Culture

A jarring Mann: ‘Fatherland’ (2026) in review

Fatherland, which recounts celebrated Modernist author Thomas Mann’s return to a Germany in wreck and rubble, deals with great personal malaise against a backdrop of great political unease.

Culture Freddie Lewis-Hedley -

Why does everyone like East of Eden so much?

A beautiful book, written in a determinedly readable style, is bound to become popular, not to mention the endless power of nostalgia.

Books Abigail Riley -

The return of the surreal

Mythical, dreamlike, phantasmagorical, and absurd: Surrealism, which took the art world by storm in...

Art Sylvie Quick -

Must theatre be so dire? Thoughts on the “unworthy scaffold”

If 'art est celare artem' (true art is to conceal art), then theatre is pretty poor art. You ain't fooling me into thinking that's a storm.

Culture Saul Grenfell -

Latest

Interview: Hauschka

Enyuan Khong talks dark soundscapes and ghost cities with Volker Bertelmann

Live Review: Warpaint

Helen Thomas reviews the dream pop performance of all female four-piece Warpaint at the O2 Academy

Preview: Normal

Ben Horton is shaken to the core by this unsettling psychological thriller

Review: The Play That Goes Wrong

Laura Stacey jumps at the chance to see Mischief Theatre productions repeat their comic success

Preview: Tartuffe

Jian Hoh is delighted and amused by this riotous version of a bleak satire.

Bargain Bin: Vanilla Ice – To The Extreme

Helen Thomas discovers one of the laziest albums in hip hop's history.

Subverse Radio: Musical Marginalia

Joe Currie speaks to the guys and girls behind the Oxford House music enterprise

Cherwell Culture Tries…Battle Rap

Don't Flop's 5th birthday celebrations give our Culture editor the opportunity to indulge his penchant for aggressive barz amidst thousands of fellow fans

Letter From…Amman

An insight into fast food, curfews and female autonomy from the Jordanian capital

Preview: In Her Eyes

Alice Troy-Donovan enjoys an unusual production of 'musical theatre, subverted'

Review: East India Youth – Total Strife Forever

William Doyle's brilliant debut album as East India Youth is an electronic mish mash of genre and style, with introspective lyrics and bleak instrumentation.