Oxford
Dot Wordsworth: What is an astel?
Dear old Ian Hislop was pottering around North Petherton, Somerset, on television, to talk about the Alfred Jewel, found nearby…
Oriel: the college that shaped the spiritual heart of 19th century Britain
Oriel was only the fifth college to be founded in Oxford, in 1326. Although it has gone through periods of…
Memoirs of an academic brawler
It’s a misleading title, because there is nothing unexpected about Professor Carey, in any sense. He doesn’t turn up to…
If only Craig Raine subjected his own work to the same critical scrutiny he applies to others'
Debunking reputations is now out of fashion, says Philip Hensher, and Craig Raine should give it up — especially as he always misses the point
Have a crime-filled Christmas
Pity the poor novelist whom commercial pressures trap within a series, doomed with each volume to diminish the stock of…
Toby Young: I'm too posh for the Tories. I should try Labour
I’m still weighing up whether to run for Parliament, but after this week’s reshuffle I’ve concluded I’m in the wrong…
Isaac & Isaiah, by David Caute - review
The scene is the common room of All Souls College, Oxford, in the first week of March 1963. It is…
Raymond Carr by María Jesús Gonzalez - review
This is an unusual book: a Spanish historian writes the life of an English historian of Spain. In doing so,…
Tell me a story! Anne Fine, Amanda Mitichison, Terence Blacker and Keith Crossley-Holland on the joy - and importance - of reading aloud
Robert Gore-Langton on Oxford’s new Story Museum, which aims to put stories into young lives deprived of books
Building: Letters, 1960–1975, by Isaiah Berlin
This is the third volume of Isaiah Berlin letters; one more to go. Discerning critics have showered the first two…
