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1.Cane, Jean Toomer (1923) – Harlem Renaissance author Toomer beautifully interweaves lyric, prose and drama in this series of vignettes written about the cultural history and experiences of African Americans in the United States. These stories are often pervaded by nauseating violence, such as cruel ostracisation in “Becky” or sexual violence in the “Box Seat”, […]
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Travel is a beautiful distorting mirror, one in which we can look back at ourselves and at different places, just like in books. Yet, this becomes even more spine-tingling when done through the lens of another age, through another’s eyes – this was my impression when I entered the world of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by […]
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Independent bookshops are a dying race, callously destroyed by online purchases and dooming their owners to disillusioning profit losses. However, on 25 Walton Street, a survivor determinedly battles on. The Last Bookshop, providing quaint mint-green tables outside for those who wish to read with a coffee, and a perpetual deal of two books for five […]
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It was recently reported that Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You, has stepped in and put up £360,000 of her own money to ensure that the adult literacy campaign Quick Reads is able to continue. The scheme had got into trouble when funding from both its long-term sponsor Galaxy, and the Arts Council, dried […]
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Reading juvenilia can often seem part of a contrived, even pathetic, attempt to make some profound statement about how an author’s childish scribblings – no matter how underwhelming – actually demonstrate the emergence of later genius. Jane Austen is not one of those authors. Her three surviving notebooks containing novellas, epistolary fiction, and plays written […]
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Over the past few years there has certainly been no shortage of Middle-earth inspired projects for fans to get excited about. From the controversial Shadow of War video game series to the upcoming biopic starring Nicholas Hoult, Tolkien’s cultural influence is showing no signs of slowing down. Now, from out of the blue, HarperCollins has […]
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A recent Twitter challenge to “describe yourself like a male author would” has gone viral, with women satirising the sexual objectification and tired clichés found in much of contemporary fiction. The challenge was instigated by Whitney Reynolds (media personality and television talk show host) in response to a tweet from Gwen C. Katz, who had […]
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As I write, Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has only just slipped from its spot atop both the E-book and print bestselling charts, after four consecutive weeks. This is a feat unrivalled by any book since Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, but while Hawkins’ thriller was boosted by an accompanying film, […]
Continue ReadingEven if you aren’t into poetry, if you’re on the Internet, you’ve probably heard of Rupi Kaur. Her poetry collections, Milk and Honey and The Sun and her Flowers, have received a mixed reception across an ever-widening platform, owed largely to the fact that most of her poems are short enough to be squeezed into […]
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Happy endings. Rachel ditches Paris for an overdue reunion with Ross, Harry defeats Voldemort and survives (J.K. Rowling makes her own rules), and Tiny Tim makes a full recovery – sorry for the spoilers. Worldwide, we all switch off the television or turn over the last page with a warm – dare I say tingle […]
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An exciting new project created by Guerilla Dance Project and commissioned by Playable City will see an impressive installation light up the night’s sky in Oxford this winter. Winning piece Star Light, Star Bright will be on display across the city from January 2018. The Smart Oxford Playable City Commission comes from cultural venue and […]
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Conan Doyle did not want to be remembered as the man who created Sherlock Holmes: this seems unfortunate, perhaps, when one looks back over the history and extraordinary popularity of the world’s most famous detective. From his first appearance in the Strand in 1887, Holmes, with his (somewhat apocryphal) deerstalker and omnipresent pipe, has remained […]
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Rupi Kaur’s debut collection ‘milk and honey’ liberated poetry from the archaism of regulated metre and stuffy subject matter. Her fluid and plain style is known for beautifully encapsulating the struggles of heartbreak, femininity and defiance. However, Kaur’s ambrosia formula of abstract sketches and lower case-lettered odes to self-love in ‘milk and honey’ seem at […]
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Or what Jane Austen has been teaching us for over 200 years (and how Clueless we have been about it …) Bride and Prejudice, a 2004 Bollywood musical, was the first version of Pride and Prejudice I came across; then it was the turn of Bridget Jones’ Diary. It was only after watching the 2005 […]
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Dear Freshers, Mammoth reading lists govern the life of most Oxford students’ lives. They dictate your evening plans, your library adventures and your closest friends will inevitably be those whose reading lists are comparable to yours. However, I’m asking you right now to do the unthinkable – forget these all-powerful lists for a while, because […]
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Buildings, cars, more buildings and more cars, all fly past as I speed through downtown, in the scorching desert heat, on my way to MAD Gallery, Dubai. Never has the phrase ‘concrete jungle’ seemed more apt, than amidst this frenzy of all things glitzy and glamorous about extreme urbanization. Never have the glass monsters that […]
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‘milk and honey’, Kaur’s debut poetry collection, is one of few commercially popular works of poetry in recent years. This is not to say that no other significant or impressive collections of contemporary poetry have been published, but rather that no other has achieved such global popularity. Upon publication, ‘milk and honey’ sold over 1.5 […]
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I meet the charming author Julianne Pachico one evening in Blackwell’s Norrington Room, where a story from her first book, The Lucky Ones, is to be performed as part of their Short Stories Aloud event. Set in Colombia, The Lucky Ones is a series of inter-linked tales, drawing inspiration from Pachico’s own childhood experiences – […]
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Safer Waters: Writing from a Distance It’s summer again, and I’ve been thinking about the sea. I often wonder if growing up on an island has meant that I can hear its siren call even here, in landlocked Oxford: a low foghorn sounding up the Thames, rattling the boathouses. Its undertow can be strong, too […]
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