by Tobias Thornes How curious it is, my friends, that my memories should remain so vivid of the far distant journeys that I made so many decades ago. I have now recalled to you that first happy adventure I had, in the long-ago summer of 2017, which so piqued my yearning for exploration and magnified […]
Read more
An original composition for piano, by Chris Hill. Download the score here
Read more
Clickbait Investigative journalism by Alex Waygood. Featured image by Out Of The Blue. Out Of The Blue’s recent Christmas single, ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, is as fun, frivolous and festive as ever. And yet, watching it, I couldn’t help feel as though there were something missing. Namely: where did the gay go? Out Of The Blue’s music videos […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer Every ending is an invitation to look forward. As we move through time, the impenetrable murk ahead, like infinite layers of cobwebs, resolves into wispy strands of memory that trail behind us; and with every new layer we brush aside, we hope to get a glimpse of the next. This, ultimately, is […]
Read more
by Michael Leong It is 3am now. A couple of us had been playing ice hockey; afterwards, JJ and I retired to my room and decided to plan next term’s Oxford Mental Health Support Network launch over a couple of beers. Our conversation returned, as it tends to do, to the people we’re hoping to […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes The representative of the Vietnamese travel company was most apologetic. ‘We could not get your ticket to Beijing,’ she said. ‘Only to Nanning. You can buy the Beijing ticket in Nanning. We will refund your Beijing ticket.’ So that was that. It was nine o’clock at night; the Nanning train would leave […]
Read more
by Michael Leong I take great joy in my Saturday ritual. Every Saturday morning, I wake up late (hopefully slightly hungover), get a shower, put on my headphones and walk as slowly as I can to Jericho Coffee. I get a takeaway short Latte, and walk, just as slowly, back to my room. If I’m […]
Read more
by Cora MacGregor Each November fresh controversies arise regarding the Remembrance poppy. These ostensibly emerge out of individual cases or concerns particular to the present day: the expectation for public figures to wear a poppy, how to reconcile this with the demands for neutrality, and fears over the potential for slimy politicians to exploit the […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer Our memories are the stories that we tell ourselves: to remember is to scribble in faint pencil across the fabric of our lives. When inspiration strikes – a light across the ceiling, the warmth of a bed, a cup of tea – we conjure up an image of the past that neatly […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes Through the green heart of Thailand we had rushed, where the hills erupt like forested thimbles or rounded dice scattered across the plain: a mesmerising memory of a land where Earth still stores some beleaguered secrets amidst her lofty nooks. The train snipped the undergrowth, charging over little-serviced rails. Yet, sluggish seemed […]
Read more
by Josh Cottell ‘Music can shine light into places where nothing else can reach.’ James Rhodes seems to sum up my thoughts exactly. A pianist by profession, his 2014 autobiography describes his journey through an abusive childhood leading to a tough relationship with mental health. His journey is certainly an inspiration to anyone, yet it […]
Read more
by Patrick Hegarty-Morrish We have little left to remember of this city of aquatint. Its morning mists, grey springtime, the rare summer’s day, fleeting like a lovebird’s escape between hedgerows; wafts of pheasant roasting over her gables and cupolas, through cloister and quadrangle, carried to the dreaming student on a weightless breeze to displace smells […]
Read more
An original composition for piano, by Chris Hill. Download the score here
Read more
by Amanda Higgin On the last day of Summer Eights, Oriel’s first crew walks away from the river exhausted and a little disappointed. A couple of promising bumps in the first races were followed by a few uneventful row-overs, leaving them the fourth boat on the river. Close enough to take the headship next year, […]
Read more
by Aidan Chivers The air around me is calm and still as I wake up, but if I keep my eyes closed and breathe slowly, I can still hear the fading echoes of church bells, morning lectures and Latin grace. They have not vanished, but are softly receding into old, fading patterns which hold glimpses […]
Read more
by Teofil Camarasu Upon arriving to watch a dress rehearsal of the The Lieutenant of Inishmore, I was told that I would be watching the first run of the show with genuine fake blood (until then they had used water instead). The first row of seats had provisionally been designated a splash-zone, and was covered in […]
Read more
by Peter Pencewing What you are about to read is absolutely true and, although it happened to me, it could just as easily have happened to you. You see, last weekend – after a frightfully fearsome week spent in the Bodleian cramming for an essay due at the precise time of 2:37 p.m. on Friday […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes ‘Hotel,’ said the border official, pointing to the place I’d left blank on the form. I must have looked conspicuously European as I waited amidst the queues of Malaysians to cross into Thailand, for almost at once he had come and beckoned me into a side office. Britons, as I knew, did […]
Read more
by Alex Waygood. I read the minutes, so you don’t have to. Welcome to ‘Oriel News’, The Poor Print’s new fortnightly roundup of everything big that’s going down in college. As the rust has been scraped from the gears of the Oxford machine and Oriel life has restarted, students could be forgiven for thinking that it […]
Read more
by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I sit at a coffee-shop table, making towers out of sugar cubes. I’ve lost two rounds, Xanda’s lost one and we’re currently drawing with four-high towers. Then, as she carefully places the fifth piece on her stack, it wobbles and scatters across the table. ‘A-ha!’ I laugh maniacally. ‘Things fall […]
Read more
An original composition for piano, by Chris Hill. Download the score here.
