A selection of some of 2016’s most popular articles on our website ‘Oxford: A café map’ – Sophie Barnes Oriel Interviews: “I like to be popular…” ‘Misinformation in the Rhodes Campaign’ – Madeline Briggs ‘Periods, Taboos and Female Shame’ – Emma Gilpin ‘Chicken Run or Ritual Slaughter’ – Jacob Warn ‘Remembering […]
Read more
by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I sit in the window seat of the cafe, watching Oxford as it slips into darkness. People below are barely distinguishable coats laden with bags as they scuttle through the damp streets towards some dry, artificially lit haven. Some dusks are beautiful blends of mystery and sunset blush; tonight is […]
Read more
by Alex Waygood
Read more
Interview by Alex Waygood, Joanna Engle and Christopher Hill “If I had their money, I’d buy an island and sit on it all day! David Lloyd George, beloved amongst Oriel joggers, sits on a bench in the Christ Church meadows. We ask if he has time for a chat… Go for it! Are you from […]
Read more
Interview by Alex Waygood, Joanna Engle and Christopher Hill ‘They’re horrible people, where I come from…’ There’s a man playing an electric keyboard on Cornmarket Street. He introduces himself: ‘Darren Potter, as in Harry Potter’. Music is Darren’s life. He bought his keyboard in a charity shop, and has been teaching himself to play; we […]
Read more
Interview by Alex Waygood, Joanna Engle and Christopher Hill ‘Boredom motivates me…’ Carol works on Cornmarket Street selling hats, scarves and her artwork. It’s a busy Saturday afternoon and the streets are full, but she says she has time to talk to us. You’ve got some great artwork you’re doing here. It’s what I do. […]
Read more
Interview by Alex Waygood, Joanna Engle and Christopher Hill ‘I’m trying to get accommodation, but as a single male I’ve got no chance in hell…’ We meet Angelis in North Oxford. He lets us interrupt his reading to tell us about his experiences… Are from Oxford? No. Liverpool and Italy. But I’ve been down here, […]
Read more
by Zad El Bacha Utopia There have been hundreds of years of rich, positive exchanges between cultures. When a European meets an Arab, they ask them about the patterns on their clothes, the words in their books, the instruments in their songs. The Arab asks them the same. They listen and learn, they answer in […]
Read more
by Tom Davy To the first term’s autumnal fog. Tears tumble off marooned cheeks That peek into new rooms, new curtains, Parted like families. Then there’s the names that fizz Like molecules around the hall, A mahogany pit of reaction After reaction After reaction. We’re all playing potters, Clay bridges between ourselves Form like the […]
Read more
by Jenny Potter Awaken me on Sunday morning Chiming for an hour or two And once you pause, I think you’re waning, You begin to toll anew. What’s the time? Who knows? Who cares? The occasion? We need none. Each time you catch me unawares And torment me until you’re done. You’re hungover? What […]
Read more
A few weeks ago, BBC Foreign Correspondent John Simpson give the Ascension Day sermon in Oriel Chapel. The Poor Print’s political correspondent, William McDonald, caught up with Mr Simpson before the service. Comfortably ensconced in an armchair, John Simpson looks rather like most other septuagenarians. But his kind smile and rugged features disguise a steely […]
Read more
by Giorgio Scherrer Marjory Szurko, Oriel’s librarian, likes books, people and Medieval English recipes I’ve been at Oriel for fourteen years now, longer than most staff members. But sometimes, I still discover things about the library that I didn’t know before. That’s always wonderful. And in a library like this there are so many things […]
Read more
by Sophie Barnes The Poor Print’s definitive Coffee Map of Oxford is downloadable here!
Read more
by Emma Gilpin It was a secret that we all had and we kept it, ashamed, embarrassed, scared about what it all meant. I suppose that’s because it meant adulthood, but it also meant something much more intimidating than that: womanhood. I got my period when I was twelve. I didn’t, couldn’t, tell anyone about […]
Read more
by Christy Callaway-Gale The beginning and end of everyone’s year abroad (yes, I am about to generalise, which in Oxford’s terms is the bait for your tutor to rip your essay into unbelievably miniature shreds) can be summed up by the question, how are you feeling about leaving? Surprisingly, I think both my answers, although […]
Read more
Daniel Hurn, 28, electrician and maintenance supervisor, has been working at Oriel since he was fifteen. He brews his own beer, bakes his own bread, and likes the mutual respect in his team. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “I wouldn’t say that I have much of a relationship with students. Sure, when I happen to […]
Read more
by Jacob Warn This article may be disturbing to some readers, particularly if they are meat-eaters. To understand my story, you have to understand my perspective, which is, currently, about as dark as you can get. Blind, bald, skin-seethed, dead. The action began just three hours ago, although life stretches back six whole weeks. I’m […]
Read more
Kathy Goudman, 65, lodge porter receptionist at Oriel, takes the rough with the smooth and doesn’t mind being a shoulder to cry on. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “My mother was the Yorkshire girl, my dad the Londoner. He was too short for the army in World War II, so he was sent down the […]
Read more
by Aidan Chivers I barely had time to walk over to my seat, sit down, and look up nervously before my interviewer fired me the question: ‘So what’s the point of literature?’ Fumbling around frantically for a suitably profound response, I remember stammering something about its potential for uniting people and the common ground it […]
Read more
by Lizzie Searle Coffee coffee coffee Coffee coffee Coffee Fuck off everybody Coffee
Read more
by Zixin Jiang Wheaton College’s decision to fire a professor for claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God made me think again about an article titled Praying to Aslan, by Bill Wood, which addresses this question and was published in The Poor Print last November. What does it mean for two persons to […]
Read more
Dawid Adam Piekarz, 30, barman and scout at Oriel thinks this year’s students are an especially amazing bunch. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “I first came to Oxford on a Friday. I had flown over from Poland for a job interview, because a friend of mine was working in Hall and had told me that a position […]
Read more
by Alex Waygood Legacy Monday morning, 0th week, Hilary Term 2016. A text wakes me at 7:47am. That’s about five hours before I usually get up. Groggily, I spot something from my mum about Bowie flash across the screen, and roll back into bed. I resolve to read it later; presumably she’s just heard his […]
Read more
by Madeline Briggs CW: some racial slurs which are key to the argument in this piece have been partially **-ed out, but have not been completely removed as the article discusses the use of those words directly Martin Luther King once said ‘Hate cannot drive out hate-only love can do that’. On 9th April 2015, […]
Read more
The Poor Print 