The parents of a man labelled "Jihadi Jack" have spoken about how they were arrested by police after trying to send money to their son who is thought to be in Syria, it has been reported. John and Sally Letts, of Grandpont, were talking in an interview
RESEARCHERS, fundraisers and scientists united yesterday to mark World Cancer Day and highlight Oxford's work at the forefront of medicine.The city's experts have been praised for their pioneering work with £22 million spent on research in the last year.About
THE new chief executive of the Environment Agency has indicated he would like Oxford University to help fund the city’s £120m flood alleviation channel. In an exclusive interview with the Oxford Mail, Sir James Bevan said the more organisations
Brace of Welsh headliners announced for expanded three day Truck festival Manic Street Preachers and Catfish and the Bottlemen are to headline this summer’s Truck music festival, it has been revealed tonight. The two Welsh acts top the bill
A male cyclist has been taken to hospital after being hit by a car on Iffley Road. The collision happened near the junction to Percy Street. Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Connie Primmer said they were called just before 5pm, and the cyclist
DON’T panic – these are not real soldiers but Dad’s Army style re-enactors celebrating the release of the British war comedy film. The Oxfordshire Home Guard Living History Group, based in Bicester, is gearing up for a town march in full uniform
Jaine Blackman is gripped by a slow-burning tale of romantic obsession and espionage There’s something quietly haunting about Oxford novelist Francesca Kay’s story of a man with his ear pressed to the lives of others but not much going on in his
The part-Scottish Christopher Gray tries the latest of a series of special events lined up at The Perch in Binsey The Perch in Binsey is a splendid pub in the winter months, if better known as a summer landmark. Indeed, owner Jon Ellse reopened
Kathryn Hobbs talks us through the new cookery classes at Waddesdon Manor More than 130 years ago, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild completely transformed a barren hill in the countryside into Waddesdon Manor, where he held “Saturday to Monday” house
Tim Hughes looks forward to a top-class eating extravaganza Sacré Cordon bleu! For fans of fine dining, there has never been a better time to visit the French capital. From next Thursday to next Sunday, 18 of Paris’s hottest chefs will be erecting
Peter James’s crime novel The Perfect Murder supplies most effective entertainment as adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna.I applauded a touring version starring Les Dennis when it visited Milton Keynes two years ago. It’s out on the road again now
What R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End says about the First World War, Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path tries to say about the Second, as a fine new production at Oxford Playhouse this week demonstrates.Rattigan’s purpose is to present the task in hand – the
Cornelius Booth’s grandfather was a miner in Yorkshire, and his mother was Welsh, all of which equips him nicely to star in Land Of Our Fathers, essentially a new drama about six miners stuck down a mine. “As soon as I saw the script I knew I had
The circus is in town. Kind of. For most of us, going to the circus means visiting a big top in a field. For their latest tour, however, the Moscow State Circus have taken a different tack, opting to forgo the tents and caravans and put on their
Nicola Lisle talks to organiser Leo Pitt about the Come and Sing event It’s a sort of shared madness!” chuckles Leo Pitt. “But great things happen.” She is talking about the Come and Sing events she has been organising for the last 10 years
A PIONEERING clinical psychologist who "brought joy to everyone and everything" has died aged 70 with her family by her side. Dr Joan Hawton, known in her professional life as Joan Kirk, set up the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre (OCTC) in the
A NEW waterway gallery and a “mini museum” for children are planned for Banbury Museum by the end of next year. The £550,000 project will include space for more temporary exhibitions and an overhaul of the museum’s front entrance. Plans have
Indie-rock Uprising O2 Academy Oxford Friday Tickets available from ticketweb.co.uk How about this for a rock-solid Oxford line-up: Pixel Fix, the Aureate Act, Rainbow Reservoir, Sam Martin and Who’s Alice come together to play a showcase
A COACH at Oxford United's Under 14s Academy who died suddenly last week will be remembered by colleagues as an "exceptional" team member.Randal (corr) Bates, 53, was taken ill on the evening of Tuesday, January 26, just a day after a triumphant
It has always been something of a mystery why this most quintessentially English of cities should have given rise to so many great Americana bands. Chief among them are The Dreaming Spires – the vehicle for brothers Robin and Joe Bennett – who
YET more good news for fans of al fresco music, this week, with a clutch of announcements which have left us hankering for summer, more than ever.First came the news that Duran Duran are to top the bill at Oxford’s Common People, headlining Saturday’s
Tim Hughes gets a lesson in street smarts from Brian ‘Fast’ Leiser, of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, on the 20th anniversary of their classic debut album The Fun Lovin’ Criminals represent everything that is cool about The Big Apple. Cocky, swaggering
