The Founder January 2019

The Founder VOL. X, ISSUE v | January 2019 |

@RHULFOUNDER

Royal Holloway Academic’s Research is Helping to Advance Biological Control of Invasive Plant Species Himalayan Balsam are present in the UK through this study acting as field evidence. These genotypes vary in their susceptibility to the two rust strains that have been released. Furthermore, there is evidence which suggests that there is a genetic component to the genotypes’ susceptibility but also that microbiological and environmental factors influence the liability to the varying genotypes.

Speaking of his research Professor Gange said the following; “It is clear that rust fungus is a suitable means of managing Himalayan Balsam in the UK.

species, Himalayan Balsam.

From the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, Professor Alan Gange presented his findings on the 9th of January 2019.

He presented his findings from the three-year Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project on Himalayan Balsam, its invasion, ecology and management in the UK. It has been identified that through thorough testing Himalayan Balsam rust Puccinia komarovii var has been established. In the UK, the rust was released following ministerial approval, 5 years ago in 2014. It was released for the utilisation for safe control methods for the invasive plant without any non-target effects.

Professor Gange’s research identifies and examines the background of the ecology of this rust fungus and also what happens to community components following its release into the general natural environment.

It has also been discovered that multiple forms and genotypes of

Bright Ideas p. 7

Herringham Art p. 12

Club Reviews p. 22

Flower displayed in university news on Biology academic's research IFFAH AHMED

Professionals from Royal Holloway, University of London are in collaboration with the Centre for

Agriculture and Bioscience (CABI) and the University of Reading. They are the first in Europe to study the ecological effects of a rust fungus of the invasive plant

“However, our results show that ecology isn’t always black and white, as different species of endophytes that live within the leaves of the plant affect the efficiency of the rust.”

Index News..................................................................................1 Opinion And Debate..........................................................6 Features..............................................................................7 Lifestyle.............................................................................8 Arts: Arts And Culture.....................................................10 Arts: Literary Reviews.....................................................13 Arts: Film.........................................................................16 Arts: Music.......................................................................19 Sports................................................................................21

Facebook.com/HarbenLets Twitter.com/HarbenLets

2 NEWS

THE FOUNDER January 2019

A Note From The Editor

CASSANDRA LAU EDITOR IN CHIEF 2018/2019

Welcome back! The start of a new year at Royal Holloway has long been celebrated with a shower of essay and project deadlines! For generations, students have gathered in the warmth of the library to share this exclusive experience with one another. Despite all the political disorder that has kicked off, it is heart-warming to know that this communitive spirit will remain for years to come.

As a new year’s gift, all our writers and editors have been given an extra sprinkle of workload and I hope you’ll enjoy their pieces as much as I have! This term, The Founder have so much planned so keep an eye out for our B-Aware Campaign articles on awareness days, and

winning pieces from our Competition for National Storytelling Week with The Orbital!

I’d also like to give a warm welcome to our new content writers who have produced some quality work for this year’s first issue. If you’re interested in writing for The Founder, do pop our editors an e-mail with some ideas of what you would like to write.

On top of that, if you are interested in becoming an editor in the following academic year, we have a shadowing programme that will commence in February.

For more information, follow us on social media and check out our website: www.thefounder.co.uk.

Not so safe trip to Waitrose: Drugs, Fires and Spray Paint

Egham Waitrose Store Graffiti CASSANDRA LAU

On 10 January evening, a group of boys and girls were caught on CCTV damaging the ramp to the Egham Waitrose on Church Road.

According to Surrey Police, the schoolchildren threw trolleys and spat at cars as they entered the Waitrose car park. Police have retrieved CCTV footage along with

Runnymede Borough Council (RBC)camera operators and are confident that they have identified those involved.

Further action to take “the evidence to the schools this week” was announced.

Pictures have been released by Runnymede Beat displaying a vandalised entrance sign with the words “Deaths Shadow” sprayed on. On their Facebook page,

Runnymede Beat wrote: “The level of stupidity and vandalism demonstrated over the past couple of weeks is completely unacceptable and we will continue to monitor the situation with a review of our findings due to take place shortly after the weekend. RBC staff and contractors along with Safer Runnymede CCTV are working hard to clean up the mess and monitor activity as time goes on.

