Reviewing Oscar Wilde

This blog post was inspired by my recent reading of five of Oscar Wilde’s best known plays – The Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No Importance, Salome, Lady Windermere’s Fan and An Ideal Husband. Each of these plays shows a nuanced perspective from within the upper class lifestyles, commenting on values, truth, dignity

The Gift

This blog is partly inspired by a chapter in ‘The Gift’ by Lewis Hyde and partly inspired by the events over the week beginning with International Women’s Day (8th March) and ending with Mother’s Day (14th March 2021). On the whole, the book goes into some pretty hefty analysis of gift culture, truly walking the

A Selection of Jams

As a bit of (hopefully) light relief, this week’s post has no deep thoughts to ponder, no rants at society or deep analyses. Instead, I am treating you and my brain to a week off and the 10 songs I’ve been listening to most recently. I love music and its healing and empathetic qualities, so

Survival Soundtracks

This is the first, and by no means the last article I write on the subject of ABBA. As we approach 2021, many have been expressing hopes that it can’t be worse than 2020. However, I am more cynical of this view. If 2020 has proved anything to us, surely, it’s that it can always

Artistic Concrete

Anyone who has visited the National Theatre with me in the last 5 years will have heard my fun fact – the National Theatre has an award for its concrete being fabulous. I really do think it’s beautiful, precisely imprinted with the patterns of wooden beams, creating a striking and artistic statement to anyone who

The History Girls

Recently, I read the script of The History Boys for the first time. A couple of years ago, I saw the film and loved the premise of a class of selected boys being pushed towards Oxbridge applications to satisfy their teachers more than anything. It is something I felt being pushed on my sixth form