In defence of the humanities
Confession: I just finished reading Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and I have no idea what I just read. If that doesn’t sound ‘meta’ enough of a lead to entice further reading, I’ll add in an...
View ArticleA night at the naked chef’s
I had both heard of Jamie Oliver and knew that St Catz does not serve dinner on Sunday evenings, so instead of the usual Dominoes drop off, I went for a meal at Jamie’s Italian. This place had come up...
View ArticleBudapissed: chilling on the beautiful blue Danube
Budapest is a fabulous city and due to overconfidence in our internal compasses, which frequently led us to explore more than first intended, we feel fully qualified to review the whole of it. Budapest...
View ArticleFast food and fine art in larger-than-life America
There is something that feels indescribably portentous about entering the US. It doesn’t matter if the customs officer is bored. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just got off an 8¾ hour flight with a 4...
View ArticleLa dolce vita or la dolce morte in the infernal city?
Italy is a rather peculiar place. Its history of sovereign republicanism ensures travelling even for an hour or so becomes a uniquely transformative experience. There is nonetheless, the Italian...
View ArticleOur man in Darjeeling: more than just tea
Darjeeling, tucked away in a north-eastern corner of India, doesn’t always feature on the traveller’s itinerary as it is slightly out of the way of the main tourist route further into the north-eastern...
View ArticleGoing out with a Big Bang at Oxford’s pork joint
Freedom is slavery, said a great man who knew a thing or two about pig farming. Paralysed by the vast range of the Wetherspoons menu, I begin to understand. Hundreds of dishes, jostle for space on the...
View ArticleReligion, Rioja, and rain on the Camino de Santiago
A church bell rings through the dark village of Campiello, a hamlet in the north of Spain. Pilgrims quietly move from their bunks, stow away sleeping bags and sink into their boots. From the old...
View ArticleTaking the piste on the slopes
My adventures skiing this year filled me with a sense of obligation. I, after my fourth Alpine attempt, have an obligation to share with the rest of you poor, unsuspecting creatures (those yet to...
View ArticleStreet food of Oxford
We get it: time’s short, Super Noodles swiftly get boring and choosing where to eat out with your hard earned student loan is an unwelcome stress for all of us. It’s a well known fact that easy...
View ArticleProstitution amongst the dreaming spires
When we think of prostitution, we think of lurid sex shops lining the streets of Montmartre, bikini clad girls dancing in Amsterdam windows or perhaps seedy back alleys in London. It is something...
View ArticleSex work: liberation or exploitation?
In 1975, more than one hundred prostitutes occupied a church in Lyon, France, to protest against police repression, issuing statements that they would stay until prison sentences against their members...
View ArticleDethroning lads and Lear with Vagenda
Costanza Bertoni talks women in the media and ‘lad culture’ with Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslet of The Vagenda. Holly Baxter & Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett are co-founders and editors of The...
View ArticleSnooping through the hallowed halls of the House
Located on St Aldates, Christ Church is hard to miss: its towering spires and Romanesque buildings encircle Tom Quad, the largest in Oxford, and its impressive architecture stands peacefully next to a...
View ArticleStuck in a moral limbo living below the line
If your news feed has, like mine, been absolutely rammed with instagrammed photos of grinning girls holding miserly looking plates of yam then you probably already knew about Live-Below-The-Line. For...
View ArticleFighting the mundane to escape the Oxford college bubble
It’s been a few weeks since the beginning of Trinity term, and most of us have finally settled back into Oxford. We’ve had our slightly awkward yet obligatory post-vac conversations (“How was your...
View ArticleA generally lawful guy: the Attorney General
As leader of the Bar, chief legal advisor to the Crown and its government, superintendent of the Crown Prosecution Service and the government’s representative to the International Court of Justice,...
View ArticleThe highs and lows of the most exciting job you can do
Anna Thorne talks to Anushka Asthana, Sky News’ Chief Political Correspondent, about her career ‘Journalism is probably the most exciting thing you can do’ begins Asthana, ‘you’ll get to do so much...
View ArticleAn idiot’s guide to staying fit as a student
A student’s life is rarely a healthy one. Between the terrible eating and drinking habits and snatched hours of sleep – often the products of a hectic social life – your body takes quite a beating....
View ArticleBattling pom-pom prejudice with the Sirens
A new university sport is taking over the UK, and it’s not doing it quietly. This is the world of competitive cheerleading, and the Oxford Sirens are determined to have cheerleading better recognised...
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