Sarah Mayhew Craddock on a new show by ceramicist Mo Jupp Mo Jupp is renowned for moulding clay into slender and elongated human figures, pared back to their very essence. During a career that spans some 50 years, he has developed an unmistakably
Two people were threatened by knife-wielding robbers during two separate incidents over the weekend. On Saturday a 22-year-old woman was walking down Magdalen Road at about 7.15pm when she was approached by a man with a knife. He threatened
Actor Steve Hay discusses the journey of Turning Leaves from Edinburgh to Oxford and how it has evolved over that time We’re bringing Turning Leaves home to Oxford, back to the place that was instrumental in its development, the Old Fire Station
Katherine MacAlister talks the British love of ballet with artistic director Sergei Bobrov Relations between England and Russia may be frosty but for ambitious artistic director Sergei Bobrov politics are immaterial. Responsible for bringing
Fire crews have removed a car driver who became trapped in his vehicle after a three-car crash on the A34 near Wendlebury. Long queues of traffic are building on the northbound route after the accident just before junction 9 of the M40. Fire
A 33-year-old man has been jailed for more than three years for burglary. Wayne Ronald Axtell, of Park Close, Yarnton, was found guilty by a majority verdict at Oxford Crown Court yesterday following a one day trial. Axtell was sentenced to
Want to give your opinion? Email letters@oxfordmail.co.uk
A FATHER of two from Abingdon is taking on a 50-mile race this weekend to raise cash for Blue Skye Thinking. Serge Convers-Reignier, who lives in Bowgrave Copse, said running for the charity set up in memory of Skye Hall was “close to his heart
MICHAEL Appleton has declared himself pleased with Oxford United's dealings on transfer deadline day. The U's signed forward Chris Maguire until the end of the season after he left Rotherham United and Wolves winger Zeli Ismail on a month's loan
OXFORD United fans are being urged to pre-register for Wembley tickets as of today. The U's booked their place in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final on April 3 with a 2-1 aggregate win over Millwall on Tuesday. United's opponents will be Barnsley
OXFORD-based digital group White October is preparing itself for another year of strong growth after its events business increased annual turnover four-fold in 2015. The company is also bulking up its management team, with entrepreneur Chris Thorpe
RAW sewage spurted from a manhole and gushed across a main road for hours yesterday, leaving villagers to plod through puddles of foul waste. A ball of flushed baby wipes blocked the sewage pipe in High Street, Sutton Courtenay, flooding the road
TRUCKERS who brazenly flouted bridge and road weight limits in heavy vehicles have been fined a total of more than £1,600.Trading Standards brought prosecutions against five drivers for using restricted roads and bridges across Oxfordshire.Marcie Mieczyslaw
THANK you for highlighting the ‘Great Divide’ between town and gown in our city on your front page (February 2). It is appalling that children in local schools do so poorly for lack of funding while, as you report in the same issue, the Blavatnik
LABOUR must take their share of the blame for the lack of social mobility in parts of Oxford. After all, Labour in government at Westminster created the early academies. Labour also ensured that local authorities couldn’t vire resources to
I HAVE read Hazel Dawe’s letter about why we need the EU and would like to comment on a couple of things she wrote. One item was about EU legislation on clean air, currently being used to get local authorities to clear the air in our city and town
Sir – Congratulations on your increased coverage of art events in the county. Can we please have more of the same? The front page photo and information about John Goto’s exhibition at the Old Fire Station and subsequent coverage of the Robert Strange
Sir – Of all the damaging cuts proposed by Oxfordshire County Council it is the likely closure of the children’s centres, which is the most destructive and short sighted. I recently dropped into the Marston Northway Children’s Centre in Copse Lane
Sir – As a Woodstock town councillor with responsibilities as the local parish transport representative, I took particular interest in a rather depressing discussion on the BBC TV South part of the Politics programme on Sunday, January 24, because
Sir – George Smith criticises the Real Need Not Speculator Greed for narrow focus, failure to support national priorities and “smearing ordinary people”. Perhaps he would care actually to read and reflect on the campaign’s arguments and objectives
Sir – Communities throughout West Oxfordshire continue to remain exposed and vulnerable to speculative development proposals as time goes on to what has become approximately half a decade without an adopted replacement to the Local Plan 2011. On
Sir – It seems the housing association residents in Didcot are to be among the first to benefit from the Government’s new right to buy scheme. While on the face of it, the ability to buy your own home appears to be a great opportunity, in practice
I WAS very sad to see the article about Sister Frances last week. Like Oxfam, the children's hospice movement was founded in our city and it is something of which we should be immensely proud. Unlike Oxfam, its founder is alive and well and still living
PROFILE: Paddy Summerfieldby Sarah Mayhew CraddockCharming, quick-witted, intellectually acute, with piercing blue eyes, the 68 year old Oxford-based fine art photographer Paddy Summerfield is enticingly enigmatic and has an infectious boyish energy.
