IT is the season of giving and that's what we're doing on weekdays during the first two weeks of December. We are printing a voucher in the Oxford Mail each weekday between Monday, December 3 and Friday, December 14. All you have to do is collect
PRIME Minister and Witney MP David Cameron has warned Parliament should be “wary” of passing legislation to regulate the press of the kind recommended in the long-awaited Leveson Report on media standards. In a damning report, Lord Justice Leveson
CAMPAIGNERS have vowed to fight for the future of Oxford Stadium and have called on councillors to halt moves to build homes there. Supporters of the greyhound track have launched a petition and plan to lobby the city council to stop the site’s
THE African drum workshops of the Oxford Rhythm Centre are making a big noise in Witney every week. Kim Gajraj and Lukasz Lisak started teaching African drumming a year ago at The King’s School after returning from Senegal, where they spent an
TWO talented children will have their angelic voices featured on a Christmas single made in Oxfordshire. Libby Griffiths, 10, a pupil at Sibford Junior School, in Sibford Ferris, and Will Homewood, 12, a pupil at Warriner School in Bloxham, were
A CHARITY concert being held to raise funds for next summer’s Cowley Road Carnival has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The Jouvert event was due to take place at the O2 Academy, in East Oxford, tomorrow, with performances by hip hop duo
EDUCATION chiefs are pressing ahead with adding 120 places to an Oxford primary school despite strong opposition. Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet voted on Tuesday to publish a statutory notice and move to formal consultation on its proposals
The year is 1987 and in a bar in Tuam, County Galway (population 2,997) a raggle-taggle bunch of rock, punk and reggae fans are raising the roof with a raucous mix of pop, country and frantic Irish fiddling. Fast forward 25 years and The Saw Doctors
Jazz ALLISON NEALE QUARTET St Giles Church, Oxford Saturday Tickets: £10/£8/£5 from jazzatstgiles.com Seattle-born alto saxophonist Allison Neale has a wide following for her light and airy playing which is evocative
A PUPIL at Didcot Girls’ School has started a charity Secret Santa to make Christmas special for people who will be in hospital. Courtney Hughes, 14, from Didcot, is working with Helen & Douglas House hospice in East Oxford, and Oxford Children
Many books have been written about the Allied “turning point” victory in the North African desert, but what makes El Alamen (Osprey, £18.99) more substantial is author Bryn Hammond’s expertise on tank warfare. His previous book on Cambrai broke
Nick Chambers QC, who lives in Chipping Norton, is a civil court judge and has spent his working life sitting in court. He is also a sixth-generation watercolourist and met his wife Sally at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford. His book, Missed
A FORMER teacher of an Oxfordshire school has just admitted 29 sexual offences relating to children. The 52-year-old, who cannot be named because it will identify his victims, has appeared in court today and will be sentenced on January 17. The
A main drain was overflowing. Foul water was flooding into the house and ruining the carpet. I was heaving sandbags about. Then the telephone rang and it was someone trying to persuade me I was owed thousands in mis-sold payment protection insurance
GREAT EXPECTATIONS (12A) Drama/Romance. Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Flemyng, Ewen Bremner, Robbie Coltrane, Sally Hawkins, Olly Alexander, David Walliams, Jessie Cave, Tamzin Outhwaite. Director:
TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE (12A) Drama/Romance. Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Robert Patrick, Matthew Lillard, Joe Massingill. Director: Robert Lorenz. Like a fine wine, Clint Eastwood gets better with age. Now
There’s no escaping it now – Christmas beckons like a boozed-up advent calendar. Liz Nicholls offers some tips for days out for all the family at the county’s museums Is it just me or were you slightly relieved to hear about the Mayan apocalypse
There is a reason I’m married to Mr Greedy – apart from the love thing of course – because he is the perfect man for the job. Take our visit, accompanied by another couple, to Cote Brasserie, the new restaurant on George Street. He was the life
Of course it’s expensive, and an extravagance to boot, but isn’t that the point of the Christmas party season – glitter, sparkle and a fast-dwindling bank account? So for those of you who do embrace this festive sentiment, Esther Browning selflessly
Watch out, there’s a new dame in town... KATHERINE MACALISTER meets the brash, red-lipped super heroine Dame Doris Donut (aka actor Leon Craig) Sitting down for a drink ain’t easy when you’re a dame – a panto dame that is. I might need a straw
