Culture

What does a Ruskin artist actually learn? A graduate’s perspective

Create, critique, repeat? Polina Kim interviewed recent John Ruskin MFA graduate Laura Limbourg about the inner workings, of unknown to the public, of the school. Oxford terms are intense. Lawyers,...

Art Polina Kim -

Why we’re obsessed with Greek myth retellings

In every bookshop today, from Blackwell’s to Waterstones, an unmistakable pattern emerges: Greek myth...

Books Hannah Becker -

Down the rabbit hole: illustrating ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has long proved an endless source of inspiration to illustrators....

Art Verity Fleetwood-Law -

The performance of watching: Cinema in the Letterboxd age

While watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (2025) a few weeks ago,...

Culture Eve Thomas -

Latest

A Drink by Edward McLaren

I rise from my screen and enter the horizontal darkness above its frame, itself over the river I do not see. Why is it...

Booksmart and the art of growing up

They find themselves together – still best friends, still ambitious and imperfect and stressed.

In conversation with Francesca Tacchi

Any book that begins with the sentence “Every day is a good day to kill Nazis” is bound to catch my interest. Luckily for...

Music beyond the M6

In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, musician Sam Fender discussed the importance of singing in a Geordie accent for his latest album...

Scenes with Girls: In conversation with Love Song Productions

"The dialogue is simultaneously so realistic and so weird and the characters and themes felt like they would really ring true to a student audience."

In Defence of James Corden

"So where did it go so wrong? Well, there is no disputing his most incredible talent of worming his way into just about every corner of popular culture."

Why we should care about Warhol

"The growing demand for modern art from an increasing number of collectors is a cause of both celebration and lament for the rest of us."

“Unafraid to poke fun at the elite” – Review: The Corn is Green

"Miss Moffat plucks Morgan Evans out of the mines, trains him to speak like a gentleman, and stuffs his head with Adam Smith and Voltaire. It’s like My Fair Lady, but gender-swapped and very, very Welsh."

Vessel: In conversation with Grace Olusola

TW: fatphobia, eating disorders, self-harm. Vessel, the new theatrical anthology from Dawn Productions, examines our relationship with the body and food through episodic fragments....

“Rage and heartbreak” – Review: Medea

"[Medea] is a truly frightening figure as she stalks the quad, coming right up to the audience and looking them in the eye as she delivers some of the most acerbic lines of the play."

Once Long Ago

In Once Long Ago, Jenny Robinson invites us to listen to the “dead tales of old gods long gone” struggling to find their place...

Work is hell: the brutal beauty of corporate aesthetics

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that hell is other people, but he was wrong: hell is an office job. The stereotypical image summoned by nine-to-five drudgery...

Love Without Words: The Quiet Storytelling of Heartstopper

Rare for the teen drama genre, the show, much like its sketched source material, is taciturn like an actual shy teenager.

‘Irishness existing in England’: the brilliance of Skinty Fia

I first came across Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. when my brother brought me their debut album on vinyl for Christmas, back in 2019....

Oxford’s rock and roll: a very short introduction

"Rock and roll and academia has never been the most compatible pairing."

Love Island goes sustainable?

"As a show, Love Island isn’t exactly known for setting a good example for just about anything, so the sudden decision to eschew fast fashion seems rather out of character."