Monday 6th October 2025
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Chuck Berry – “One of the greats”

Will Cowie
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Chuck Berry – “One of the greats”

In one of his most famous songs, Berry told Beethoven to ‘roll over’ in his grave at the shocking new sound he was spearheading— and you might wonder whether he would have done. After all, if alien life-forms ever intercept the Voyager spacecraft and are somehow able to play the “golden record” which is contained onboard, they’ll be surprised to find one song which provides a rather jarring stylistic break from the classical music on the rest of the disc: Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ was selected in 1977 to represent rock music on behalf of the world.

The influence of Berry’s sound is proven by the fact that so many of his songs have been famously covered: ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ was even considered as a potential name of a band made up of four Liverpudlian lads, and while it wasn’t chosen the Beatles went on to cover Berry extensively, especially in their early career.

Indeed, for an artist who was so often covered himself, it is perhaps ironic that his only number one song in America was itself a cover: ‘My Ding-A-Ling’, a song whose double-entendre subject matter caused so much scandal and was the centre of a censorship battle. For a man whose liberating music marked the age of the teenager, Berry was certainly rebellious in spirit.

All this might seem remarkable in any case, but crucial to Berry’s legacy is his racial identity—a black man growing up under Jim Crow laws, he was sent to prison three times over his career, and under dubious circumstances—on one occasion he was jailed after being sighted kissing a white girl (and subsequently a mob formed) in 1959. Despite the system being rigged against him, Berry managed not only to break through to great success, but in doing so defied the racial politics a step forward. It’s worth noting that the teenage years of a generation of white Americans were soundtracked by a black man—an icon and an idol.

For the ages, apart from the inclusion of the Voyager, Berry’s longstanding legacy is best seen in his crucial role in two of the most iconic films of the late 20th century. In Back to the Future, Martin J. Fox’s Marty McFly plays what is surely the guitar riff, from ‘Johnny B. Goode’ for anyone learning guitar. In Pulp Fiction, as Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace take to the floor at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, it’s ‘Nobody Can Tell’ which plays as they start to boogie.

Clearly, Berry was one of the greats.

“When a film depends on siamese stories in the way this one does, it is often hard to keep the whole thing alive”

John Maier
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“When a film depends on siamese stories in the way this one does, it is often hard to keep the whole thing alive”

Nocturnal Animals is the second film directed by fashion tycoon Tom Ford, and his second set in LA.

Amy Adams plays Susan, a gallery curator with enough money to live in a big house, full of edges and reflective surfaces, and enough insight to realize that this doesn’t make her happy. The film starts, and we are at the opening of her latest show. Upon podiums are quite naked, and quite uncommonly fat women, gyrating in glossy slow-motion and giving the camera the best view of it, enjoying our trapped eyes – exploiting us, exploiting them. The next moment, the show’s over and they lie unmoving on their platforms, like slabs of meat or cadavers, exhausted in the empty showroom. We know this place, L.A., and what it does to people. Its permissiveness is stifling, its gaudy opulence is actually a kind of poverty.

Susan is clearly unmoved by her work, her husband is jetting around in predictable ways, having affairs, and she is plagued by regrets. Yet, it’s hard to suppress the feeling that there isn’t something conflicted about Tom Ford’s, so to speak, dressing down of L.A.’s meretricious way of life. For the most distinctive thing about Ford’s style is his pursuit of artfully arranged moments, as well as a fascination with surface beauty that demands that all his actors, even the extras, are implausibly attractive. His first film, A Single Man, was meticulous and stylized and shot like a perfume commercial, and very well suited to it as well. Here, one cannot help but notice how openly appealing he makes everything look, while also seeming to suggest its trickery. Visions of paradise don’t survive scrutiny; they always rupture, revealing something sinister.

Then, something unexpectedly intrudes on Susan’s analgesic lifestyle; the manuscript of her first husband’s debut novel arrives. His writing is full of retribution and aggression, and Susan seems to feel every word of it. She gives herself a paper cut while trying to unwrap the manuscript, then gets one of her implausibly handsome assistants to finish the job for her, her physical activity seemingly at an end for the day.