Ben Richards’ rise to fame mirrors the Billy Elliot story. Here he tells Katherine MacAlister about beating cancer, trying his luck in the US and why musicals still do it for him Ben Richards is playing a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical
* A show by heart throb Peter Andre was always going to be a lively affair – and Oxford did not disappoint. Lady admirers (and they were mostly women) flocked to the New Theatre to hear the Aussy reality TV star serenade the audience with old favourites
Tim Hughes talks to Luke Ayling of Thames delta band The Milk BOREDOM is a curious motivation. But for one bunch of Essex lads at least, the experience of growing up in a town which they joyfully describe as crushingly dull has been the spur to
TRIBUTES have been paid to Wantage’s first town mayor John Humphries, who has died aged 82. Mr Humphries was also a keen pilot and was still flying with the Spitfire Club at Popham, Hampshire, until earlier this year. Mr Humphries, who died
LORD McCarthy, the Labour peer and Oxford expert on industrial relations, has died aged 87. A fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1992, he was heavily involved in the struggles of both Labour and Conservative governments to regulate
RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (PG) Animation/Action/Comedy. Featuring the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Jude Law, Dakota Goyo. Director: Peter Ramsey. Many of the benevolent icons of childhood innocence are the universally
* WHERE to start? How about with The Killingworth Castle in Wootton, re-opening on Saturday with a fabulous seasonal menu featuring local suppliers which include Gloucestershire Old Spot Pork Belly and Madgetts Farm chicken, as well as drinks from
Books editor Andrew Ffrench casts his eye over some potential stocking fillers of a literary kind and discovers that when it comes to books, there really is something for everyone... * BACK To Blood by Tom Wolfe is published in hardback by Jonathan
Man in the mask, Death of Hi Fi’s Andy Hill, tells Tim Hughes that theduo's dance-fuelled hip hop comes from the dark side MYSTERIOUS, dark and enigmatic, Death of Hi Fi make an impressive impact. Hidden behind golden masks they look faceless
STUDENTS at Magdalen College School in Oxford are staging their “most ambitious musical to date”, the gruesome Sweeney Todd. Stephen Sondheim’s chilling tale follows the fortunes of a vengeful barber who teams up with the owner of a failing pie
TWO Oxford artists are inviting the public to come in out of the cold and “breathe some life” into their latest exhibition called Freeze. Lifelong friends Rachel Ducker and Rachel Owen, also known as ‘the Gilbert and George of Oxford’ open their
‘Any port in a storm,” I punned dreadfully as we dived from a rain-lashed street into Lisbon’s Ginjinha Sen Rival. In fact, though there were many varieties of Portugal’s celebrated fortified wine to be had here, my taste today was for something stronger
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t expect my own clothing brand or a book deal. But I did hope I wouldn’t be quite as ruthlessly ribbed on a bi-weekly basis. “Yeah, all the cool kids have an allotment now,” they insisted. “It’s not for old fogies
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t expect my own clothing brand or a book deal. But I did hope I wouldn’t be quite as ruthlessly ribbed on a bi-weekly basis. “Yeah, all the cool kids have an allotment now,” they insisted. “It’s not for old fogies
With all the attention on Ash Die Back, a piece of significant news has come and gone unnoticed despite the best efforts of Friends of the Earth and The Wildlife Trusts. It concerns the ban on further peat extraction at Chat Moss, a vast area stretching
Ancient woodlands are a vital part of the country’s ecosystems; trees at all stages of their lives contribute to the essential life-giving diversity of nature. Hundreds of different wildlife species thrive in woodlands, many of them making their homes
Many benevolent icons of childhood innocence are universally adored faces of capitalism and greed. Father Christmas rewards well-behaved children with expensive gifts, the Tooth Fairy marks the loss of an incisor with money under the pillow and
PARENTS and staff have “grave” concerns about the safety of children at a Bicester primary school after a council ruled a lollipop person wasn’t needed. Children at Brookside School have been without a person to help them across Bucknell Road since
Expectations were certainly great when Mike Newell announced this lavish retelling of Dickens to coincide with the bicentenary of the writer’s birth. David Nicholls, author of Starter For Ten and One Day, had penned the script and some of the brightest
Drama WHAT THE DICKENS? Pegasus, Oxford November 30 - December 30 Tickets: 01865 812160 A comedy fairytale for Christmas, What The Dickens? will envelop you as soon as you enter the building, immersing you in an interactive Victorian experience