We’re all working together to find other sustainable solutions to the problem.

We’ll report more on that once other meetings have taken place.”

Due to a “sharp increase in antisocial behaviour and criminal damage”, officers have issued Section 35 dispersal orders over the weekend, removing youngsters from the area and car parks.

The Founder Board 2018 - 2019 Editor in Chief Cassandra Lau Managing Editor Zahra Hussein Designer Helena Keeble Marketing Director Sally Gibbs Marketing Manager Isobel Frances Sanderson Online Content Editor Tom Conlon Cartoonist Jack Waters Arts & Culture News Editor Editor Iffah Ahmed Molly Williams Deputy Film Editor News Editor Graciela Mae Sindhooraa Chico Satheesh Opinon and Debate Editor Nicholas Ross Lifestyle Editor Kyrie Roxby Features Editor Rachel Farguson & Cassandra Lau Arts Editor Mimi Markham

Music Editor Charlie Catmull Literary Review Editor Rachel Farguson Sports Editor Frankie Christou Deputy Sports Editor Jack Wright

The Founder is the independent student newspaper of Royal Holloway, University of London. This means we are not affiliated to the student union or the college. We pride ourselves on our investigative journalism and aim to keep our readers up to date with news on and off campus. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Editor, particularly of opinion and debate pieces. Every effort has been made to contact the holders of copyright for any material used in this issue, and to ensure the accuracy of its stories.

To book ad space in The Founder, contact our managing editor at managingeditor@thefounder.co.uk.

THE FOUNDER is printed in Cambridge by Iliffe Print

NEWS 3

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE awarded Honorary Doctorate from Royal Holloway

Dame Angela Strank, DBE awarded Honorary Doctorate from Royal Holloway

Professor Dame Ann Dowling

Dame Angela Strank

IFFAH AHMED

The honorary degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), has been awarded to Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE, for her continued work in the engineering industry.

Professor Dowling is the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge where she was Head of the Department of Engineering from 2009 to 2014. She is also the first female President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Dowling’s research outlines and encompasses efficient, low emission combustion for aero and industrial gas turbines and low noise vehicles especially for cars and aircraft. Professor Dowling led the Silent Aircraft Initiative, a research collaboration between the Massachusetts Institution of Technology and Cambridge.

She also ran the University Gas Turbine Partnership with Rolls-Royce from 2001 to 2014. Professor Dowling

has held visiting posts at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institution of Technology.

Professor Dowling is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and a non-executive director of BP and of the Smiths Group.

She is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering and French Academy of Sciences.

Professor Dowling is also a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering.

About her award, Professor Dowling stated, “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to receive this award, and I am very grateful to Royal Holloway for recognising me in this way.

“As an institution invested in the education of women, it feels particularly special to be granted this award by Royal Holloway on the centenary of women’s suffrage.”

IFFAH AHMED

Dame Angela Strank, DBE has recently been awarded the prestigious honorary degree of Doctor of Science, (Honoris Causa), by Royal Holloway, University of London.

In 1982, Dame Angela joined British Petroleum (BP) as a PhD geologist in Exploration and Production. Since, she has been held in various commercial and technical leadership roles including: Business Development and Reputation Manager for Angola, Technology Vice President, Fuels and Lubricants, Chief Financial Officer Lubricants for the Americas and BP/Statoil Alliance Manager.

In April 2014, she was appointed the role of BP’s Chief Scientist. This role saw responsibility and accountability for developing strategic insights for the company progressing in science and technology. In 2015 Angela was selected as Head of Downstream Technology

for BP and in 2018 Angela became a member of BP’s Executive Leadership Team.

In 2010, Dame Angela won the UK First Women’s Award in Science and Technology.

This award recognises pioneering and influential women in business.

Furthermore, in 2018, she was the first woman to receive the UK Energy Institute’s prestigious Cadman Award for her excellent services to the energy industry.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017, Dame Angela was awarded a DBE for not only encouraging women into STEM careers and prospects but also for her services to the oil industry.

