gilliams Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld chose this epigraph to preface their debut novel, 'The Discomfort of Evening’, long...

Friday Favourite: The works of Svetlana Alexievich

Svetlana Alexievich’s works are not an easy read. On the face of it, they are oral histories of the Second World War, the Soviet...

Sense and Sexibility Part 2: A defense of Austen’s leading ladies

In light of a recent Cherwell article, I decided it was time to give Austen’s female leads the credit they deserve. I love Darcy...

The Masque of the Red Death: Reading our way out of a crisis

Edgar Allan Poe wrote his short story, the Masque of the Red Death, after his wife had been diagnosed with the then-incurable disease, tuberculosis....
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