Read more
by Michael Angerer In the beginning was the Fall: drawn down by the implacable forces of nature, down tumbled the apple and down tumbled humanity, Adam, Eve, Newton and all. Ever since, we have looked upwards in expectation of that which is beyond and above our mundane existence: divine inspiration, the fire of Mount Olympus, […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer Change is best seen in hindsight. We may sometimes foresee, forewarn and foresuffer all, but the truth is that Tiresias was very much an isolated case; people seldom look forward and say: ‘How time will fly!’ We cannot even hold to the now, the here, because the future does not plunge perceptibly […]
Read more
by Teofil Camarasu We have a fake news problem. Every week sees a new slew of articles on the ongoing epidemic. Some report on its destructive spread as it conquers country after country, swinging elections and referenda on its way, all the while heralding the start of a new Post-Truth era. Others prescribe remedies to […]
Read more
by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I sit in my new room in college, catching up on our vacations while the kettle boils. We both agree that the increase in floor space is nice, but my view has downgraded from the cherry tree outside St Mary’s to the college’s exterior wall, with its brick patchwork of […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes I have now, in the course of some twenty-one instalments, related to you most of the adventures that awaited me on setting out, so many years ago now it seems like another Age, in the spring of 2018 on my long journey of Slow Travel. Many miles I ventured by foot or […]
Read more
by Emma Gilpin Shifting from one language to another feels strange. It feels almost like I have more than one personality, as if there is a strange sort of discord between my English and German speaking selves. I have always loved words, which is why I chose to study languages in the first place. But, […]
Read more
A diary from Oriel Choir Tour 2017, by Alex Waygood. Featured image supplied by Matthew Hull. Tuesday, 27 June Far too early Wake up. Persuade myself that, yes, I did need to set the alarm this early. Lie in wait outside the bathroom so I can use the shower. There’s a queue – Lizzie kindly […]
Read more
by Lucy Mellor Dr Allan Chapman FRAS is a fellow of Wadham College and member of the Oxford University History Faculty, where he specialises in teaching the history of science. He lectures at many institutions across the country, has presented numerous television programmes, and written several popular books. A fascinating man with an unrivalled knowledge […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes The winter’s freeze was beginning to thaw as I made my way south: into the Heart of Asia. This was the land where Russia and China meet: a large, land-locked expanse surrounded by its powerful neighbours, the mythical heart of an infamous ancient Empire that was the largest contiguous power the world […]
Read more
by Alice Correia Morton Avocados are the hipster ingredient du jour, present at every brunch and scattered over every instagrammed salad. But even if you’d usually steer clear of such fads, avocados still hold their own: they are highly nutritious, with over 20 vitamins and minerals, and a filling centrepiece for vegetarians and vegans. Unfortunately, […]
Read more
by James Page In the darkness, they fed upon each other. Coiling and writhing in the depths, the spot of sunlight moving down one wall and up the other, grazing their faces for a minute a day and then passing on. The smaller looked to the larger, and planned its next move. He turned briefly […]
Read more
by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I have been having a conversation about our respective literary collections, wandering together around University Parks after having lunch in town. As an English Literature degree student, Xanda is obliged to have a huge collection of books of impressive quality; as an English Literature A-leveller I choose to have a […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes Like a great, central artery, the Trans-Siberian Railway sweeps right across the vast expanse of Russia the giant. From Vladivostok in the East to Moscow in the West, through snowy plains and forested mountains, crossing countless streams with names unknown to travellers overwhelmed by so great a swiftly sweeping, vanishing array, it […]
Read more
by Charlie Willis Her Uncle Ronnie had found them. He came to their front door on that rainy winter’s evening cradling a bundle of ragged clothes. They were in the other room watching television when they heard the knock echo out into the hall. Her mother groaned, and summoned just enough energy to lift up […]
Read more
by Kryssa Burakowski The cultural fingerprints of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can still be found all over Zagreb, a city that was under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy for centuries. Its mark can be clearly seen in the traces of the fin-de-siècle Vienna Secession movement across Zagreb. Croatian architects of the period, many of […]
Read more
by Max Schwiening The Build Start your training off very easy, you should be able to talk while running. Make your runs as short as they need to be to be able to train every day. Try to make the total distance for the week increase each week – aim for around a 10% increase, […]
Read more
The following piece contains scenes which may be distressing for some readers. The noise is muted. It’s just a buzzing dull throbbing in the back of my head that I can ignore. The hand, however, is a problem. The hand is what your eyes are drawn to, what your heart palpitates on seeing clench and […]
Read more
by Alice Correia Morton This isn’t strictly from the reduced section of the supermarket, but this week courgettes are bizarrely cheap in Tesco (4 medium for 79p or 60p). After the recent shortage and hike in price, this might come as a pleasant surprise. Although simple, omelettes are both filling and, since this one includes […]
Read more
by Emma Gilpin ‘Self-care’ and ‘self-love’ have become everyday terms, a revolt against a society which tells us, constantly, that we are not quite enough. Inevitably, there are those who criticise and mock this self-care movement: the idea that people should spend time looking after and taking time for themselves can seem strange or uncomfortable […]
Read more
The Poor Print 