Old life in Oxford
Many times, I have been told by people older than me the following advice: “To be a good writer, you need to go out into the real world and experience life.” I was sitting in an auditorium during my first semester at university, listening to a well-known, old and whiskered writer,
BEST BEFORE: O Clacton! My Clacton!
If the Tories lived roughly nine lives while they were in power, it makes sense that this election they’ll die about nine deaths. It should have been over after Vote Leave, after Strong and Stable, after Partygate, after the Lettuce. But, like a supervillain kept alive solely for the money-
How to hold: Pina Bausch’s ‘Nelken’
Poster for Nelken, 1982 They bloomed before you, these 8000 carnations. You are outnumbered by flowers. You do not know whether they celebrate or eulogize. How could you know, with only one line in the programme to guide you? “For love is as strong as death, and its ardour terrible like hel
In conversation with: Barbara Brownskirt
Coming out via the front page of The Independent, shouting “who put the word ‘men’ in menopause?” outside Penge Conservative Club, and writing poetry at bus stops, Karen McLeod tells me about her reverse-drag act: Barbara Brownskirt. Barbara is cagouled, pop-socked, Judi Dench-
Queer love letters
Letter from Wilfred Owen to Siegfried Sassoon. (University of Aberdeen) In the enduring shadows of war, prejudice, and cultural turmoil, the resilience of queer love shines through. From the poignant letters of poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, to the clandestine journey undertak
Icon of the Week: In defence of ‘Catz’
Yes, I know. Hear me out. I’m being defensive, but my time at Catz has made it almost instinctual; it is such a point of such contention in the wider Oxford community – it sticks out like a sore thumb among the warm sandstone-yellow buildings and towering spires of Oxford. A quick
Opposition in exile: in conversation with Ivan Zhdanov
I fiddle nervously with my computer. I’m waiting for Ivan Zhdanov, a leading figure of the modern Russian opposition, to join a Zoom call. I sit in my university bedroom, Zhdanov against the backdrop of his children’s playroom; talking about how Alexi Navalny’s murder has shaped the Russian op
Guest edit: The Tao of Trash
One of the most successful TV shows I ever produced was pure, throwaway trash of the highest order – and all the better for it. It was the first series of The Graham Norton Show, and it’s still going today, over 25 years later. The reason? Back in that first season in 1998, no […]
Orlando: from the West End to Magdalen gardens
I didn’t like the West End adaptation of Orlando when I saw it in January 2023. I was convinced the concept was all wrong, and Neil Bartlett, the play’s adaptor, was the guilty man behind the crime. I spent the entire journey home on the Central Line ranting to my mum about how goddamn [&