Exploring the ocean coral scene
Two hot summer months spent scuba diving in some of the most spectacular seas surrounding the Indonesian island of Sulawesi: how do six students justify this to potential sponsors of this Oxford University expedition?
Features: Safe as houses?
An Oxford term is eight weeks of sheer madness: wall to wall essay crises interspersed with drunk-too-much crises, hangover crises, financial crises, relationship crises. . .The last thing you want is for your house to fall down about your ears. Admittedly, that has only happened to one person I know, but for many people living out of the cloistered confines of college rooms, making sure all basic utilities function can be a constant source of stress....
Features: Icon or false idol?
This week a 19-year-old student succeeded in doing what people have been trying to do for the last 30 years; she allegedly bound and gagged Germaine Greer. National newspapers have gone crazy, fascinated by the passionate reactions this 61-year-old academic can evoke. Greer occupies a unique position in the public conscience. A household name since her first book The Female Eunuch became an international bestseller in 1970, she has changed the way men and women think and talk about sex. Yet look beyond the hype and the outrageous witticisms, and you will see a surprisingly vulnerable woman who is a seething mass of contradictions....
Features: In praise of the full fat egg
For many, Easter is an important religious festival. But what the majority fail to realise is that it also presents a chance to celebrate a different, but equally marvellous creation: namely, the chocolate egg. I will never be too old for Easter eggs (or Christmas stockings for that matter), and I look forward every year to indulging in a new and exciting selection. I admit I buy most of them myself, as other people don't seem to realise that the eggs are hollow inside and therefore you need at least, say, ten....
Features: Widdecombe: I could write about a lesbian single mother asylum seeker
ONE OF THE anti-racism protestors outside Ann Widdecombe's book signing summed it all up: "She obviously likes her pies. Just not all over her face." The shadow Home Secretary has temporarily swapped the opposition benches for bookshops, and is launching her writing career with her debut novel, The Clematis Tree. But the protestors outside who disagree with her strong stance on asylum-seekers prove that some people find it hard to separate the politician from the author....