26th April 2023
With progressive representation and constant shifts of narrative perspectives, Dragonfall is a unique intervention in the fantasy canon. “If there can be dragons in fantasy, why can’t there be queer people?” I remember a colleague on my Fantasy MLitt commenting in a discussion on diversity within the genre. It’s fitting, then, that Sunday Times bestseller ...
21st February 2023
A fantasy novel about the British Empire, Babel should be taught in Universities. The recently published Babel by R.F. Kuang, author of the notorious The Poppy War trilogy, is an absolute gem. Set in a fictitious, early 1800s Oxford, Babel is the name for the Royal Institute of Translation, a building which towers above the ...
8th January 2023
Angelica critically examines the 2019 non-fiction text. There is no doubting Lisa Taddeo’s commitment to research for her blockbuster book, Three Women. She begins by telling the reader that over the course of eight years she drove across the country six times, spent thousands of hours with her three chosen subjects, moving to the towns ...
16th February 2022
Leah Hart examines how far aesthetics matter when it comes to choosing a book. The act of buying or borrowing a book must inevitably be predicated by a judgment of its worthiness. This judgment will either need to be quick – if perhaps you are late for coffee with a friend and something caught your ...
18th December 2021
Photography and Illustrations Manager Dorota Dziki talks us through the romantic book tropes that would be undoubtedly creepy if they happened in real life. The unfortunate reality of trying to enjoy a good book is that there most likely will be some sort of creepy or weird romance or romantic trope forced upon us to ...
1st May 2021
Almost 30 years after Trainspotting’s publication, Culture Editor Rosie Shackles examines why the cult classic is just as relevant today. Content warning: discussion of drug use and addiction “Choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food intae yir mooth” hit a little too close to home when reading cult ...
5th April 2021
An enthralling debut that will have you turning one page after the other. This morning, turning so that my eyes levelled with the bedside table, I saw two things: my phone flashing and spluttering away as the alarm went off, and Rebecca Watson’s novel Little Scratch. These first moments of awakening are captured by Watson ...
13th February 2021
Dorota reviews Dolly Alderton’s much-celebrated memoir about friendship. I thought pinpointing a single book in my entire existence that changed my life would be fairly difficult, but to be honest, there’s one book that’s lived in my head rent-free ever since I read it: Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton. Thanks to its ...
11th January 2021
Margaret explores the pros, the cons, and the alternatives to a Creative Writing post-grad. Say you enjoyed creative writing in school, so much so that you wished to become a writer. The thought “pick something sensible” leads you to English Literature, but after four years of studying it, you still feel that there’s more to ...
11th January 2021
Mahee Mustafa recounts what Ancient Greece can teach us about freedom. The most valuable thing one can glean from a work of literature is insight into one’s own psyche. Although command of language, deft characterisation, and excavation of universal themes are all important, a book is ultimately worth nothing if it does not reveal a ...