"My journey to London is long and hard,” says Dick Whittington sadly. “Well, why don’t you take the X90, idiot?” jeers Dame Doris Donut, punching Dick fairly playfully on the arm. It’s early days as I drop in on the Playhouse’s Dick Whittington
Disney’s musical version of Beauty and the Beast, with its perky score by Alan Menken, has been staple fare in theatres across the country for many years. Now some of the touring sets and costumes have been commandeered by Oxford Operatic Society for
The unpredictability of outcome that is — or at any rate was — a defining feature of quantum mechanics, supplies the impetus to the plot of Nick Payne’s beguiling two-hander Constellations. A big hit at the Royal Court earlier in the year, the play
UP TO 20 jobs are being created by a new care provider moving into Witney. DoCare has opened an office at Witney Business and Innovation Centre at the Windrush Industrial Park and is recruiting on the back of a new contract from Oxfordshire County
A recruitment drive has been launched by a leading research centre to attract the next generation of hi-tech engineers and scientists. The Culham Centre for Fusion Energy needs to fill 70 vacancies, with successful applicants working on ground-breaking
And you can read the full Leveson Report here Follow all the reaction on our National News section
PLANS to extend an historic Oxford church where Narnia author CS Lewis is buried could be abandoned after concerns were raised about the “decimation” of graves. Tim Stead, vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, unveiled plans for an
Picturesquely named Tutti and Frutti, the Ugly Sisters like to arrive in style. Nothing less than a large pink gondola is good enough for them — and, needless to say, the sweating gondolier gets no tip as he unloads his unlovely passengers outside
Almost a quarter of cigarette vendors tested in a sting operation sold tobacco to children, but Oxfordshire County Council is refusing to say which ones. Oxfordshire Trading Standards has revealed that in the 2011 to 2012 financial year, 37 shops
David Tolley is an Oxfordshire man through and through. He was born in a bungalow, not more than a hundred yards from the bold contemporary house he has built for his family in a quarry in Bladon. A large part of the ground floor is a purpose-built
A FREE press is essential to a truly democratic society, writes Oxford Mail editor Simon O’Neill. Weaken the former and you weaken the latter. It really is as simple as that. There are no half measures when it comes to the regulation of a free
OXFORD: A fundraising event to bring the Cowley Road carnival back next summer takes place tomorrow night. Jouvert! at the O2 Academy features various bands. For more info visit o2academyoxford.co.uk
Lewis Stratford was the toast of Oxford after winning the All-England Under 25 Singles crown at Reading, writes PETE EWINS. Stratford came second in his round robin group to qualify for the semi-finals, where he defeated Oxfordshire rival Craig
Eve Johnson Houghton is putting the emphasis on quality rather than quantity as she seeks to build on another successful Flat season. Having ended the campaign by breaking through the £250,000 barrier in prize-money for the first time, Johnson
Oxford Rugby League will visit fellow newcomers Gloucestershire All Golds in their opening Championship One fixture on Sunday, March 29. The city’s new semi-professional club play their first home game at Iffley Road on April 14 when they entertain
Oxford University captain John Carter says they must improve on their final warm-up performance against Esher if they are to have any hope of Varsity Match hat-trick. The Dark Blues won 31-10 at Esherin what was only their second victory of the
PRIME Minister and Witney MP David Cameron has called for ‘independent’ regulation of the press ahead of today’s release of the Leveson Report. Lord Justice Leveson will this afternoon publish the findings of his inquiry into press standards, set
Phil Jackson hit a six in his 15 dolls to help Three Horseshoes to a 4-2 win over Garsington Sports A in the Gladiator Wednesday Night League. RESULTS Banbury Indoor League: General Foods 6, George 0; Banbury 5, Castle Quay 1; Bicester 4, Easington
OXFORDSHIRE QUALIFIERS FOR ENGLISH SHORT MAT COMPETITIONS Triples: 1 G Cross, G Davies, AJ Brown; 2 A Sirett, E & C Hasker; 3 J Bradbury, T Clough R Wiggins; 4 P Collett, T Mills, K Howarth. Pairs: 1 M & N Cole; 2 G Davies, R Wiggins
A man who was found dead behind West Oxford Community Centre has not yet been named. The man, in his 30s, was found on Sunday. Police are not treating his death as suspicious. A Coroner’s Office spokesman said an inquest could open later this
Property prices in Oxfordshire have risen for the fourth month in a row. Latest figures from the Government’s Land Registry show the average price of a property in October was £244,286, a rise of 0.2 per cent on the previous month. In the last
A lawyer who worked for US President Barack Obama is paying a visit to the city tomorrow night. The Oxford Union will be hosting Jeh Johnson, who worked in the Obama administration in his role as General Counsel for the US Department of Defense