Dame Angela said the following about her award; “I am extremely privileged to be awarded this degree by Royal Holloway.

“I am especially proud, as a woman in STEM, to be awarded this honour by an institution that has always championed women’s education.”

Academic’s Open Data online course to run for a third time following success SINDHOORAA SATHEESH

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), following its previous success will be running for a third time from the 7th of January. The free course has attracted numerous learners from around the world and is open and admissible to anyone.

The course will investigate and explore the power of Open Data and how it can be employed to change and transform organisations.

Open Data can be accessed, shared by and used by anyone for free. It allows businesses, developers, citizens and researchers to solidify resources that can ensure and make crucial improvements to their economy and communities.

Over a three-week period, taking two hours of study per week to complete, the course discovers how Open Data can be employed effectively to manage the risks associated with when organisations use it.

Dr Wainwright about the course stated; “We’re delighted with how many people enrolled on the previous two courses and the positive feedback we’ve received”.

“It was fascinating to see such a wide range of people from all over the world take an interest in what I believe, is a vital subject for businesses in the digital age.

“We are now living in a society where we look to apps and other means of digital communication to ease the strains of modern life. It is therefore important to understand more about data, but specifically how Open Data can benefit organisations and the public.”

4 NEWS Discontinued Investigation of Attempted Abduction in Egham CASSANDRA LAU

Shortly before the Christmas Break, there was an attempted abduction around 12:40 p.m. on 8 December at the Egham Christmas fair held on the High Street. Based on Surrey News, a spokesman reported that “a man tried to grab a 6-year-old girl after trying to give her toys and sweets.”

The Surrey Police’s released statement reports: “We would like to reassure parents that while the man in unknown to the child, the child did not leave the immediate vicinity of their parent; and although understandably scared, the child was not physically harmed during the incident.”

Police officers arrived on the scene within minutes of the attempt being reported.

Arkadiusz Madraszek,

THE FOUNDER January 2019

New Egham Leisure Facility with Full-Size Sports Arena

47, was kept in custody for questioning and was charged on 10 December with three counts of attempted child abduction at Staines Magistrates’ Court. Between his arrest and appearance at court on 7 January, the police have advised the public to not “[jump] to conclusions.”

Since 14 January, the 47-year-old has been released with all charges against him dropped after a review of the evidence.

The Surrey Police found Egham Leisure Centre that there was “no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction” and the families CASSANDRA LAU of the alleged victims have been informed. As The new Egham leisure of now, the case has been facility, Egham Orbit, in “discontinued”.

Vicarage Road will open on 12 February this year! Managed by the local leisure charitable

trust Achieve Lifestyle, the centre will be self-funding, and will include “a large fitness gym, four group exercise studios, soft play, full size sports arena and the Otium Spa with a hydro pool

and eight treatment rooms.”

It will also accommodate Runnymede’s first public swimming pool with eight 25 metre lanes, a 10 x 10 metre learner poor alongside a splash zone.

Hazel Aitken, CEO of Achieve Lifestlye says, “The building design has been considered with flexibility in mind, including being fully accessible for people with disabilities, especially with the movable floors in both pools. It will also be home to local people learning to swim with a huge swim programme planned. The team at Achieve Lifestyle are very proud to be associate with this great venture and look forward to when it is open.”

NEWS 5

THE FOUNDER January 2019

General Summary of Higher Education Student Statistics: 2017/18 other types of undergraduate courses continue to show a steep decline from just below 300,500 enrolments in 2008/09 to around 100,000.

Higher Education results have been extremely positive, with the number of postgraduate taught qualifications reaching its highest point in a decade.

The percentage of students achieving a first class honours has also continued

CASSANDRA LAU

A few days ago, Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) published the 2017/18 Higher Education Student Statistics, showing an increase in student enrolments in first degree undergraduate

to increase by 2 percent annually since 2013/14 with a quarter of all students achieving a first class honours last year.

Furthermore, following the removal of NHS bursaries form August 2017, the number of first year undergraduate students taking medical subjects has declined while veterinary and computer science have

gained significantly greater popularity.