GERMANY in the 1930s made ample use of ‘Protection’ orders to clear the streets of poor and ‘undesirable’ people from the streets of Berlin, in preparation for the 1936 Olympic Games. In yesterday’s Oxford Mail, councillor Dee Sinclair appears
OXFORD MAGISTRATES Daniel Hopgood, 22, of Talbot Close, Harwell, admitted possessing cocaine, a Class A drug, in Harwell on December 28 last year. Handed a community order and made subject to a two-month curfew. Also ordered to pay a £60 victim
Sir – At the end of last year, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse announced its first areas of investigation. These will look at whether institutions have taken seriously their duty to protect children from sexual abuse and what can
Sir – The reported regeneration of the area from Frideswide Square to Nuffield College offers a golden opportunity to improve Oxford’s transport infrastructure at the same time as replacing and improving a large area of “tired” buildings. A considerable
Sir – I was very sad to see the article about Sister Frances (Report, January 28). Like Oxfam, the children’s hospice movement was founded in our city and it is something of which we should be immensely proud. Unlike Oxfam, its founder is alive
Sir – Stuart Skyte’s abusive letter does nothing to address the serious housing issue around Oxford. Simply building on the Green Belt does nothing to address the problem either. Mr Skyte acknowledges that housing is currently unaffordable in Oxford
Sir – If Mr Skyte (Letters, January 21) took the trouble to read CPRE Oxfordshire and the Need not Greed coalition’s information, he would see that actually we share his concerns about affordable housing. We do need more genuinely affordable houses
Sir – Mr Stewart draws attention to Oxford’s having “one of the most beautiful city centres in the world” (Letters, January 21). When tourists arrive at the railway station and pass through Frideswide Square on their way to the dreaming spires,
Sir – January began with Oxford City Council announcing agreement with Nuffield College to redevelop the “island site” between there and Frideswide Square, plus Worcester Street car park under which the Oxford Canal terminus is buried, and Oxpens.
Sir – The city council so tirelessly uses phrases like ‘attracting business to Oxford’’ that we can stop thinking about what those phrases really mean, even believing that such a purpose is an uncomplicatedly good thing. We need to remind ourselves
Sir – You may perhaps have misquoted councillor Hollingsworth, as saying that the limit on the height of buildings may be amended, since the Design Review Panel had ‘raised concerns that if everything just goes up to 18.2m, instead of having the ‘Dreaming
Sir – Oxford City Council is surely right to consider relaxing height limits on buildings in the city (Report, January 21). A blanket relaxation would be a mistake, as Debbie Dance of the Oxford Preservation Trust warns – it would risk producing
A first person piece by Oxfordshire County Council leader Ian Hudspeth As we all know, the government is cutting expenditure to reduce the nation’s budget deficit and stop our national debt growing yet more. I understand and fully support that
Seamus Perry is won over by Texas during an annual ‘pilgrimage’ to a modern language conferenceThis year I went to the convention of the Modern Language Association of America, the professional body that represents English Literature as well as all the
Derek Collett writes about his quest to rehabilitate a famous novelist.I’ve always enjoyed discovering authors outside the mainstream, those who have largely been forgotten by literary history. Nigel Balchin certainly fits into the ‘forgotten author’
Since the name of Claude Monet almost inevitably conjures up images of lilies at his Giverny home, it might have been supposed that one of these works would adorn the cover of the catalogue for the Royal Academy’s new blockbuster exhibition, Painting
It took a little time to get where I wanted,” sings Conor O’Brien on Courage, the opening track to his latest album.“It took a little time to get free. It took a little time to be honest. It took a little time to be me.” For the bearded Irishman, who
OXFORD City Stars bounced back from def- eat at Invicta Dynamos by demolishing Cardiff Devils 13-0 at Oxpens. They went into the weekend hoping to secure four points in their bid for a play-off place in English National League South Division 1.
