Saturday 15th November 2025

Culture

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 in the secret world.” This was said by the famous author John le Carré, who...

‘Undeniably and uniformly exceptional’: Uncle Vanya Reviewed

It is a privilege to attend the most anticipated production of the term, and...

“You will kill my children!”: ‘A View from the Bridge’ reviewed

The stellar cast of Labyrinth Productions’ A View from the Bridge delivered a layered,...

The caring individual: John le Carré at the Weston

At the back of the Weston Library, in a small room off to one...

Dear Reader,

It has been so long since last I felt  your fingertips tracing my pages, cascading shivers across my spine.  I have missed your smile, and the way your...

Cillian Murphy does it again

Since his generation-defining performance in Oppenheimer (2023) two years ago, Cillian Murphy has shown little interest in playing it safe. Having collaborated already on...

What will the Schwarzman Centre mean for music at Oxford?

"Oxford as a cultural centre on a global scale"

Are you listening comfortably? Audio drama and theatre

When people think of podcasts, they probably wouldn’t associate them with theatre. Yet it was this seemingly unlikely convergence between the two forms that...

Algorithms of individuality: ‘The Consciousness Company’

As Stephen Fry wrote, The Consciousness Company by M.N. Rosen addresses the “enormous ethical, metaphysical and existential waves threatening to engulf us”. It is...

Over-the-top-vlogging and call centres: Dial 1 for UK

Dial 1 for UK is a one-man show following the journey of Uday Kumar (UK for short), who leaves his job at a call...

Spike Lee’s lackluster remake: Highest 2 Lowest

There is no reason why a remake should remain inferior to its source material; even less so when it’s a ‘reinterpretation’ by an auteur...

One book, 500 years of art: The History of Art in One Sentence

★★★★☆ Former Wadhamite Verity Babbs has created a practical guide to the history of art – breaking away from the traditionally dense Oxford academic style....

The Librarians (2025) at the Bodleian: reviewed

Kim A. Snyder’s The Librarians (2025) draws the audience into a pernicious web of censorship, repression, and culture-war collisions.  Embroiled in a fierce, sombre, and...

Be brave, Oxford: Let’s put creativity back in the creative arts

Welcome back, Oxford. While you were away preparing for the next academic year, or busy attending the Edinburgh Fringe, the facebook Oxford University Drama...

The Oxford Art Calendar: Michaelmas 2025

Autumn in Oxford is not only golden leaves, dark academia, and beautiful architecture – Michaelmas is also a season of creativity. The start of...

A tale of two venues: Oxford’s musical legacies

Oxford is a city full of firsts – historical, personal, degree class, and musicological. Two of its music venues, separated by about 250 years...

The Museum of Oxford celebrates city life in ‘Our Oxford: 50 Years, 50 Stories’

The Museum of Oxford, situated in the Town Hall, is celebrating its 50th birthday. As part of the occasion, they opened late on the...

Why all this fuss about ‘Wuthering Heights’?

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia, HBO’s Harry Potter. All these adaptations of well-loved literary classics are currently in...

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,...

Hoa hoa hoa season: An analysis of the small town aesthetic

“In the state of Washington, under a near constant cover of cloud and rain, there is a small town named Forks. Population: 3,120 people....

Fashion around Oxford: India Matthews

India Matthews, president of the Oxford Fashion Society, shares her style secrets and where she’s shopping right now. Cherwell’s style inspiration of the week is...

Where Oxford University Drama Society can take you

I loved theatre at school, and, aged 14, told my parents they had to let me go to drama school. In reply, they suggested...

A guide to contemporary China, through cinema

“An artwork whose medium is history”, is how sinologist Haun Saussy defines China. As passionately debated as it is little understood, China today remains a...

Fresh-water

I am no longer a mother—I have surrendered my body to the surgeon’ssea shells and fish bones; and my sonto the teal press of...

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