The story of novel now runs parallel to Susan’s. A couple (Jake Gyllenhaal, and Isla Fisher) and their teenage daughter are crossing Texas by car. It’s dark and they’ve been driving for hours. Suddenly they are forced off the highway by a gang of hillbillies. The interaction is full of the promise of violence, slowly delivered. Ford puts this all together expertly. The father survives, but fails to save his family from rape and murder. The story becomes a revenge thriller: an absorbing one. Aaron Taylor-Johnson received a handful of nominations for his role as the gang leader, but it is surely Michael Shannon – as the county detective who joins the father in pursuing the criminals – who deserves special praise for his expressive, gruff charm.

When a film depends on siamese stories in the way this one does, it is often hard to keep the whole thing alive, and in that respect Tom Ford proves himself assuredly skillful. It is clear, though, that the two stories are intended to talk to one another – to comment on one another. This is the point at which the audience is forced off the highway and things start to run less smoothly.

Susan feels deeply affected by the novel, so much so that at times she drops the book under the sheer strain, peers at it suspiciously from behind her huge-rimmed, Tom Ford reading glasses, and even hallucinates its characters into her own experience. The film clatters along with clumsy juxtapositions: at one moment there is a shoot-out in the desert, the next moment Susan is staring at an artwork in her gallery depicting the very same thing. Crunch – two scenes jammed together like jigsaw pieces that shouldn’t fit.

Of course, patterns are pretty, but they aren’t a substitute for meaning or message. A choice worth mentioning is that Jake Gyllenhaal plays both Susan’s ex and the protagonist within his own novel. Now, clearly Susan is meant to have betrayed her first husband: she failed to support him in his creative development and was too easily influenced by the bad advice of others. But this hardly seems to make sense of the strange moral equivalencies drawn between Gyllenhaal’s suffering in the two stories. Thinking about this film for too long gives rise to some untidiness – and if there’s one thing Tom Ford can’t have intended, it’s untidiness. Of course, not every film aspires to ‘say’ anything, but what’s disconcerting about this film is that it gives the impression that it thinks it has said something – lots of things – and then at the end it sits there, looking at you, expectant, waiting for its message to take hold like non-existent medicine.

 

 

 

Details emerge of George Osborne’s Isis editorship

Jack Hunter
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Details emerge of George Osborne’s Isis editorship

George Osborne, who was announced yesterday as the editor of the London Evening Standard newspaper, had his most recent editing experience producing a “hemp edition” of the Oxford magazine the Isis.

According to the University’s SOLO library system, the copy of the Trinity 1992 magazine, which is archived in the Oxford Union library, has been “reported missing”.

However, a surviving copy has since been unearthed.

The former chancellor, who studied History at Magdalen between 1990 and 1993, edited the Isis in 1992, producing the first-ever “hemp edition” of the magazine. The front cover displayed two large cannabis leaves with the words “read it and reap”. It was completed with a “government health warning” not to smoke it.

Osborne’s editorial, Trinity 1992. Credit: BuzzFeed

The magazine’s editorial claims “For the first time in the history of the magazine, The ISIS has been printed on hemp paper.” This, however, turned out to be two pages in the middle of one Trinity term edition of the magazine.

Osborne co-edited the magazine alongside fellow Bullingdon Club member Chris Coleridge. The features editors of the same edition included Jo Johnson, the current Universities Minister and brother of Boris.

In the edition, Osborne wrote an essay investigating “the secret world of Britain’s security services”.

“MI5 can decide to tap your telephone, open your mail, record intimate details of your private life in its computers (which have the capacity to hold 20 million files), and even scupper your prospects of ever being employed by a major company, if, in its judgement, you might constitute a threat to that wonderfully nebulous concept of our ‘national security’,” he wrote.

Credit: BuzzFeed

He lamented the apparent public apathy about being “under the watchful eyes of Big Brother.”

After leaving Oxford, Osborne was rejected from graduate journalism schemes at the Times and the Economist.

The Isis, which was first established in 1892, is the sister publication to Cherwell, and is published under the same publishing house, Oxford Student Publications limited.

Osborne will take up his position at the Evening Standard in May.

 

The article was amended on 22/03/17. It had stated: “According to the University’s SOLO library system, all remaining copies of the Trinity 1992 magazine, which are archived in the Oxford Union library, have been “reported missing” – Osborne’s year is the only to have been lost.” However, the Bodleian Libraries never received a copy of this edition of Isis (Trinity term 1992).

