Monday 11th 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.
Books Elizabeth Gammaidoni -

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

CW: Disordered eating. As an Oxford student, I often think it would be nice to...
Books Ben O'Brien -

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.
Books Jessie Jukes -

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.
Books Elizabeth Bourn -
Latest

What literary character is your college?

Oxford’s colleges are all infamous for different reasons, and come with their own unique reputations and stereotypes – grand or scrappy, aloof or chaotic,...

How can we write animal history? – ‘Animal History’: Reviewed

If an older adult has ever raised their eyebrow at your vegetarianism, then I might just have the book for you. They might be...

Review: Sketches from a Curious Mind

In 1962, Edward Anthony wrote: “Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the...

Academia is hell, literally: R.F. Kuang’s ‘Katabasis’

R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis touches on a range of near-universal academic experiences: impostor syndrome; frantic, caffeine-fuelled study sessions; watching someone effortlessly ace every single test...

Reading Oxford books in Oxford

For those who have not even set foot in Oxford, the city still lives in their imaginations alongside elite debates, candlelit balls and formals,...

How radio changed the literary landscape: The Bodleian’s ‘Listen In’

“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. At 20 minutes...

Running on treadmills: Milan Kundera’s meditations on Slowness

Sometimes it takes a new word to express an old feeling. Until the age of around fourteen I spent many of my evenings brokering...

What the book you’re reading says about you

In an institution as prestigious as Oxford, every book you pull out in public is transformed into a portable personality test, a hard launch...

Why romance books should be your post-exam read

With finals in full swing, and prelims just around the corner, Oxford’s libraries are full to the brim and SOLO is open at all...

Review – The Wykehamist: ‘A Saltburn for the other place’

In the underbelly of Hong Kong, a Goldsmith-Sachs Vice President invites a woman back to his penthouse apartment for sex. Once there, he tortures...

The Journal of a Chambermaid: The greatest novel you’ve never heard of

It is easy to suppose that the greatest authors of the 19th century have all already been discovered. Especially when it comes to French...

Doctor Zhivago: The banned book the CIA smuggled across the Iron Curtain

“May it make its way around the world. You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.”  These were the words of Boris...

Sally Rooney, a Flaubert for today?

Like millions of other people in recent years, I have fallen victim to the ongoing Sally Rooney craze. The Irish author, whose novels have...

Twenty-seven years on from The Satanic Verses: Can works of fiction be political?

On the 16th May, the man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie following a literary event in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison....

The afterlife of stories: The art and ambiguity of literary retellings

Love, betrayal, justice, jealousy: these are timeless themes, woven into the human experience for millennia. It’s no surprise, then, that they have shaped our...

What books do professors of different subjects read?

In discussion of ‘the great man theory’, Professor Dominic Scott discussed his recent reading – War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – during his...

Review: The Boys by Leo Robson – ‘Sparkling, enjoyable, sad’

There is a passage in James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity (1943) in which an insurance agent, warming up to defraud his company and murder...

Periodisation and the problem of now

Periodisation is the act of dividing literature into eras like Romanticism, Modernism, or Postmodernism – neat, bounded categories based on unifying characteristics, themes, or historical...

Why reading for pleasure still matters at Oxford

The idea of students reading for pleasure during term time has sparked much debate. Simply put though, Oxford’s intensive schedule makes it near-impossible. The...

The Pasts Contained in Preloved Books at the Oxford Premier Book Fair

Although post-collections celebrations usually involve nights out, followed by long, long lie-ins, I spent Saturday morning taking the bus to the Oxford Brookes Headington...
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