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Tag Archives: Oxford University

Mary Curies

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Review of Tracy Chevalier’s treatment of Mary Canning’s life, in Remarkable Creatures. — For Perspective

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged audiobooks, Bishop Usher, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Bullock's Egyptian Hall, Deshan Tennekoon, Dickens, Dissenters, Dorset, Elizabeth Philpot, fiction, film, Geological Society, history, International Women's Day, John Fowles, Lyme Regis, Mary Anning, men, palaeontology, Perspective, poverty, religion, Saxony, science, the Bible | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, May 18, 2020

. In the United States only one about one building in three thousand is even nominally fire-proof. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, March 14 1907 . Ellis Paz has become the first man in history to be awarded a doctorate by the University of Oxford while wearing just his pants. Matthew Perry once entered a Vanilla Ice lookalike […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Air India, air travel, America, bears, biography, birds, BMX, books, construction, Covid-19, Edinburgh, Ellis Paz, Emma Bunton, emojis, fire, health, homosexuality, Matthew Perry, Mussolini, nature, Nelson Evening Mail, Nigeria, Oxford, Parsees, Pashto, Poetry, satire, Tamil, trypophobia, underwear, Vanilla Ice | Comments (0)

Creation-ism

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

This weekend I will be joining a local choral society for their performance of Haydn’s The Creation – and what better way to welcome Spring now that it’s finally arrived. An avowed and much-loved masterpiece from its earliest performances – Vienna, 1798 – ‘whose appeal [I read from A Peter Brown’s DECCA sleeve-notes] was irresistible […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged A Peter Brown, Aled Jones, army, bassoons, Beethoven, Chapel Royal, choral societies, Christianity, cosmology, cricket, DECCA, German, Germans, Hampton Court, Handel, Haydn, Italians, Kent, King James, Maidstone, Milton, music, Napoleon, oratorio, Poetry, religion, school, sheep, singing, Spring, the Bible, the Church of England, the French, The Oldie, the Oxford Spezzati, tigers, Vienna, war, West Kensington, whales, worms | Comments (0)

Tripping hither, tripping thither

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

When I went to the bar as a very young man, it was often enough in the company of the Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. My relationship with G&S had started early, specifically the argument in Three Men in a Boat over which song Harris is trying to sing (I remain confused to this […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged All Souls College, Arcadia, Bletchingdon, Brexit, clowns, comedy, Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, donkeys, drink, English National Opera, fairies, food, French, G Schirmer, Greek, Grenadier Guards, Holywell Music Room, Iolanthe, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jerome K Jerome, Kazakhstan, ketamine, Latin, law, librettos, Mount Ararat, music, opera, Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, plebs, politics, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Savoy Theatre, sex, shepherds, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, the Conservative Party, the House of Lords, the Liberal Party, The Oldie, The West Wing, voice, women | Comments (0)

The Kings and I

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

A festive gripe about Cornelius’s lovely ‘Three Kings‘ – and the solo I have never got to sing in it. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Alexandra Coghlan, All Saints Maidstone, baritones, barristers, Bayreuth, BBC Books, carols, cellos, Christmas, Christmas Badger Singers, English, Franz Liszt, Gerald Finley, German, Germans, girlfriends, Hampton Court, HN Bate, Ivor Atkins, King's College London, Knightsbridge, men, music, Peter Cornelius, Radio 3, silk, singing, Smarden, Southwark Cathedral, Sri Lanka, The Judd School, The Oldie, translation, University of St Andrews, YouTube | Comments (0)

An Oxford squaddie

Saturday, October 14, 2017

From deer park to gun park… . Sixteen years ago, American and British forces hurled themselves into Afghanistan the same week I arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford. I didn’t give them much thought – although the ‘War on Terror’ was immediately everywhere. I had an Egyptology degree to get to grips with; and choral evensong […]

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, education, Frank Ledwidge, George MacDonald Fraser, Honourable Artillery Company, Max Boot, me, singing, TE Lawrence, The Oldie, war, Yorkshire | Comments (0)