Sunday 10th May 2026

Books

G for Georgian? LGBTQ+ representation in historical fiction

It is undeniable that LGBTQ+ representation in the media has become more positive in recent years.

‘Technologies of capture’: Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’ Reviewed

CW: Disordered eating. As an Oxford student, I often think it would be nice to...

Oxford, and the ongoing appeal of the literary canon

I remember my tutor asking us if we thought our literature options were broad enough at the end of an Italian tutorial last term.

Why you should spring clean your bookshelf this Trinity

In the name of spring cleaning, I sat down and decided to sort my books, promising to keep only those that brought memories of a happy reading experience to mind.

The ‘Brideshead Revisited’ reputation haunting Oxford

Is there any truth in the fictional portrayals of the University?

‘I have only ever tried to show you beauty’: Florence Welch’s ‘Useless Magic’

Kate Haselden considers how the publication of Florence Welch's first book proves her affinity for beauty, and talent as an artist, extends beyond music into poetry

Review: Charly Cox ‘She Must Be Mad’

Charly Cox's poetry confronts the reality of life as a young woman in the age of social media

Modern China from a new perspective

Jacob Cheli talks to BBC Correspondent Michael Bristow about his travels around China with a cross-dressing language teacher

Is the publishing boom ‘a sign of cultural vitality’?

Despite the recent publishing boom, the literary landscape is looking increasingly

In search of Irish Revolutionaries

Eric Sheng discusses former Oxford don Roy Fisher’s recent work on Revolutionary Ireland

Travels with a Cross-Dressing friend: A Personal Biography of China

Michael Bristow, a former BBC Foreign Correspondent, hopes his book will challenge the Chinese government

‘Reversed’: An interview with Lois Letchford

Kurien Parel interviews author Lois Letchford about her memoir 'Reversed' which follows the journey of her learning disabled son, Nicholas, from the bottom of the class to Oxford PHD student.

Childhood’s Clarity in ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’

The Ocean at the End of the Lane opens with an epigraph from Maurice Sendak, “I remember my own childhood vividly… I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn’t let adults know I knew. It would scare them.”

Reversed: A Memoir

'One of the striking points the memoir illustrates is the level of abuse children with learning disabilities face, from teachers and others' says Kurien Parel

Patriotism and Chilean Poetry

Bridget McNulty discusses Hugh Ortega's debut collection and Chilean identity

I was overcome with a sense of familiarity, intermingled with strangeness

Beth James reflects on the forgotten female modernist poet, Hope Mirrlees

Daemon Voices Lecture Review – Two generations share the same world view

Pullman and Rundell make for an oddly cohesive pair at their talk in Blackwells.

García Marquez makes magical realism realistic

Barney Pite unpacks the "tragic, brutal and cruel" world of Márquez's News of a Kidnapping

Remembering Wallace: Biography and Memory

'The End of the Tour' is a powerful biopic, but by all accounts it gets David Foster Wallace wrong. Does that matter?

Self-publishing can counter literary elitism

Self-publishing is not a new phenomenon in the literary world; authors ranging from Marcel Proust to Beatrix Potter self-published books that are now integral...

Iraq is not a twentieth century Crusade

Oxford historian Christopher Tyerman delivers a polemic speech against rhetorical comparisons between the war on terror and the crusades

Salman Rushdie and Trump: Migration, modernity, and transformation

William Arlid Crona writes about Rushdie's latest

A feminist rereading of Austen for 2018

The 18th century novel is surprisingly relevant to the issues facing women today

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: reflections on Kazuo Ishiguro’s recognition

Did the Swedish Academy miss the subtlety of his writing?

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