Marc West clears his throat for a poetry performance with a difference, with the aim of being as bad as possible Oxford University’s professorship of poetry is one of the most illustrious positions in the world of letters – with the chair having
Tim Hughes lands a seafood dinner to remember thanks to Loch Fyne in Jericho It’s a Saturday evening and Loch Fyne is packed to the gunnels. Quiet couples on dates exchange cautious glances and forkfuls of food, families eat without conversation
A number of the generous obituaries to David Bowie made reference to the prominent role the rock star took in one of the most amusing hoaxes of recent years.This was the gulling of the art world perpetrated by the best-selling novelist William Boyd in
Gone are the days of picking up the phone and ordering a takeaway. And yet now that you can order pretty much anything online, including your curry, I am suddenly nostalgic for the hilarious ordering process, endlessly spelling out your name and address
BUS passengers in Littlemore have expressed fears the area will have even worse public transport if a subsidised service is withdrawn. The Thames Travel T2 service runs between Oxford and Abingdon from Monday to Saturday and links Littlemore with
Last year’s move by Google to split itself up into what amounts to different companies has paid off handsomely. Still by no means a household name, Alphabet was created as a parent company to its more famous offspring in order to create greater
A new coffee experience is coming to Oxford, Adrian Campbell-Howard tells all Hold on to your hats folks, the coffee offering in the centre of Oxford is about to be taken to the next level: Society are coming to town! Already firmly established
Liam Trotman, of Orwells, Shiplake presents this week's recipe A winter warmer that’s bang in season... it’s my recipe for the perfect homemade and, of course, homegrown, leek and potato soup. Use fresh leeks from your garden if you can.
Lady Godiva star tells Katherine MacAlister all about her daunting new stage role in Hetty Feather Phoebe Thomas was last seen in Oxford cantering down St Giles totally naked astride a white horse while filming Lady Godiva. Her more recent,
STRIKER Danny Hylton is determined the good times will continue to roll for Oxford United. Still basking in the glory of reaching Wembley, the U’s forward believes something special is happening at the Kassam Stadium. And he says the United
OXFORD United Women have signed defender Jess Frampton from Portsmouth ahead of the start of their forthcoming FA Women’s Super League 2 campaign. The 24-year-old, who can play either at full-back or wing, has been ever-present for Pompey in FA
IT was double delight for Chipping Norton trainer Charlie Longsdon. After a barren six-week spell, he clocked up his half-century of winners and also broke through the £500,000 prize-money barrier for the first time in his ten-year career.
NEWLY-ELECTED captain Fergus Taylor insists Oxford University are in a good place despite losing valuable experience, writes JACK JOHNSON. The Dark Blues are targeting an assault on a seventh Varsity Match victory in a row this year. But they
VICTORIA Pendleton was narrowly denied a first winner as an amateur jockey after her mount Pacha Du Polder was beaten in a photo-finish at Milborne St Andrew point-to-point on Sunday. The former Olympic cycling champion, who lives in Moreton, near
TWO goals from Darius Browne gave Banbury United a 2-0 victory at Wimborne on Saturday as they moved up to third in Division 1 South & West of the Evo-Stik Southern League. After Ricky Johnson had headed just over and Mark Bell fired a shot
Staff from the Environmental Agency have been clearing part of a wall near the Botley Bridge this afternoon to remove a narrowboat. They have been using a digger to clear the wall to allow them to reach the boat, which capsized on Monday. Boat
ICONIC images by American Pop Art legend Andy Warhol are now on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The spring exhibition at the Beaumont Street attraction starts today. More than 100 paintings, sculptures, screen prints and drawings
LITTLE witches and wizards in Oxfordshire are preparing to don their robes and enter the magical world of Hogwarts for Harry Potter Book Night.Venues across the county are laying on a spellbinding array of activities, games and ghoulishly good fun today
A long-term relationship is left hanging in the balance in Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, an adaptation of the David Constantine short story, `In Another Country', which has been co-scripted by the author to shift the context from the Second World War to
TRIBUTES have been paid to a “remarkable and heroic” campaigner who strove to raise awareness of the effects of motor neurone disease (MND). Mark Stone, an MND sufferer, died in hospital on Monday following a four-year battle with the condition
Having made such an excellent impression with Summerland (2010), Icelandic documentarist Grímur Hákonarson escapes to the country for his second fictional outing. In many ways resembling a cross between one of Alexander Mackendrick's Scottish Ealing
OXFORDSHIRE will be one of the worst affected areas in the UK to be hit by cuts to bus subsidies, according to new research. A study by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) found that rural bus services were being wiped out in the county along
AS PEOPLE around the world mark World Cancer Day today, researchers and fundraisers in Oxford want to highlight their pioneering work. The city is leading the way to finding a cure with about 500 people and over £20m spent on research in the last
A COUPLE has declared an interest in buying a beloved Osney pub that has been shut since July last year. Simone Jones and her husband Nick say it would be their “dream” to run and live in the Hollybush Inn in Bridge Street. Mrs Jones, 28, who