Oxford’s Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre is open to the public again following its use as a temporary flood refuge shelter. It was set up as a safe haven on Monday as flood warnings were put in place, but it went on one-hour standby yesterday as
IT isn’t just people who have been caught up in the city’s flooding. A guinea pig, a rabbit, and two hibernating hedgehogs were handed in to West Oxford Animal Rescue on Tuesday following the flooding in Osney. Owner of the centre, Janet Butler
I know some of you like to wait until the last minute to do all your Christmas shopping. There is nothing like the excitement of choosing between day old flowers, magazines and air fresheners at the petrol station Christmas Eve. For those of you a
FREEZING temperatures are set to replace heavy rain and flooding as Oxford faces treacherous icy conditions on its soaked roads. Temperatures are predicted to plummet to below zero again tonight and the Met Office has issued an ice warning for
FLOOD-HIT residents in and around Oxford’s Abingdon Road braved deep water in a bid to return to normal. The busy route into Oxford remained closed to traffic yesterday, with floodwater failing to drop more than a couple of inches. But some
A FINAL decision over whether Sunday’s Oxford Mail Cross Country League second round meeting at Culham should go ahead will be made on Saturday. Officials announced this week that the event was likely to take place, despite the recent flooding.
FRANCES Briscoe finished a creditable 26th in the European Cross Country Championships trials at Sefton Park, Liverpool. The 29-year-old, from Wantage, completed the boggy 8.1km course in 29mins 42secs. Running for her first-claim club, Coventry
Three men, arrested by police investigating a suspected child sexual exploitation ring in the city, were released yesterday without charge. The men, aged 22, 38, and 39, were arrested in March as part of Operation Bullfinch. The trio had answered
ONE of the men accused of murdering a homeless man described the assault in a police video shown to a jury yesterday. The jury at Oxford Crown Court were shown a video of a police interview from November 14, 2011, with Wayne Cattell – one of three
THE tale of a donkey who was saved from the knacker’s yard and conquered the West End could be the key to saving a rescue sanctuary. A book has been published immortalising the heart-warming story of Pollyanne, who was facing an untimely end until
AN Oxford University maths lecturer yesterday told how he was trying only to restrain his “manic, paranoid and delusional” friend of 30 years when he collapsed and died. Devinderjit Singh Sivia said he feared for his life when astrophysicist Dr
A NIGHTMARISH end is how Devinderjit Singh Sivia describes the night that resulted in the death of astrophysicist Steven Rawlings. Yesterday a coroner ruled that Professor Rawlings’ death – which occurred following a struggle with his longtime
Oxford City Stars suffered late heartbreak, slipping to a 4-3 home defeat against Wightlink Tigers. What had been a tense English National League Division 2 South clash came to life in the final period, with each side scoring three goals. But
A WALLINGFORD man was shocked to see the extent of the flooding in Abingdon when he used a home-built gadget to take a bird’s eye view. Nick Terzino’s ‘quadcopter’, which features four rotors fixed to a cross frame fuselage, is able to beam live
MP Nicola Blackwood heralded the “hidden heroes” of communities hit by flooding while visiting her constituency yesterday. The Oxford West and Abingdon MP left Westminster to visit flood-hit South Hinksey and Abingdon. She said: “Local residents
REFERRING to the Issue article concerning cycling (November 22) I feel that with shorter days and darker evenings, it is more important than ever to be seen on our busy city roads. At present it is not the law to wear a hard hat or visibility clothing
MR Siret has accused me of misquoting him (ViewPoints, November 20). I suggest that he looks back through his numerous letters and he will find that he did suggest that I watched a particular BBC programme that would reinforce a particular view of
THE Insider’s sense of irony and mischief was tweaked last week when police were spotted lining coaches up to park on double yellow lines in Osney Mead. For a road safety meeting. Overall, teaching youngsters the dangers of the road is a good thing
Alex Waddingham said the battle to secure a back-row spot in Oxford University’s Varsity Match side meant he could never let up. Waddingham was named at blindside flanker to face Cambridge University at Twickenham next Thursday after fighting off
EVERYONE has a problem. For me, there are three things that I feel are a real threat to the world: 1. Global warming. It has been known for some time that the increase in the world’s temperature is directly related to the burning of fossil fuels
