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
Mostar: A View From The Bridge
Bosnia & Herzegovina has been brought back into the international spotlight after a decade of political and socio-economic inertia. The powder keg of frustration over the unemployment rates of around 43% (63% for youth unemployment, with two in three young people without a job) and political sta
ISIS Lit: Saudade
One summer before the end of the world, Clement’s mother packed up her bags and took him away from the house where he had grown up.
Not Just A Dream: The story of Helem, the Arab World’s First LGBTQ Rights Organisation
From the perspective of the western media, gay rights activism in the Arab world is virtually non-existent. It’s difficult to fly the rainbow flag when homosexual acts are criminalized in all but three of the 22 countries of the Arab world