Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth: Spare Review
‘There is just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective fact’.[1] Barely a couple of pages in, Prince Harry’s memoir Spare makes it clear that we are about to receive a deeply personal memoir – highlighting the depth of his rift with the R
Artist of the Week: Joni Brown
Joni Brown is a visual artist. Tell us a bit about yourself. I’m a first-year student at LMH, studying Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art. Previously to university I took a foundation year in Art and Design, specialising in Fine Art, and spent a lot of my time walking the Coast Path of [&hel
What’s Left Unsaid
“One million women in France have abortions every year,” the Manifesto of the 343 begins. “Condemned to secrecy, they do so in dangerous conditions. Society is silencing these millions of women. I declare that I am one of them. I declare that I have had an abortion.” I first read these words
Filthy: Oxford’s Bathing River
The UK’s rivers act as a dumping ground for excess sewage in times of high water, and Oxford’s rivers have been no exception. When students finish their examinations, they traditionally jump into the river to celebrate. Now it seems they may have been diving into raw sewage. In 2020, water compa
What’s Left of Murakami’s Tokyo?
As I arrived at Narita Airport, my head was filled with images of Haruki Murakami’s Tokyo. I imagined stepping out of my taxi to meet smoky jazz bars, bell pepper spaghetti, and Kafka-esque cityscapes. Instead, I confronted a globalised urban sprawl. Canned pop music echoed across the stree
Becoming Human in Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Paintings
It was New Year’s Day, 1569, and the Imperial Court of the Holy Roman Empire was alive with festive splendour: populated by an eclectic coterie of entertainers, furnished with exotic menageries, and known for its elaborate five-course banquets, it would have been an absolute feast for the senses o
Wisteria
Love never came and raved but bent low and whispered: spring wisteria that once dipped its neck to press its pretty face to yours. You bent too, to listen, and every building stooped to see your sunlit form find silence in the street. ∎ Words by James Turner. Art by Betsy McGrath.
Love Et Cetera
There is nothing sexy about tardiness, I remind my date as she rocks up outside the cinema a full ten minutes after our scheduled meeting time. And yet there is something about her arrival that immediately injects our first encounter with an air of the erotic. Perhaps it is the effusive hug with whi
Ugandan-Asian Food and Identity 50 Years On
“To remember a recipe and to produce in one’s kitchen the dish to which it refers – indeed to recall in a new time or place a taste one once savoured in another time and place – is to demonstrate a cultural memory and to ‘write’ oneself into history” (Dan Ojwang in ‘‘Eat pi