Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Jessica Carbino is everything you would expect a tinder sociologist to be: very American, confident, beautiful, and clearly extremely intelligent. She is kind enough to meet me in her the lobby of her hotel, The Eastgate, a short while before she speaks at The Oxford Union’s Social Media debate last Thursday. My initial question was […]
Continue Reading
Greg Rutherford is very down to earth about the sport that won him an Olympic gold medal in 2012; “I’m good at jumping” he surmises. “I run in a straight line, and jump into a pit of sand”. His speech and question and answer session at the Oxford Union Wednesday night is witty, characterful, and […]
Continue Reading
Stuart Semple is an artist whose work is known for his bold, eclectic pieces that examine aspects of contemporary society. He also creates many large scale public projects, such as Something Good, which saw him come here, to Oxford, to give away 1000 limited edition printed balloons which raised awareness for egg donation. Despite currently travelling around […]
Continue Reading
By all accounts, it sounds as though Felicity Cloake enjoyed her time at Oxford. Now the New Statesman’s food columnist and author of the Guardian’s How to cook the perfect… recipe series, it was in fact for the Oxford Student that she began her culinary career, reviewing restaurants for the paper and trying to compete […]
Continue Reading
The Great British Bake Off may have ended, but the love for contestant Selasi Gbormittah definitely hasn’t. Despite coming fourth, Selasi made TV (and internet) fame, and has now over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. I spoke to Selasi over the phone about the Bake-Off, Dampfnudels and motorbikes. Selasi’s love for baking started at […]
Continue Reading
Brenda Trenowden of all people understands the lack of female representation in executive positions. Head of Financial Institutions Group for Europe, and Head of Banks and Diversified Financials E&A for ANZ, she is now the new Global Head of the 30% Club, a campaign that aims to reach the minimum of 30% women on FTSE-100 […]
Continue Reading
Eavesdropping on a conversation during the drinks reception held prior to Oliver and James Phelps’ Q&A at the Oxford Union, I am struck by a comment made by one attendee that, “it would be weird to interview them and ask questions about things they’ve done apart from Harry Potter.” Ever a sucker for a challenge, […]
Continue Reading
Between seventeen novels (most recently Thomas & Mary, a Love Story), a selection of literary criticism and non-fiction, talks spanning several continents and a post as Associate Professor of Literature and Translation at IULM in Milan, Tim Parks is likely qualified to answer questions on more subjects than I could realistically stretch into what at […]
Continue Reading
The 5th of Iyar, known as both Yom Ha’atzmaut, the Day of Independence, and Yawm an-Nakban, the Day of the Catastrophe, was a formative day for the people of two nations. It was to represent the Palestinian perspective on the anniversary of this event that Manuel Hassassian, Ambassador of the Palestinian Mission in the UK […]
Continue Reading
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 […]
Continue Reading
Passing Michael Eavis on the street, you might not think he was the man behind one of the world’s largest and most successful music festivals. Over 125,000 people descend upon Worthy Farm every June, but Glastonbury – which began in 1970 – has much humbler origins. Arriving at the Oxford Union in his signature shorts […]
Continue Reading
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 […]
Continue Reading
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 […]
Continue Reading
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 […]
Continue Reading
Speaking face-to-face with Andy McNab is a surreal experience. The former Army and SAS soldier who found fame with his memoir Bravo Two Zero, written just after the 1st Gulf War, has always taken secrecy extremely seriously. So to see this writer de-masked was perhaps the reason why the Oxford Union’s Library was overflowing with […]
Continue Reading