Culture

“What is a good life?”: The Standard of Living in review 

“What is a good life?” This axiological question, asked earnestly in the opening lines of James Graham’s The Standard of Living – playing at Theatre Royal Haymarket until December 12 – is often overlooked by the fractured and hyper-specialised discipline of economics.

Diverse voices: ‘Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah’ by Miljenko Jergović 

‘When he created Earth and these lands upon it, when he divided people into...

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into...

Good grief! Why do we feel for the death of fictional people?

Whether it’s a mild sniffle or full-blown tears, I always end up feeling a bit ridiculous about the whole ordeal when it’s over. I mean, it’s not real, is it? Why do I waste my grief on things that haven’t happened, that will never happen?

Student art: only for the privileged few?

Whether you love it, hate it, or love to hate it, it is undeniable that the student art scene remains a fundamental space for...

Friday Favourite: Revolutionary Road

If I were to tell you that this novel is great because it’s ‘mesmerising’ and ‘powerful’ and ‘you simply can’t put it down’, you...

Wild Flowers

Join me as I walk past the best of gardensIts tulips nod my wayBut their colours filter through my sunglassesAnd don’t quite hit me...

Watching, Seeing

I wonder why it matters so much to me that they’re watching. When I picture you, pulling up at the side of a cobbled...

Slightly Stained

My breath is since-soured coffee and yours is sweet cigarette smoke.

The two

Its embers surround them, licking their skin and feeding their kisses.

The grey itself

Mutuality was not present that night.

Control

The paleness of your legs made them vulnerable in the light that shone in from his bedroom window.

Decadence, eroticism and indecent beauty: Aubrey Beardsley at Tate Britain

Aubrey Beardsley was an intensely talented, risqué artist who stunned his late-Victorian audience. Loved by many for his depiction of the underside of London life, Beardsley...

Percy Jackson and The Failed Adaptation

If you think you received scathing feedback in your tutorials, you should check out Rick Riordan’s emails to Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The...

All Greek to Me: Why we can’t get enough of modern takes on ancient literature

Greek and Latin works have inspired literature throughout the ages - authors were, and still are, constantly riffing off one another, with even Virgil,...

Review: The Globe’s Macbeth

Touted as one of their ‘relaxed performances’, the Globe’s Macbeth seeks to “break down walls to cultural access and empower teenagers to develop their...

“I don’t want realism, I want magic”: NT Live’s A Streetcar Named Desire

“Don’t you just love these long rainy afternoons when an hour isn’t just an hour—but a whole little piece of eternity dropped into your hands—and...

Being True to the Book

Adapting books for the stage or screen seems to be completely irresistible. We are compelled to take words on a page and transform them...

Live Album Review: Vulfpeck at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, NY, late 2019. A packed house. We see a stage, empty save for Woody Goss...

Debate: Is banning books ever justified?

The Case For Edward McLaren The case for banning certain works of fiction is often understated. While we like to pretend immoral books that focus...

And the winner is…? International Booker Prize postponed as book sales slump

"Restlessness gives wings to the imagination".Maurice Gilliams Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld chose this epigraph to preface their debut novel, 'The Discomfort of Evening’, long...

‘Don’t Walk Away in Silence’: Ian Curtis Remembered

Monday 18th May marked forty years since Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, took his own life by hanging himself in his...

The New Music Celebrity

The glossy pages of the likes of NME and Rolling Stone were pored over by music aficionados in the past, hoping for a snippet of the intent of...

Love and doubt: ‘Looking back’ at Orpheus and Eurydice retellings

Just as Helen possessed the face that launched a thousand ships, Orpheus, the legendary musician and poet, charmed a thousand hearts with his music....

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