Lifestyle

Cooking for friends: An apology, served hot

“It’s probably a bit bland,” my friend said tentatively in the first week of living out of college, just after they had put down a delicious plate of fish and rice.

Beyond the Rad Cam: My quest to visit all 22 Bodleian Libraries

Between March 2025 and October 2026, I visited all 22 Bodleian libraries, from the reading rooms of central Oxford to the obscure medical libraries.

The art of reaching out to old friends

Coming to university, I realised that the stable, effortless reliability of my friends from home was, all of a sudden, precarious and difficult to maintain.

The only thing missing from this bean was chocolate

If there were a smell I could capture, bottle up, and treasure forever, it would be the toasty and heartening smell of cacao roasting in the morning.

A student’s guide to cheap wine

Emily Beswick finds the best bottles for under a fiver

Recipe: Date night on a budget

Esmé Curtis shares a duo of dishes that won’t fail to impress

Letter from Abroad: Yaroslavl

Pip Cull is greatly envious of Russia’s readiness to embrace childhood fantasy

Life Divided: drinking societies

Jamie Onslow and Emma Leech debate the merits and misogyny of drinking societies

Blind Date: John and Bessie

John and Bessie fail to see eye to eye on their blind date

Cocktail of the week: Lemon drop

Sam Purnell suggests a cheap, but highly refreshing cocktail to enjoy this weekend

Time-turners and doppelgängers: battling homesickness at Oxford

Nicola Dwornik talks about the difficulties of finding a true home within college walls

Letter from Abroad: Paris

Eleanor Whitchurch speaks of Parisian courtesy in an unsettled atmosphere

An experience of Oxford Women Speak Out

Emily Beswick discusses using her time, and body, for activism

Food diary: why brunch?

Ellie Duncan explores the role of brunch in history, culture and her weekend routine

Recipe: Gluten-free pancakes

Naomi Bradshaw shares a versatile recipe to brighten up your weekend

Fear, frustration and self-loathing: welcome to an Oxford lecture theatre

Daniel Curtis takes a socially-awkward look at the perils of the contact hours in the humanities

A tale of two brunches

Julia Alsop reflects on contrasting versions of Oxford’s favourite meal

Life Divided: rowing

Francesca Salisbury and Sian Bayley debate rowing from differing (seat) positions

Cocktail of the week: Raspberry fields forever

Sam Purnell shares a not so long and winding recipe

Dodging Oxford’s cyclists

Emma Leech shares the life lessons learnt from a bike crash

Recipe: Crispy mock duck pancakes

Kanak Shah shares a free-from alternative to a classic Chinese recipe

Cocktail of the week: red snapper

Julia Alsop shares a refreshing vegan cocktail

Letter from abroad: China

William Gardner on intercultural exchange in China, via The Great British Bake Off

Pandora extols wisdom, seated upon box

Pandora the cat presents her own coping mechanisms for Oxford life.

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