Making a racquet over the real Sport of Kings
“Real tennis is the sport of kings.” This sentiment still resonates today, even if the main reason for doing so is that most of the rules appear to have been made up for the sole purpose of ensuring...
View ArticleMock mêlées, murderous mayhem, and mead meets
“You cannot fight if you have drunk alcohol. Also, we do not fight in the dark.” So closes the safety notice of one of Oxford’s less conventional societies. The Oxford University Historical...
View ArticleMews-ings on fashion and the continental catwalks
My six months in Paris went by in a whirlwind, interning at various small fashion magazines, partying in Maxim’s, and spending an extortionate amount of money in restaurants. And contrary to what most...
View ArticleProducing the most popular series of all time
Frank Doelger, executive producer of Game of Thrones begins by explaining that “I am always asked the same questions: who is John Snow’s mother? And why did you kill Ned Stark? So I will save time and...
View ArticleWish you were Herr: student tourism in Germany
In my experience, most British people don’t go to Germany on holiday. Business, Oktoberfest, friends, perhaps, but a German holiday is greeted with faint bemusement. Perhaps people have visions of...
View ArticleMy first time with kung-po, chow mein, and foo yung
Boarding school: hardly something synonymous with cultural diversity, horizon-broadening or wildly new experiences. Nonetheless, it was in my year nine dorm at the establishment I called “home” for...
View ArticleItaly’s best kept secret: music and margarita in Mantua
The perks of going on holiday to Italy are vast – not too far away, hotter than in Britain, rich in history and has some of the world’s best ice cream. But at the same time cities like Florence and...
View ArticleNo place like Frome: being a mayoress
My name is Maddy Herbert and I study French and Linguistics at St Peter’s. As well as this, I am the Mayoress of Frome, a town with around 30,000 inhabitants, in Somerset. My boyfriend, Dickon Moore,...
View ArticleInvestigation: Oxford students speak out about porn habits
At the beginning of 2014, Pornhub, one of the world’s largest porn websites, released statistics that revealed the most popular search terms countries and cities within the United Kingdom. These search...
View ArticleChanging attitudes towards gender violence
Jenny* was merely seven years old when her father first raped her. Living in a small Ugandan village, after some time she went to her aunt to seek help. ‘Hush little girl’ her aunt replied upon hearing...
View ArticleThe highs and lows of the downers and uppers
My first drugs experience was distinctly underwhelming. Tipsy off a couple of shots of vodka, I threw years of school-administered anti-drugs indoctrination to the wayside when, outside a 17th birthday...
View ArticleVon-Trapped by the memories of a first love
That year the school play was ‘The Sound of Music’. At an all-girls school, this meant one thing: girls playing boys. Or more specifically, one certain girl playing Captain Von Trapp. I had become...
View ArticleLoving and letting go at university
It feels strange to be turning twenty in the knowledge that I have already fallen in love, cherished that love and let it go. I think it’s partly a generational thing; in previous decades there was a...
View ArticleSwede dreams are made of this
Having spent most of my childhood despising my parents for what I saw as the forgivable double-sin of a) not being Swedish and b) not having, on realising a) immediately emigrated to a utopic Swedish...
View ArticleThe nine rewards of being single this summer
Summer. Alas, what happened? In the shivery depths of winter you pictured things so differently. Running hand in hand with him through Port Meadow, carefree with the wind whipping through your hair...
View ArticleLondon’s Young Adult Literature Convention
The weekend of the 12th-13th July the first annual Young Adult Literature Convention came to Earls Court. On offer was a wide range of panels, workshops, and author signings, as well as several...
View ArticleBreathing space
So, no one’s saying Oxford is claustrophobic except your Tutor who insists on prescribing regular walks through Port Meadow. But whatever the diagnosis, it is intense and we have to remember, as we go...
View ArticleNick Cook: an interview with the author
It’s a project that has lasted Nick Cook seven years. However, after dreaming, writing, and securing that elusive publishing deal, he is now the proud author of debut novel Cloud Riders. Take your...
View ArticleItaly’s best kept secret: music and margarita in Mantua
The perks of going on holiday to Italy are vast – not too far away, hotter than in Britain, rich in history and has some of the world’s best ice cream. But at the same time cities like Florence and...
View ArticleNo place like Frome: being a mayoress
My name is Maddy Herbert and I study French and Linguistics at St Peter’s. As well as this, I am the Mayoress of Frome, a town with around 30,000 inhabitants, in Somerset. My boyfriend, Dickon Moore,...
View Article