“Injections of humour amidst the Beckettian existential angst”

Emily Lawford
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“Injections of humour amidst the Beckettian existential angst”

It’s been fifty years since Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was first performed in Edinburgh by the Oxford Theatre group to an audience of six critics and one lone punter.  But Ronald Bryden’s stellar review in the Observer caught the eye of Kenneth Tynan, the director of the National Theatre at the time, and the play opened at its base at the Old Vic later that year.  But despite the play’s age, David Leveaux’s current production, back in the Old Vic once more, makes the play feel just as fresh as it would have back in the heyday of post-modernist drama.

A lot of the audience members seemed younger than could be expected, probably due to the presence of Daniel Radcliffe in the role of Rosencrantz.  Radcliffe is very good in the role: his boyish anxiousness and bafflement at the absurdist world into which they have been thrust is charming, and he works well as a sidekick to Joshua McGuire’s more confident and cerebral Guildenstern.  The two have a good chemistry as they shift between the Shakespearean language of the Denmark court and their own more modern speech, and they help the play avoid seeming tiresome or self-congratulatory with its intellectual in-jokes.  David Haig is excellent as the Player, both amusingly bawdy and eerily knowing while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern remain in the dark as to their role in the tragedy in which they are but minor characters. The group of tragedians that the Player commands are all dressed like Pierrot and every scene with them was a delight to watch.

The set, designed by Anna Fleische, is fantastic. Pink and blue clouds, idyllic yet unnerving, painted on the walls seem to resemble the sets of 50s Hollywood productions or poor amateur stage backcloths, a witty and self-consciously meta-theatrical reference, like the red “EXEUNT” sign at the back of the stage. The physical movement and timing of all the actors is superb, and not once did the play feel tedious or over-long, due to the constant injections of humour amidst the Beckettian existential angst.

Luke Mullins and Helena Wilson (who left Oxford this summer) are strong as Hamlet and Ophelia, and Mullins is especially funny as he pronounces Hamlet’s more self-indulgently miserable lines.  However, such emphasis is given to caricaturing Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark that the Hamlet figure we are offered is not one the audience can recognize or sympathise with – giving Stoppard’s commentary on Hamlet less of a meaning.

Overall, it’s a brilliant production of a play that blends philosophical commentary on the theatre and human existence with frequent moments of wit and hilarity.  I look forward to seeing the play in fifty years’ time, and I doubt it will feel any more dated than it does today.

It’s Fashion, But is it Art?

Eleanor Birdsall-Smith
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It’s Fashion, But is it Art?

Last week, the Louvre opened its sculpture gallery to house Louis Vuitton’s AW17 collection, which is the first time a gallery has hosted a runway show. Nicolas Ghesquière’s collection was certainly impressive; the combination of broad shouldered outerwear and tightly-belted waists created angular, yet feminine silhouettes. There were also some next-level bias cut slip dresses with lace insets, beading and fur. What was perhaps most interesting, however, was the interaction between the clothes and the art. The experience was clearly immersive and aimed to combine the elements of both the neoclassical sculptures in the Louvre and the new figures in Louis Vuitton. However from some people’s coverage of the show, it almost felt like the clothes overshadowed the art. The Louvre’s hosting does spark the interesting debate: is fashion art? If so, why is it rarely taken seriously by anyone outside of the industry?

It is easy to say “a jumper is a jumper”, and there are people for whom fashion has a purely utilitarian role. However, to say the concept of utility excludes fashion from the world of art would be absurd; it would completely ignore the spectrum of expression already seen from artists. Are we to ignore Grayson Perry’s classically styled vases purely because a vase is also a vessel for water and flowers? Surely, the argument against the potential for functionality in art was settled after the rise of reverence for Duchamp’s Fountain. Just as much creative genius goes into the design for a runway show, or a Manolo Blahnik sandal, as it does a piece of ‘fine art’. And in terms of the layman’s lack of interest, there is no area of art that doesn’t bring forth yawns or derision from some sectors of society. The fact that fashion is something that everyone has to actively appreciate should make it less dismissible, rather than more so.

