Friday 2nd January 2026

Books

‘The political is also political’: Ash Sarkar’s ‘Minority Rule’

Universities have often been seen as bastions of radicalism. Forgetting the fact that higher educational institutions, particularly ancient and elite ones in the Anglophone world, are governed by centuries...
Books Morien Robertson -

Illuminating American conservatism: William F Buckley’s biography, reviewed

The ornate, Latinate vocabulary. The debates peppered with witticisms. The patrician air, the untraceable...
Books Gavriella Epstein-Lightman -

What I discovered when I started reading French books

My most hated subject at school was French. I mean, I hated every subject...
Books Ben O'Brien -

The lying life of authors: John le Carré and authorial double-lives

“I’m not a spy who writes novels, I am a writer who briefly worked...
Books Apaar Agarwal -
Latest

Would you risk your life on God? Reflections on Professor John Lennox’s ‘Can Science Explain Everything?’

Prompted by Professor John Lennox's new book, Jack Sagar grapples with questions about science, God, and the faith that binds us all together.

Urban Decay

Exploring the metropolis in 1890s Decadent literature and its origins in Baudelaire and Huysman

Reality check: the power of relatable crises

"Conflicts in literature don’t work when they fail to resonate". Regardless of genre, books are most impactful when their crises are rooted in everyday human experience.

The Crisis of Creon

'Peripeteia', reversal of fortune, for Sophocles' Creon in 'Antigone' is a wincingly fatal consequence of his tragic decision.

Satiating Sá-Carneiro

Exploring the life and work of an acclaimed Portuguese writer, at the heart of which lies the desire to discover.

Resisting bodily urges: extreme asceticism in medieval female saints’ lives

The modern-day 'anorexia memoir' has its origin in the genre of medieval saints' lives

Why do we write?

We write for ourselves, for the reader, and for wider society.  And I think that’s probably a good enough reason to write an article for Cherwell.

The anxiety of envy

"Big names dominate the industry, and yet their fiction feels incredibly same-y."

Knight Of: read the one percent

Juliet Garcia covers the launch of Knight Of's crowdfunding campaign, centred around BAME children's literature.

The Bookshelf: Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Solitude’

As part of our new blog series ‘The Bookshelf’, Jenny Scoones finds solace in Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Solitude’.

2019 Booklist: The Best is Yet to Come

With the new year comes a fresh calendar of book releases to look out for. Chung Kiu Kwok shares a few of her most anticipated titles hitting shelves in the coming twelve months.

Books to buy in the first few months of 2019

A quick guide to the highly anticipated books coming out in 2019

Sequels and Spinoffs: serving commercial or creative interests?

What are the impacts of adding to a fictional universe?

‘A bit of Bah Humbug’: Christmas in Great Expectations

Dickens is the perfect post-Christmas antidote to anyone exhausted by the festive season

Beyond Juvenal: “who will guard the guardians?”

One line in Juvenal’s Satire VI finds itself reincarnated in countless modern pop culture references.

The Bookshelf: Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Villette’

In the first of our blog series on your favourite books and poems, Jenny Scoones finds the passionate love and faith in Bronte’s later, lesser-known novel to rival the author's more canonical works

Milkman by Anna Burns: a pertinent portrait of life during the Troubles

An exploration of Anna Burns' The Milkman and its chilling relationship to the violence of the Troubles.

Poetry in motion: the nature of lyrics

Should lyrics be given the same respect as poetry?

Armitage’s Gawain: translating in wylde wayeȝ

"Translation is not without flaws – it cannot help but alter authorial voice, although the degree to which this takes place is certainly not consistent."

Autumn by Ali Smith: a seasonal portrait of post-Brexit Britain

The first book in Smith's ongoing quartet reminds us that sympathy is possible in our polarised times
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