TIM W Siret, how can you write about the situation in Israel, saying that the death of one Israeli is one too many, but no mention of the countless deaths of the Palestinians by the Israelis, no matter who is retaliating or not? The Israelis do
WITH the recent release of Abu Qatada, the general public must now be aware of the sheer incompetence of our political leaders. Qatada – a man who, if possible, would gladly destroy the whole of the western world and all of those in it – now has
OH, here I go again! Having produced an account of the amount of money this country gives away, which (excluding the EU) is currently £8.5bn, I read in last Saturday’s edition of the Oxford Mail, that the proposed new Bicester hospital’s funding stands
WHILE the 43rd Oxford (St Nicholas) Scout Group is to be congratulated in celebrating its Diamond Jubilee of Scouting in Old Marston, and beyond, your report (November 23) gives emphasis to the Scout troop which was the basis on how the group started
Darrell Bellinger broke the 32-minute barrier for the first time as he stormed to victory in the Maylarch Eynsham 10K. The Oxford City athlete clocked 31mins 47secs for the two-lap road course to win by 51 seconds. Bellinger also claimed the
Hadden Hill has become the first golf club in the county to install a 60 60 driving range. The concept challenges players to hit balls to targets on the range, and score their game on a free smart phone app or supplied ipads. CLUB RESULTS
BEST remembered for her 1979 hit, Pilot of the Airwaves, Charlie Dore is an extraordinarily prolific songwriter whose work has been recorded by Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Paul Carrack, UB40, Jimmy Nail, Joe Brown and George Harrison. Next Thursday
THE BONES of a man discovered on a burnt-out canal boat will not be formally identified until next week at least. Police have said they believe boat owner Kevin Pryor died in the blaze on Friday, November 16. But forensic tests, including a
ATTEMPTS to prove the ownership of a £1m North Oxford house once owned by a Nigerian chief have been branded an “elaborate charade”. Abbey Folami, also from Nigeria, claims to be the rightful owner of 17 Warnborough Road and is seeking to evict
The three Oxford teams returned a mixed set of results from rounds 1 and 2 of the Four Nations Chess League earlier in the month. Back in division 2 after three seasons in the top flight, Oxford 1 averaged over 100 rating points more per board
The Great Railway Revolution by Christian Wolmar The iron road across America was a revolution in itself. It opened up the country to settlement on an epic scale, cruelly crushing the claims of the native Indian peoples and encapsulating the dream
London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones says December could be a decisive month in their Aviva Premiership survival battle. Tenth-placed Welsh host fellow exiles London Irish, who are 11th, at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday (Dec 1, 1pm). Then after
Helen Peacocke, who has been a food writer for The Oxford Times for many years, teamed up with her border collie Pythius to write a series of books about pub walks in Oxfordshire and the surrounding areas, writes Maggie Hartford. The latest book
Up to 20 jobs are being created by a new care provider moving into Witney. DoCare has opened an office at the new Witney Business and Innovation Centre at the Windrush Industrial Park and is looking to recruit on the back of a new contract from
All adopted children will have experienced some form of loss through being separated from their birth families. Unfortunately many will also have suffered neglect or abuse in those families. For some children, this trauma can lead to emotional,
There have been numerous films about adults being charged with abusing minors. William Wyler twice adapted Lillian Hellman's searing 1934 play about supposed impropriety at a girls' school in These Three (1936) and The Children's Hour (1961), while
It's been quite a year for Alfred Hitchcock. He has been the subject of two films, with Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock being set around the making of Psycho (1960) and starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Helen Mirren as his screenwriter wife Alma Reville
AN ELDERLY woman took her own life by jumping off a bridge in a Thame nature reserve. Sheila McNicholas, of Windmill Road, Thame, was found dead on Wednesday, July 18, by a member of the public at the Cuttle Brook nature reserve. The 73-year-old
THE estate of JRR Tolkien can rely on the support of many British Tolkien fans in its legal battle with the producers of the new film The Hobbit. The Tolkien estate and the Lord of the Rings publisher Harper Collins claim merchandise and gambling
BAMPTON residents are hoping for another boost to their fledgling tourist trade after news that a fourth series of Downton Abbey is to be made. Parts of the smash hit period drama are filmed in the West Oxfordshire village and fans of the ITV show