The number of women studying veterinary, physical and computer science has also seen a notable increase.

On the whole, the number of female enrolments for Science subject areas has risen significantly between 2015/16 and 2017/18, with an increase double (+28 855) that of male enrolments (+10 660).

and postgraduate taught courses especially after the introduction of postgraduate loans for students from England in 2016/17, and a surge of Non-European Union enrolments last year.

While first degree courses remain the most popular type of higher education,

Englefield Green Taxi Driver Assaulted on Christmas Day CASSANDRA LAU

Bakeham Lane, Englefield Green

According to Surrey Police, a male taxi driver was assaulted at around 20:55 on Christmas Day after picking up a woman from St. Jude’s Road, Englefield Green, who was supposedly visiting a sick mother at Addlestone Hospital. After the driver accepted the fare, three men joined, and got into the back of the car.

Only having travelled a short distance before pulling over on Bakeham Lane, police said that the car stopped as the woman grabbed the steering wheel.

The driver was then assaulted by the four passengers as he got out of the green Volvo

S80.

PC Paul Arrow, the investigator of this incident states: “The woman assaulted the victim and stole the car, whilst the other three men who assaulted the victim made off on foot towards the A30, so if you were in the area and saw anything suspicious, please come forward.”

He also advises cars that were in the area around the time to “please review your dash cam footage, as you may have captured something that can help our investigation.”

Descriptions of the four suspects have been released: 1. Woman – White with black curly shoulder-length

hair, and aged between 20 and 30. She wore a red jacket with jeans and a pair of heeled boots.

2. Man 1 – Short, large build, brown short straight hair, thin style moustache and beard and also aged 20 to 30.

He wore jeans with a black jacket.

3. Man 2 – Short and slim, brown short hair with similar facial hairto Man 1.

4. Man 3 – White, tall, slim build with brown short hair brushed to the side, also aged 20 to 30.

Those with any information or footage are encouraged to come forward, quoting the reference number PR/45180136724.

6 OPINION AND DEBATE Defending Journalism NICHOLAS ROSS

There are many problems in journalism. I once bought an issue of The Guardian which contained a packet of other texts. It was a bundle of disappointments which ranged from a booklet advertising miscellaneous tat to some boring wildlife guide that most people would not read if they were granted the time of immortality. The wildlife guide resembled part of Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel, Scoop, in which a contributor to a nature section of a newspaper is mistaken for a political author and is consequently sent as a foreign correspondent abroad, criticism of a careless, blundering media industry.

Journalism continues to be criticised. The present era of intentional fake news contributes to the problem of journalism being met by incredulity, as does the existence of lazy journalism in which stories occasionally contain misinformation.

It is also true that bias moulds journalism to some extent. Some Guardian issues dedicate entire pages to outlining the finances and luxury lifestyles of people criticised on other pages in the paper, presumably in an attempt to suggest a correlation between richness and immorality.

Noam Chomsky’s media analysis in Manufacturing Consent convincingly showed mainstream American newspapers to contain much bias too. They were reshaping stories from other papers abroad but consistently bowdlerising any paragraphs critical of America. They acted as propaganda machines to cover up dubious foreign policy.

However, any job can

be done badly or well, and the former does not mean an entire industry should be held in contempt. In newspapers including The Guardian, there are also well-written pieces which are extensively informed, and I have seen some of the best literary criticism in that particular media outlet. Journalism also plays a significant role in democracy, holding people in power to account. The Jamal Khashoggi murder was one of many cases last year in which the voices of journalists were supressed by assassination or imprisonment because of the threat felt by nefarious governments and institutions under scrutiny.

Viktoria Marinova was a high-profile Bulgarian journalist investigating political corruption when she was brutally raped and murdered, which many people considered an implied threat by the government to journalists, though covered up with arrests of individuals.

The Boston Globe’s investigative journalism played an important part in uncovering child molestation in the Catholic Church being concealed.

