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Whilst most of the world is in lockdown, literature is still free to comfort, entertain and let you explore different cultures. Here are my favourite books from around the world, to be read whilst our world is a little further away from us. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (originally in Spanish) An underrated book […]
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Image Description: A illustration of a scene from Mulan Oh, glorious CGI! We are a slave to your technicolour dreamscapes, your larger-than-life monsters. It seems remarkable to me to re-watch the first Harry Potter film and realise that I am expected to be gripped by terror, watching that magnificent blue troll before me. It looks, […]
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Image description: An Kindle on top of a regular book I’m not old enough to pull the whole ‘back-in-my-day-I-read-by-candlelight’, and I certainly can’t relate to the youngest generation of readers who grew up reading in the dark. That last bit I don’t mean figuratively: Kindle’s, iPad’s and other self-lit electronic devices have made it so […]
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Image Description: The Hollywood sign “Terrible things were happening all around us. Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman’s neck, the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge – impossible to walk on it, no footing at all. ‘Order some golf shoes,’ I whispered. ‘Otherwise, we’ll never get out of this place […]
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Image description: A stack of books on a shelf Quarantine has left us all in a constant state of unease. Now more than ever, books serve as a compelling source of comfort and companionship. Here, I present three meaningful selections that may offer readers a sense of solace, appreciation and motivation through these trying times. […]
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Image Description: Poppy flowers in a field When it comes to war films, there are, broadly, two schools of thought for the modern Hollywood studio executive and producer, both of which result in the production of dull and deeply unsatisfying pictures. First of all, and perhaps the most irritating, (although the less troubling) is the […]
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Image Description: A scene from the production featuring two actors either side of a clock face Transported into a sixteenth-century erudite set consisting of eight old bookshelves, each tightly packed with ancient books of various sizes, a singular wooden desk with a matching chair, and a large blackboard detailed with complex equations and sketches, the […]
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Isolation sucks. Gone are the much-anticipated vac plans, the long overdue meet-ups with school friends, and days of lying in parks with no work-burden that many of us had anticipated for this week. Instead, talk is only of the Draconian measures imposed on us; not going out, not seeing friends, weeks trapped with no one […]
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Content warning: this article contains brief mentions of sexual abuse and substance abuse. Last week, I was fortunate to have a ticket to a private performance of ‘People, Places, and Things’, held in the kitchen of a student house in Cowley. With the playwright – Duncan Macmillan – having not yet released the rights to […]
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There is an assortment of emotions one experiences when finishing a profound novel that has spoken to one’s soul. Without warning, you have become attached to a voice you have never met. You have found friends, lovers, or even enemies among its finest characters. You may have even become a part of ‘The Happy Few’ […]
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In the words of Ben Kenobi, “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together”. The magical force (no pun intended) of Star Wars has been an object of mystification and fantasy by many young […]
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I was reading an article in the third week edition on whose stories have value. The article uses the critical and awards reception of 1917 and Little Women to argue that stories about women are perceived as lesser than stories about men. I don’t seek to contend the central point of the article, however, I […]
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Taylor Swifts latest documentary, Miss Americana, premiered on the 23rd January on Netflix, and makes for an hour and a half of distinctly odd viewing. Swift has released one previous documentary in 2008, Journey to Fearless. This first offering was a celebratory look at the process of creating and performing her record-breaking world tour, which […]
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When it comes to happiness, everyone deserves to have that one thing that they know they can rely on to always make them feel comforted and relaxed. Often people draw on childhood stories for this solace. Perhaps you find comfort in escaping to the nostalgic world of Winnie the Pooh, or magical worlds like Narnia […]
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If the phrase “Soviet mime show” isn’t enough to convince you to spend £5 on a ticket to ÜnkelGårf at the Burton Taylor Studio, then that’s fair enough. I, however, am not a woman of the most refined tastes, and managed to sit through Tommy Hurst and Matt Kenyon’s last comedic venture Sübverse last term, so […]
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My first reading of Ajax was harrowing. This wasn’t like any other Greek play that I’d read. From the outset it was visceral and painful, full of striking imagery and haunting poetry and all I could see was a man gutted and bewildered by post-traumatic stress. Traumatised by the violence he had witnessed upon realising […]
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The Personal History of David Copperfield, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, tells the story of David Copperfield’s (Dev Patel) journey from childhood into adulthood. It focuses on the relationships he develops with a huge cast of characters who he meets as he travels “from rags to riches… and back again”. Sold as a […]
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So far this year I’ve seen two films in the theatre, 1917 and Little Women. While both are critically acclaimed, the former has received a good deal more commercial and awards success than the latter. The different responses to these films, both in the media and among my own friends, has prompted me to think […]
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When the trailers were almost all for children’s animations, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from December’s Screen Unseen (a scheme in which Odeon shows previews of films they believe to be future classics for a fiver, the only catch being that they don’t tell you what it will be). I was beginning to […]
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