BEST BEFORE: Your guide to the Indian general election’s surprise result
“How many seats do you think Modi will get? 300 for sure?” At a dinner-table conversation a few weeks ago, two friends and I were placing our bets on how many seats in the Lok Sabha the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – the right wing, Hindu-focused party led by Narendra Modi – alone
Jake Bugg in Oxford: A bad review of an okay show
It’s about 10.15pm, and Jake Bugg is about three-quarters of the way through his setlist. He swaps out one of his many electric guitars (needlessly many for a series of songs with the same tunings and same guitar tones) for an acoustic. It’s that moment in the night where the tipsy ‘6 M
The mastery of Love Island
It was Monday 3rd June, half past ten. The girls were all in their pyjamas with cups of tea in hand. Biscuits and stale popcorn were sprawled across a makeshift table. Layla’s single bed had been pushed up against the wall. An individual spinny chair had been ripped away from her desk and t
In conversation with: Saba Sams
Throughout the years I have been reassured by many of the real adults in my life that ‘I shouldn’t be anxious for the future; most people don’t reach the top of their game until their 40s!’ I also find this sentiment is often echoed all over social media, with posts reminding us that
Icon of the Week: The ‘Offisis’
In the spirit of the Offisis (The Isis Office), we tried to write this collaboratively. Joseph: “The fridge stinks, there’s a hole in the floor, and Harry has decided, as we write this, that the couch also stinks.” Harry: “The fridge reeks, the floor’s broken, the ca
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-