Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
As a child, I used to think I could control traffic lights with my eyes. The logic was if I squinted hard enough the little red man would turn into a little green one. I would think I was special, but my mother would just think I had hay fever. I stopped believing this in […]
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When we think of famous artists, from El Greco to Van Gogh, it seems astonishing that so many only found fame after death. As a result of this phenomenon, there has arisen a well-known myth we like to call ‘the death effect’: the idea that an artist’s work will increase significantly in value once they […]
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The body found at Westgate Oxford shopping centre on Monday has been identified as Max Mian, a 2nd year student at Brasenose College studying Classics. Construction work on the centre, due to open in three weeks, has been halted for police to investigate the death. A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said that the death remains […]
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Death is relevant to us all, but end of life care – particularly for the terminally ill – is something few consider before they have to confront it. Two pressing cases have recently caught the world’s attention, both in London, and both challenging what it means to die with dignity. One was of an 11-month-old […]
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An Oxford student has been found dead at the French ski resort of Val-Thorens at the beginning of the joint Oxford-Cambridge Varsity trip. According to The Times, the man was named locally as Matt Smith, a third year history undergraduate at St John’s College, Oxford. A spokesperson for the college told The Times: “We would […]
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Pete Burns, the famously flamboyant singer of eighties dance-pop band ‘Dead or Alive’ has died at 57 after a heart attack. Heralded as ‘one of our great true eccentrics’ by Boy George, and ‘a cross between Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker’ by, strangely enough, George Galloway, tributes from celebrities and fans have poured in since […]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that people are born, and people die. Stars are born, and they too, must eventually die. On 6th January 2016, a star whose light has been shining since he launched his music career back in 1967 died aged 69, after an 18-month long struggle with cancer. That star, of […]
Continue ReadingIt takes something special to start a new genre, and there is no doubt that Gabriel Garcia Marquez – known affectionately in his homeland of Colombia as Gabo – was very special indeed. His novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, helped to put Latin American literature on […]
Continue ReadingAs the bicentenary year of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice draws to a close the BBC have found a foolproof way of racking up the Christmas ratings. Probably all too aware that their own 1995 adaptation of Austen’s novel couldn’t be topped (partially thanks to the Bridget Jones’s Diary novels and films, Colin Firth’s turn […]
Continue ReadingEmma Berrecloth-Bale, born and raised in Oxford, has taken the route of self-publication and her novel, The Deathday Present, a work of speculative fiction, is available on Amazon in both hard-copy and e-book versions. Daniel Sperrin has this exclusive review: Let’s start with the beginning. Berrecloth-Bale achieves something quite substantial in the opening pages of this […]
Continue ReadingTata’s expression as she looked into her vanity mirror was one of academic scrutiny. She had decided not to wear the plastic tiara with glittery rhinestone hearts, opting for a more subdued purple feather boa that looked marvellous against her platinum wig. Some fine lines around the eyes, perhaps, and hands rather wrinkled from excessive […]
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