St John's College, Oxford

“We are who we make ourselves”

St John's JCR President-elect, Sanjay, shares his favourite book, East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck. For Sanjay, Steinbeck’s epic family saga is “one of the best descriptions of the human experience” ever written.

Sanjay takes up the post of JCR President this Saturday, succeeding Kazuo Ishiguro-fan Jerome.

The bad boy meets the barrister 📚

In the latest installment of our series, St John’s Deputy Academic Registrar, Richard, tells us about Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. This q***r British romcom follows the semi-disgraced son of an aging rock star and his unlikely relationship with a straight-laced, Oxford-educated barrister.

A perfect read for in this

The right book at the right time 📚

For Amelia, a PPE undergraduate, that book was Virginia Woolf’s 'A Room of One’s Own.'

Encountering Woolf’s ideas at a young age encouraged her to engage with literature in a new way.

Some books stay with us for a lifetime. 📚

Alumna, Honorary Fellow and author Elleke Boehmer shares why Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party has meant so much to her, both as a reader and as a writer.

Elleke’s family even gifted her a first edition, featured in this video, for her birthday!