Sam Cooke tackles the tensions of the academic world. This spring, my university proposed the closure of my department. It’s a recession, I am prepared to accept that some departments may be financial dead weights and should be cast off. That, however, was not the...
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Jane Crowley attempts to remedy the side effects of an English degree. As an English student, I hear the words “You must like reading” at least three times a week. The answer to this has always been to nod profusely and exclaim “I love it!”...
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Lyndon Ashmore explores the adolescent appeal of George Orwell. As a young boy tentatively toeing the brink of adolescence my Grandfather imparted a small pearl of wisdom to me. He advised that as I grow older it was important to “not stop believing what one...
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Harriet Jean Evans looks  at the overriding appeal of evil in literature. Take a moment to think of your favourite characters from fiction. Okay, now think again: how many of them are the unquestionable hero of the story? Not many? Exactly. For...
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Lyndon Ashmore champions the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites. Dante Gabriel Rossetti recently became a household name after the BBC drama Desperate Romantics appeared on our screens and established him in the audience’s mind as the rakish, charming deviant that fronted the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the...
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Huw Halstead casts his eye over European corruption scandals. Imagine. The Church of England, using its overbearing influence on the political system, has scandalously swapped vast tracts of worthless land it owns in the Yorkshire moors for prime real estate in the heart of London,...
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