Friday 22nd May 2026

Culture

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ in review

The Harris Manchester Players immersed Oxford’s inhabitants in the delightful world of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest this May.

Inarticulacy in part and in whole: ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ in review

When I heard that Jim Jarmusch had released a new anthology film, I fondly remembered watching Night on Earth (1991) some years ago.

On Geese and the Cult of the Fake Fan

Great statistics could be drawn up about how often men in Oxford will want to talk to me about Geese. 

Booksmaxxing and the illusion of being “disgustingly educated”

If you are as chronically online as I am, then it is more than...

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...

‘This Is What You Get’: Thirty years of mad ravings from two great artistic minds

★★★★★ This Is What You Get, the new exhibit at the Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, showcases 30 years of artwork, music and early lyrics:...

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...

Hertford Archaeology Open Day: Medieval Oxford laid bare

You may have spent the last year wondering what has been going on amongst all the scaffolding and construction noise at Hertford College. The...

Old age reframed – ‘The Blue Trail’: Reviewed

★★★★☆ The Blue Trail (O Último Azul), this year’s winner of the Berlin International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, is probably unlike most things you’ve...

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...

Night School: Oxford’s after-hours curriculum

The first time I saw Nahom and Ethan, it wasn’t on a night out – it was an early morning. I was shuffling through...

‘Delusions and Grandeur’ at the Fringe

★★★⯪☆ If there is one word to describe Karen Hall’s Delusions and Grandeur, it is anxious. The one-hour solo cello comedy show is filled with...

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