One reason for this layer of derision around fashion is the uncomfortable issue of internalised misogyny. It has long been painfully clear that the areas of culture and industry which are deprecated in school and society for being feminine and unimportant are dominated by men when transferred to the real world of business. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the traditional female ‘housewife’ stereotype. It is seen as a woman’s duty to cook for the family, and equally baking is seen as an old lady’s occupation, or perhaps taught to young girls in ‘Domestic Science’, but definitely not something for growing boys to concern themselves with. There’s a whole story line focusing on just that in everyone’s favourite infamous Disney movie, High school musical—who remembers crème brulee Zeke, who wasn’t sticking to the status quo? Yet, almost every famous chef, be that on or off our TV screens, is a man. The two main exceptions fill depressingly archetypal roles – Delia the ‘Mother’ teaches us how to poach an egg and Nigella the ‘whore’ seductively piles chocolate and cream into a bowl and then licks the spoon. This trend can be seen across the board—an interest in art and drawing at school is often thought of as girly but as we know from campaigns like ‘Gorilla Girls’, all of our museums are full of pictures of naked women, drawn by dead white men.

In terms of fashion, what could be more girly than caring about clothes and shoes and makeup and handbags? Women are constantly slated for being too into their looks, or too vain and shallow. It’s even ingrained within our language on gender, we are told not to be a ‘big girl’s blouse’ when acting too fussy or weak, and in the north, men who cares about their looks are ‘tarts’. One might hope then, that as a kind of recompense for this degradation, women would have pride of place within the fashion industry. Unfortunately however, women only make up a third of the top jobs in fashion. That’s not to say it isn’t a female-dominated industry, but the fashion houses are still predominately being run by men; think of Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander Wang, Tom Ford, Gucci and Chanel, which started out as styles from Coco for the modern woman, but is now run by Karl Lagerfeld. This sends the unfortunate message that when something is associated with women, it is not to be taken seriously, until it is taken over and made into a money-making reality by the strongmen of this world. Why is it that Nicolas Ghesquière can be invited to the largest and arguably most prestigious art gallery in the world, yet young girls reading fashion magazines and picking out beautiful shoes are still told to stop wasting their time, to focus on something actually worthwhile?

This is not to say that I’m not thrilled that Ghesquière was invited to the Louvre for his show or that it was his gender that got him the invite. This is about the wider issue of fashion not being recognized as an art form—because to quote the great Stanley Tucci from the famous ‘The Devils Wears Prada’, fashion is “greater than art, because you live your life in it”.

The Shins – Heartworms review

Akshay Bilolikar
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The Shins – Heartworms review

It’s become almost fashionable to sound the death knell of the kind of indie rock that once peppered the Pacific Northwest, and in doing so, to call into question yet again the continued viability of the genre altogether. After all, how many songs can, or more importantly should, be written about the dirt in our fries, the freckles in our eyes, or whether we’ll float on okay?

Sixteen years since the release of The Shins’ first album, Oh, Inverted World, these questions may to some appear as tired as the genre they purport to interrogate. After all, a lot has changed since the optimistic days of the summer of ‘01. James Mercer, who occupies the same equivocal space between person and project as Justin Vernon in Bon Iver, is now 46 and a father of three. The band’s entire line-up, save Mercer, has changed; The Shins, rightfully, so, is no longer the project of early-30s musing but the home of a more middle-aged reflection.

In that spirit, there’s a certain sense of renewal in The Shins’ fifth effort, Heartworms. With an almost father-like “go get ‘em” flair, the album opens with ‘Name for You’, a sweetly encouraging piece that seems to deter all cynics. There’s no doubt here at all – the big questions of life, which Portland indie rock once tried to tackle en masse, are accepted as intractable. But here, Mercer delves into practicalities. In ‘Painting a Hole’, Mercer sings, “You’re painting a hole, can you crawl up inside it?”, asking doubtfully whether the difficulties in life can be avoided any further. These themes aren’t new and they aren’t original, but age offers a sharply grounded perspective where once the answer would have been “sack it.”

Just because Mercer has aged, however, doesn’t mean he’s willing to tone down the tricky arrangements that have characterised Shins records for the past decade. On ‘Cherry Hearts’ and ‘Fantasy Island’, Mercer pulls together 808-esque low ends with familiar, unforgiving keyboard tones. On the latter track in particular, Mercer confronts his age, asking “where are they now, the money and the crowd?” without much in the way of bitterness. He opens up on the subject of his anxiety, without the bluster of his youth, showing a confidence and a clarity that’s clearly developed over the course of a productive career. It’s a confidence which, whilst possibly tentative at the start of the album, never disappears once unleashed.

