The Killers
Second runner-up in the ISIS short story competition, Trinity 2014 Though they strained with all their might, the killers could not move the corpse, which was fatter than the full moon and beginning to stiffen. They had tried with Sparrow at the head and his Crowe at the feet, and then the other wa
The ISIS All Souls Essay Competition Launch
The ISIS is now accepting entries for its short essay competition, featuring questions from the famous All Souls College entrance exam. The winning entry and runner(s) up will be published in the Hilary 2015 issue of the magazine. We’re looking for writing that’s original, distinctive and though
The Flies
Over our lunch break, we consider the implications of an existential hero who can’t act. Anina is sunk into a primeval gloom. She orders three donuts and pokes her way through them while we jabber. The way some stick-thin people can eat. I used to know a Latvian girl who ate a whole pizza every [&
Christmas shopping for one’s Oxford lover
Their first suggestion was innocent enough: a brightly patterned waist apron. Our investigator thought that a little too domestic, and asked for something more personal.
The Twelve Days of Putinmas
Pale Siberian dawn filters through the window onto a slumbering, slightly-balding head as day breaks on, no – not 25th December, but 7th October 2014. Forget Yuletide revelry, today this slumbering head of state will be celebrating his 62nd birthday. Heaven forbid that celebrations be restricted t
Oxford Movements – Duns Scotus Lives and is Still Doctor Subtilis
Originally published 19 January 1970 For the home of lost causes, Oxford has a pretty impressive record of “live” ones. Its name has been associated with ultra-Royalism in the 17th Century, High Church revival in the 19th, the moral-rearmament movement and the campaign against world povert
Camilla Long survives Christmas
Originally published Michaelmas term 1998 Aaaaaaah! The Christmas of our youth! Button noses, snowflakes, small wrapped gifts and Cherryade! Tossing and turning with excitement, waiting for a big red man to thrust his hands into our stockings… and still only 12! Tra-la! And now? No stockings, b
When a Language Dies
In February 2014, Hazel M. Sampson passed away in Washington, and with that death the world lost the last native speaker of the Klallam language of British Columbia and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Wikipedia catalogues 92 such extinct languages, and obsolescence, the extinction of language, is
The Church of Extreme Body Modification
In recent years, body modification has become increasingly common and widely accepted. A fifth of Britons have tattoos and even more have piercings. For the members of the Church of Body Modification, such body art has a more spiritual significance. The Church is based and legally recognised in the