Saturday 9th May 2026

Lifestyle

Going to prison during the vacation: The secret lives of Oxford students

Over 150 hours of my Easter vac were spent inside the sturdy walls of one of His Majesty’s most secure men’s prisons – though fortunately I was able to go home at the end of the day.

‘If he wanted to he would’: The problem with TikTok dating advice

This kind of advice doesn’t just set unrealistic expectations, but actively discourages real communication. Instead of having a conversation with our partners, we are encouraged to analyse, dissect, interpret, and ultimately to assume the worst.

How places are made: A meditation in the City of Love

Places are formed from memories etched into streets, from ghosts which dwell in between moments. They’re shaped by the dreams and aspirations which have been poured into quiet, hidden hollows, like that shop in Paris.

The cult of radical self-love

You don’t need to understand the mechanics of a triple Axel to be able to see the pure, unfiltered joy on Liu’s face during her victorious Olympic free skate. 

Cherpse! Eve and Thomas

Eve, German and Spanish, LMH, 2nd Year First impressions? He had a very impressive bookshelf! Did it meet up to your expectations? I am no good...

NEVER fail to call out racism: the devastation of silence

TW: Racism, sexual assault  British society and campuses continue to live in denial of racial inequality entrenched in our communities. Removing the burden of racism...

Belonging and Burdens at Oxford: Confessions of a BAME Oxonian

‘I’m never going to feel like I belong here!’ It was almost a year ago when those words flew out of my mouth. I...

“Your English is so Good!” and Other Racist Microaggressions

TW: Racism Upon descending at Oxford railway station with my dad at the start of Freshers’ Week and waiting almost fifteen minutes in the queue...

Feeling (Un)attractive in Brown Skin – a personal account

TW: Racism The protests in the US spurred on by repeated institutional injustices against black bodies have opened up numerous conversations about race across the globe....

How to have the perfect relationship (and other lies)

Often, Men seem Martian. They just baffle me. And I’ve got it on good authority that despite our best efforts, they’re regularly just as...

A social blend: the history of the Oxford coffeehouse

‘I have measured out my life in coffee spoons’ is a line which comes uncomfortably close to describing how I spend much of my...

Reality TV: harmless fun or mental health disaster?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t watch reality television. In fact, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love reality television. Growing up...

Confessions of an (un)qualified Au Pair

“Don’t you dare cry. Don’t let them see a chink in your armour,” I told myself. Commands, negotiations and bribes had failed miserably, simply falling on...

Eating disorders – the elephant in the room

TW/CW: Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders, Trauma This article contains explicit mentions of harmful behaviour.  Please consult the resources under the article if you or anyone you...

Cherpse! Daniel and Lindsay

Daniel, English, University, 2nd Year First impressions: Extremely awkward, for some reason we ended up messaging for ages with the audio on but cameras off, very...

Do It For the Gram: Dalgona Heartbreak

I’ve grammed my food exactly once in my nineteen years. In my defence, it was Thanksgiving, the food is really only in the lower...

In Defence of a Goddess: why I love Nigella

In the comedy Miranda, Penny, Miranda’s preposterous mother, laments that her daughter ‘hasn’t been blessed by the goddess of socialising.’ ‘There isn’t a goddess of socialising’,...

Nora Ephron, and Why You Should Never Regret the Potatoes

"I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them," says Nora Ephron in her thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, Heartburn,...

Oxford’s bike black markets and other vicious cycles

When you find yourself locked in a stranger’s car, alone, behind an MOT station 30 miles away from college, half an hour until your...

A man’s best friend

As a child, I developed a strange habit: whenever I wanted anything, I would make a PowerPoint. My younger self had a compulsion to...

Going for a run – a reality check

‘Running’, says American long-distance champion Kara Goucher, ‘allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible, nothing unattainable.’ Now, I’m not sure how she feels...

No more “Viva la Revolution”: Has our generation become boring?

Throughout history, students have been feared as the archenemy of social and political order: from Paris to Cairo, we’ve revolutionised cultural norms, broken laws,...

Lockdown dating: a guide

Your ex is messaging you, that one-night stand from Bridge is in your Insta DMs and you are struggling not to write an Oxlove...

A Perspective on Validation

The inability to feel validated is something many of us struggle with. We routinely identify certain parts of our lives that we are not...

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