In ‘Rubber Ballz’, Mercer flips the old clichéd line “I can’t get her out of my head” around, crooning instead that he “can’t get her out of my bed.” As crass a line as it might seem, there’s a confident self-awareness as he bemoans his “making bad decisions into art forms”, a line which seems to aptly capture a large portion of the ethos of noughties indie rock with such momentum that the optimistic idealism of the song’s follow-up, ‘Half a Million’, almost gets swept up in the rhythm. Still, the song’s upbeat message feels like a natural progression from Portland indie’s pessimistic past, with Mercer reminding us that despite all the difficulties and expectations he faces, he still has his guitar.

Once the album’s finds its confident voice, however, it never lets go. The psychedelic track ‘Dead Alive’ is unashamedly the quintessential Shins single, in its reverb-soaked outro that harks back to the classic ‘One By One All Day’. Despite it clearly being produced and released in time for Halloween, the single never quite feels like it’s meant to be a novelty; the referenced “dead alive” aren’t zombies à la ‘Thriller’ but a reference to the simultaneously uplifting and depressing nature of nostalgia. Back for a fifth album, The Shins are indelibly marked by what’s gone on before—and that’s something Mercer accepts and even embraces.

As a result, as the album begins to draw to a close with the highlight title track ‘Heartworms’, there’s a weightless euphoria that comes attached to almost endless replay value; the title track seems to characterise almost perfectly the ‘what can I do’ attitude of lazy summer afternoons. Summer is followed by autumn on ‘So Now What’, which was first released as part of Zach Braff’s Kickstarter-funded film Wish I Was Here. For a film which made little effort to move beyond Braff’s signature narrative ground, ‘So Now What’ feels remarkably fresh, carrying what is probably the strongest melody in the album.

As much as The Shins seem to be begging listeners to take a moment to reflect, the pace of the second half of the album is almost restrictive in that respect. There’s a lot going on here—ever since ‘Fantasy Island’, Mercer has been confidently exploring themes he’s explored before with a distinctly new perspective. With a valedictory tone, ‘The Fear’ concludes the album by returning to the topic of anxiety. It’s clear that it’s not an easy topic for Mercer to share, but he does so with vigour; in the lines “the fear is a terrible drug / if I only I had sense enough to let it give way to love”, Mercer’s songwriting is at its most relatable. That sense of distance you often found with indie rock groups, where the problems they sang about seemed otherworldly and at times fake, is shattered on a song remarkable for its honesty.

It’s easy to argue, sixteen years on from their breakthrough, that groups such as The Shins and Death Cab for Cutie have nothing new to say. As with most things, there’s an element of truth in this: the same themes once explored will be explored further. There’s no Natalie Portman-esque “change your life” moment on Heartworms, but it’s not fair to claim there’s nothing worth listening to here—the changed, shifted perspectives from previous records betray glimpses of magic, with an honesty that makes the listen all the more rewarding.

Review: ‘T2 Trainspotting’

Louise Howland
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Review: ‘T2 Trainspotting’

Upon the release of the first batch of T2 trailers, the image of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) on a treadmill made me incredibly nervous. I wondered whether T2 would be consumed by the modern way, filled with Apple products, spiralisers and Netflix references. Thankfully, T2’s revival of 90’s lurid grittiness was delivered in abundance to viewers eagerly anticipating the sequel to the film of a generation. T2 self-consciously proves that you can’t always escape your past,but for both Danny Boyle and the skag boys, this proves to not always be a bad thing.

Trainspotting (1996) ends with Renton running off with 16k after a dodgy drug deal involving a very angry Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and Underworld’s iconic Born Slippy. T2 begins by telling us how Rents utilised (or didn’t) his small fortune as he makes his first return to Edinburgh since he left his mates, his skag and his underage girlfriend back in 1996. There’s also a new addition to the gang in the form of the bright-eyed Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova), one of Sick Boy’s (Jonny Lee Miller) ‘girls’ that winds up controlling both him and Renton, whilst cultivating a mesmerising friendship with Spud (Euan Bremner).

