Author Patrick Gale prepares for the Bloxham Festival of Faith and Literature

Novelist Patrick Gale

2:46pm Wednesday 13th February 2013

Patrick Gale is preparing to be received at New College for dinner, eating at High Table, fresh off the success of his Oxford alumni University Challenge win at Christmas, when we speak.

Carpet Burns: My Life with Inspiral Carpets

9:00am Thursday 6th September 2012

The UK economy was in poor shape, with unemployment rates at an all-time high. England’s youth were rioting and out of work. Then punk arrived on the scene.

Can Onions Cure Earache?

9:00am Thursday 6th September 2012

If you want to reassure yourself that now is a good time to be alive, take a look at the 1769 illustrations in the Bodleian Library ’s new edition of William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine, which suggested its 18th-century readers should drink broths from sheep brain and put urine drops into their ears. There are also cow dung, oystershell and eel treatments.

Local author Charlie Brooks

Local author Charlie Brooks

9:00am Thursday 6th September 2012

Racehorse trainer Charlie  Brooks, husband of Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), lives in Churchill, near Chipping Norton. His new thriller Switch (Harper Collins, £7.99), is published on September 13, and endorsed by fellow Chipping Norton residents Jeremy Clarkson, who describes it as “a turbo-charged race to the finish”, and former Blur bass player Alex James, of Kingham, who says “I couldn’t put it down”.

A feast of Hobbits at ready

A feast of Hobbits at ready

11:00am Thursday 30th August 2012

NICOLA LISLE previews The Tolkien Society’s annual Oxonmoot

Pre-Raphaelites and their muses

9:00am Thursday 30th August 2012

The Pre-Raphaelites started as a group of hard-up young artists, who roamed the streets around 1848, looking for striking young women whom they politely asked to pose. Rossetti and Holman Hunt were both fine painters, but Millais was a genius. He was also a remarkably nice man, and his marriage to John Ruskin’s former wife Effie is one of the great Victorian love stories. There is still no decent biography, but Jason Rosenfeld’s book John Everett Millais (Phaidon, £39.95) is the first monograph to appraise his complete career, and it is magnificent. It is lavishly illustrated in colour and black and white. Rosenfeld argues, rightly, that Millais didn’t sell out when he moved away from Pre-Raphaelitism but went on doing marvellous work. There are great portraits (Gladstone, in Christ Church , and Ruskin, in the Ashmolean), luminous Scottish landscapes which Van Gogh admired, and much more.

Local author Simon Tolkien

9:00am Thursday 30th August 2012

Simon Tolkien is the grandson of the great JRR Tolkien and was born in Holywell Street, Oxford, in 1959 — his father taught at New College. He grew up and went to school and university in the city before becoming a barrister. In 1999, aged 40 he moved to California to become a full-time writer. The Inheritance (HarperCollins, £7.99) is his third mystery featuring Insp Trave of Oxford police. This time the detective is searching for the killer of an Oxford art historian.

Reel Big Fish: O2 Academy

1:55pm Wednesday 29th August 2012

Do you have a multi-faceted taste in music? Enjoy live music, singing with a crowd and a bit of the ridiculous? If so, Reel Big Fish couldn’t possibly disappoint. The action begins with the latter part of support act New Town Kings’ set. The eight-strong Essex ensemble spring the crowd with some active ska tunes and stirring solos from the brass section. These guys clearly have fun on stage and this is effectively transported to the audience through their music; a more reggae tone than proverbial ska-punk headliners. No one was sceptical towards Reel Big Fish’s reputation as a dynamite live act. And no one was disenchanted when they began with Kids Don’t Like It and Thank You For Not Moshing — both fast-paced tracks that refuse to be ignored. The crowd is singing along fervidly as the band literally party into familiar tracks Good Thing and I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend Too. And they’re not only singing. The party on stage is infectious and, despite the heat, everybody is dancing/skanking/jumping to the cohesive atmosphere, exhilarated by the carefree lyrics and ska-punk cheeriness. New tracks Everyone Else Is An Asshole and Don’t Stop Skanking do well to promote the new album and assert that the band hasn’t changed. And won’t. “This song is dedicated to the greatest drink in the world.” The final song before the encore is indeed Beer, and for me the highlight of the evening. Everyone’s had one and everyone knows the words. This is not to depreciate the encore itself, consisting of Sell Out, the inevitable Take On Me cover and, perhaps a tribute to their recent appearance at the O2, Monkey Man by Toots and the Maytals, all of which were wildly received. This was a hugely enjoyable gig then — and not just because of the music. Reel Big Fish are the noisy rabble next door that you’d rather join than complain about.

Husband and wife in harmony

Husband and wife in harmony

8:00am Friday 24th August 2012

GILES WOODFORDE looks forward to the appearance at Dorchester Abbey of famous flautist Sir James Galway

Workshop can add another string

Workshop can add another string

9:00am Thursday 23rd August 2012

If you play a stringed instrument and suffer from problems, then a forthcoming workshop in Oxford could be the answer to your prayers.

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