Author: Rob Pepper

Have you heard the one about the climate that changed? Tony Juniper has. For the past three decades, Juniper has been a prominent environmental campaigner and researcher, advising government, international companies and the public about a range of climate related issues. The Green Party candidate for Cambridge in the 2010 General Election, and former national […]

Liv Boeree didn’t intend to become a professional poker player. “I started playing on a gameshow,” she explains during a talk at the Oxford Union, “in which five complete beginners, with coaching from poker stars, were taught to become successful players.” Fast forward ten years to November 2015 and Boeree was being named the number […]

The first thing you should know about the Oxford Belles is that they don’t need a manager. I already asked, which is why I’m sitting here writing this lousy article like a mug. The second thing you should know about the Oxford Belles is that they’re Oxford University’s first all-female A Cappella group, with a […]

Performers of Shakespeare, more than naughty children, have to listen when told to act their age. Michael Pennington, in a career spanning six decades, has played the lot: a youthful Hamlet, a mid-life Macbeth, and, in a current tour, Lear. I met him at the Oxford Playhouse, where King Lear is currently being performed, for […]

Clive Mather has his fingers in many pies. Unfortunately, when I visited him to carry out an interview, there wasn’t any pie, but he did offer me some rather nice biscotti instead. Working in every continent except Antarctica, with roles such as CEO of the oil company, Shell Canada, Chairman of Tearfund, an international Christian […]

We all know how it is. You are accepted into Oxford and you cannot quite believe it! That magic, academic world with its dreaming spires, autumnal leaves and stony fortresses that you aspired to be in is now your home. It is easy to become indifferent, however, with the wonderful opportunity that Oxford has to […]

They say you should never talk politics at the dinner table. I’m not actually certain who ‘they’ is, but they sure sound scary. The Ox Co-op, however, throwing caution to the wind, wants to make dinner itself political. Run from a wicked nice room above the Turl Street Kitchen, the student run social venture provides […]

Neo, a homeless man and busker living in Oxford, is on his way to becoming something of a media sensation. I recently sat down with him to talk about his budding musical career and his experiences of being homeless in the city. “It all started at a lunch organised by the Oxford Homeless Projects,” Neo […]

For seventeen years of my life, “home” was located within the London Borough of Hillingdon. The borough, comprised of West Drayton, Hayes and Harlington, Uxbridge, Yiewsley and Ruislip-Northwood, has a population of around 273,936 and boasts not only London Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe, but also a thriving ethnically and religiously diverse population. As […]

“There’s so much drama in this episode.” That was the opening line, from RaveSoc founder Frances Livesey (see last week’s OxStu for details) as I sat down for my first meeting of Corpus Christi RaveSoc, the club dedicated to the appreciation of CBBC’s Raven. The evening’s activities did indeed open with an episode of the […]

Today, Oxford is one of the most international universities in the world. Around a third of students are from abroad and they come from over 125 different countries. The University runs events for prospective applicants all over the world and once admitted, there are numerous societies that welcome and support international students. How different the […]

One of the main problems to afflict the Clanger community must have been a lack of dietary variation. Green soup and blue string pudding are probably delectable, but I’m sceptical as to whether they provide a wholesome balance of vitamins and minerals. This probably explains the increasingly health conscious nature of the final series, which […]

Now deeply entrenched within my second year at Oxford, I can safety testify that many elements of my life have dramatically altered since I first ambled down the cobbled archaic streets. One thing that hasn’t changed however, is my long-lasting and undying loyalty towards cheap rosé wine. Whilst, I have been pounded with sarcastic comments […]

I love the Bachelor. I don’t know what I prefer, the drama or trying to imagine how these women or men were wound up to actually react that way. The excellent UnReal which centred on a fictional Bachelor called Everlasting, created by Gertrude Sarah Shapiro, an ex-handler on the reality show, and depicted how a […]

Bursting with restlessness, naivety and overexcitement, a mere two weeks after finishing my A Levels, I ventured to Shanghai in pursuit of an adventure. Whilst my peers dashed off to the drug and alcohol soaked beaches of Ayia Napa and Ibiza, I had always been fascinated by the surreal complexity of Chinese culture, from its […]

Last term, I founded the SASI (Social Anxiety, Shyness and Introversion) Society. Yes, it is supposed to sound ‘sassy’. It’s a society for students who feel that they identify with any, or all, of the above. SASI is not primarily a support or self-help group, although I’m certainly planning to collaborate with Mind Your Head […]

If you have ever seen taxidermied animals, you are likely to have been struck by the eyes and their capacity to look animated. The trick here is sometimes a trick of light, some uncanny belief that something cannot be so dead and yet so alive. It is said that in Victorian times, to secure the […]

When, in November 2014, disgruntled French farmers dumped manure and sprayed slurry in towns and cities throughout the not-really-hexagonal-shaped nation, they appeared to have catastrophically misinterpreted the revolutionary slogan ‘make the streets run red with blood’. As a new brown, white and blue flag was raised above the excrement covered boulevards, the confused onlookers probably […]

Chocolate has played a big part in my life so far at Oxford. Whether it’s eating Twirls at JCR Tea for a pre-tute energy boost or getting pidged chocolate by my friends when I’ve had a bad week, chocolate is my standard pick-me-up. When I did ‘Live Below the Line’ last year (living on less […]