T2 does not, quite rightly, take itself as seriously as the first film does. It is charmingly aware that it will not be the voice of its generation. For example, Blondie’s Atomic is replaced with Frankie’s Relax. Boyle’s reimagining is more concerned with tapping into the humanity of the often shallow and vapid lead characters, which lends T2 a tenderness only hinted at in its predecessor. The boys are no longer part of a supposedly superficial and excessive Generation X, and this is precisely what they have to come to terms with.

That is not to say T2 doesn’t burst with the energetic brand of cynical, indie wit, characteristic of Irvine Welsh, that elevated the original to cult status. T2 is outright hilarious, with John Hodge once again giving audiences a superlative lesson in the art of screenwriting. Aside from punchy dialogue, the quintessential anti-naturalist style that gave Trainspotting most of its life force is ever present in T2. Danny Boyle’s knack for genius camera work and intense colour (the giant Scooby Doo in 127 Hours springs to mind) feels most at home in the Trainspotting universe. This time, rather than emphasising the otherworldly experience of drug addiction, the camera hones in on the more sterile, even harsher reality of the everyday.

Like the script and the style, it was always the chemistry between the actors that helped make Trainspotting what it was. In 2017, this is as palpable as ever, warmly reuniting fans with old familiar friends that we love to hate and, significantly, hate to love. Euan Bremner, however, is the standout actor of the bunch for his heart-breaking portrayal of cartoonish Spud, who undeservedly has the hardest time of them all in T2.

The addictive energy of T2 pays homage to the magnificence of the first film, having plenty of room to move under its immense shadow. Trainspotting will always be one of, if not the, best examples of contemporary British cinema and I am overjoyed to report that Danny delivers the best final hit we could have asked for. Shocking, unapologetic and thoroughly moving, long live Trainspotting and long live Danny Boyle.

Dark Blues hopeful ahead of first Varsity Football double-header

Matthew Roller
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Dark Blues hopeful ahead of first Varsity Football double-header

Sunday sees the first-ever Varsity football double-header, with Barnet’s ground The Hive playing host to both the Women’s and the Men’s fixtures.

The Varsity Match is the oldest regular fixture in world football, having been played every year since 1873, barring the two World Wars. Even though the Men’s fixture has been played as many as 132 times, 2017 marks the first year that it has been played on the same date and at the same venue as the Women’s game.

Men’s Preview

After a 2-0 Varsity win last season, Oxford’s Men will be confident heading into Sunday’s fixtures. Victory over Cambridge in the 3rd place play-off in inaugural World Elite Universities Football Tournament in Beijing last summer was followed by a 4-2 home win and 0-0 away draw in the league this season.

Joan Crespo surely holds the key to victory for the Dark Blues in 2017. The Spanish visiting student learnt his trade in Barcelona, and his quick feet and ability to find space between the lines have made him the crucial man in the Oxford midfield.

Crespo will look to supply the Dark Blues’ number nine and main goalscoring threat Dom Thelen, who is set to start up top. Thelen has managed 16 goals in just 23 starts this season, and his poaching ability will be tested on Sunday.

At the back, Michael Moneke returns to play his fifth Varsity match at centre-half—impressively, he is set to make an 82nd start for the 1st XI. Despite his mixed injury record, Moneke’s commanding presence will undoubtedly cause problems for Cambridge’s strikers as he lines up in a back three alongside stand-in captain Cian Wade and Sam Hale.

Women’s Preview

The Women’s side also came out on top in last year’s fixture, with Tina Gough’s early goal securing a 1-0 victory. However, Cambridge’s side have enjoyed a fantastic league campaign this season, steamrolling the Midlands 2B division with ten wins from as many fixtures. Despite sitting in a higher division, the Dark Blues have struggled in the league, and will be hoping that they can put an end to a poor run with victory at The Hive.

Claudia Hill’s presence at centre-back will be crucial for the Women. A tough-tackling defender, Hill will have a task on her hands to shut out a free-scoring Cambridge side, but her authority at the back should mean she is up to the task.

Caroline Ward will captain the side at The Hive after missing the 2016 Varsity Match due to a MCL tear. An energetic midfielder, Ward also has an eye for a key pass, having managed three assists in her seven appearances this season.

However, the team’s main creative threat is Colleen Lopez, who will occupy the number ten role just behind the striker. Originally from California, Lopez took some time to adapt to the physicality and intensity of English football, but has performed with aplomb since fitting in. Despite a lower goal return in 2016/17 than in the previous campaign, Lopez has still managed to create a couple of assists for her team-mates this season, and will look to exploit any space between Cambridge’s back four and midfield.

Tickets are still available for Sunday’s fixtures, and can be bought here.

Online discoveries through the Oxford Book Club

Ellie Duncan
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Online discoveries through the Oxford Book Club

The student-run Oxford Book Club has been holding second hand book fairs for a number of years, offering a diverse range of titles that is conducive both to long, expensive reading lists—and the simple pleasures of browsing and discovery. Now, the Oxford Book Club is looking to extend this element of discovery to an online forum, in the shape of a new website where readers can submit reviews and hold discussions.

Led by a team of three co-editors, Megan Husain, Yashwina Canter, and Victor Ajuwon, a major principle of the new website is that “everyone at some point will have read something—a book, a poem, an essay, or even a sentence—that will have changed them, redefined their perspective, or inspired infectious enthusiasm”. As Megan explains, the focus is not on a highly critical, academic style, but rather a sense of the personal claims people feel towards books.

The Club’s website is already displaying the kind of individuality and idiosyncrasy of personal response that it hopes to promote. Articles include The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue: Why I Have Been Liking Vikings and Making a Poetry of Science: Why Darwin and Shelley Should Have Met, written by Victor. For example, he explains how the ethos of the Oxford Book Club has enabled him to intersect a love of literature with the scientific focus of his Biology degree. Yashwina also points out that many reviewing websites often coordinate specifically with publishing cycles, whereas the Oxford Book Club is more interested in how books can come into our lives at any time, or in any place, and in how we express the impact they have.

New and inclusive, the Oxford Book Club is hoping to attract contributors over the vacation and throughout next term. Anyone interested can get in touch via the Facebook page, www.theoxfordbookclub.com, or by contacting the editors at [email protected].

 

 

Oxford University launches £10 million medical marijuana research program

Priya Khaira-Hanks
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Oxford University launches £10 million medical marijuana research program

Oxford University are set to partner with Kingsley Capital Partners to research marijuana-based medicine.

Cannabinoids, the chemical compounds found in marijuana, alter neurotransmitter release in the brain, and therefore can be used to treat pain, cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Eight scientists will be investigating the effects of medical marijuana, aided by the funding from Kingsley Capital Partners, a London-based private equity firm.

Neil Mahapatra, Managing Partner of Kingsley, said: “Medical cannabis and cannabinoid medicine is already helping patients with some of the most distressing conditions across the world.

“However, research into the specific pathways and mechanisms that create this benefit is limited and long overdue.” He claims that the partnership between Kingsley and the University will ensure that the UK has a leadership role in the fast-growing field of medicinal marijuana research.

Ahmed Ahmed, Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at Oxford, registered his support of the research. He commented: “Cannabinoid research has started to produce exciting biological discoveries and this programme is a timely opportunity to increase our understanding of the role of cannabinoids in health and disease. This field holds great promise for developing novel therapeutic opportunities for cancer patients.”

The program has received notable support from actor Sir Patrick Stewart. The X-Men star has used medicinal marijuana to treat his arthritis, which he claims has helped him sleep at night again and restored mobility in his hands.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “This is an important step forward for Britain in a field of research that has for too long been held back by prejudice, fear and ignorance.

“I enthusiastically support the Oxford University Cannabis Research Plan.”

Currently, the only licensed cannabis-based product in this country is Sativex, a prescription-only drug for patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. NICE, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the NHS’s primary rationing body, strongly advises against the use of Sativex, claiming that it is not a cost-effective treatment.

Whilst the Conservatives and Labour do not officially support legalising marijuana for medication, both the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats have called for it. The Liberal Democrats announced only four days ago that they support a regulated cannabis market in the UK.

The Oxford University Liberal Democrats told Cherwell: “We are pleased to see the university taking this positive step towards better treatment for certain conditions in the future. The UK is behind other countries in this area, and the Lib Dems have consistently supported a compassionate and progressive stance of legalisation of prescribed cannabis and decriminalisation of possession.”

This is a breaking story, and will be updated with comment as we receive it.

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