In the 19th century Charles Dickens’s journalism involved criticism of social problems such as workhouse conditions and legislation that prevented the wellbeing of the poor. Dickens provided commentary on the unsubstantial rhetoric of politicians, and reportage on subjects like poverty-stricken Manchester workers that would also later influence the work and thought of Friedrich Engels. The persistence of social problems such as these diagnosed in journalism demonstrates why journalism is a necessary force for the dissemination of information and analysis.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

The Relevance of STiQ Day in our Ignorant Sex Culture

Photo credit rawpixel.com NICHOLAS ROSS

STiQ Day on 14th January aims to persuade people to have themselves checked at sex clinics for their own health and others’ because undetected sexually transmitted infections put people at risk of long-term afflictions such as infertility or even, in the case of syphilis, death. Due to the unfortunate existence of people who might illegally pass on a serious STI without disclosing their sexual health before a sexual encounter, in addition to those who are simply unaware of their sexual health, the individual must be tested in accordance with their sex life. The early diagnosis of some STIs is necessary for pre-empting significant and fatal consequences.

Although symptoms of STIs are sometimes manifest abnormalities like sores, rashes, blisters around the mouth or genitalia, or painful burning sensations in the vagina or penis, other STIs are invisible and latent.

People must be educated so that they understand the importance of taking effective measures for reducing the probability of contracting an STI.

However, there is an epidemic of immaturity which nullifies the point. Some friends of mine who have been aware of STIs (formerly STDs) for years have nonetheless adopted prevalent sexual habits such as the “pullout method”, whereby the male orgasm takes place away from female genitalia. The people I personally know to practice this seem to think there are no consequences to sex without protection. Firstly, when the “pull-out method” is performed correctly, there remains a 4% chance of pregnancy each time due to the invariable evacuation of pre-ejaculate sperm.

Regardless, they bask in the 96% chance, which diminishes the more they have sex, of not inseminating one-night stands or putting their girlfriends or lovers through the horrible stress and pain of abortion.

Some men allege they cannot sustain erections wearing condoms due to discomfort.

But condom discomfort merely indicates men ought to try different sizes or types of condom. Furthermore, pullout perpetrators do not appear to be interested in the efficacy of condoms in preventing the exchange of STIs; they are merely playing games of chance to do with pregnancy.

Such indifference must be due to ignorance.

One indication of ignorance

regarding STIs is the relationship between sexual health and stigma.

Some people would rather not know that they have an STI because they fear discrimination. This largely stems from the fact STIs are private affairs, so statistics showing the commonness of STIs are remote from how people visualise society around them each day. There is a particular climate of ignorance surrounding HIV which causes discrimination. HIV has an historical association with the deaths of gay men like Freddie Mercury, so people fear catching a fatal infection which will cause horrific suffering and death.

In reality, HIV-positive people are able to live normally with treatment nowadays and AIDS has become preventable.

Medications have allowed HIV-positive people to be undetectable, which means they are not contagious.

There have been cases of HIV-positive people having been ostracised by friends and acquaintances who knew neither about the possibility of being undetectable, nor that the transfer mechanisms of HIV are limited to blood, sexual fluids and breast milk.

The best possible outcome for everyone is that they educate themselves about STIs due to the likelihood of otherwise suffering in a culture of vast sex-positivity and promiscuity. Our world is not one in which most people pair off and have faithful monogamous relationships. So, have yourself tested and learn about STIs.

FEATURES 7

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Successful Stories: Interview with Ana Patterson on her Bright Idea

Ana Patterson outside the Student Union CASSANDRA LAU

Ana Patterson’s successful Bright Idea Project may have caught your eye on social media recently as it urges Royal Holloway Students’ Union to organise a number of strobe-free nights at the SU each term for those with photosensitive epilepsy.

Fed up of staying in during Freshers, the 18-year-old English and Drama student stood by her idea and persisted, here is what she has to say: Tell us a bit about your recent success?

It’s quite unbelievable how much my project has blown up recently, I didn’t expect it to get this big! What I’ve managed to do is get the Student Union to accommodate for people with photosensitive epilepsy at some of their club nights, and luckily, I’ve been able to get 5 strobe-free club nights this term. I’m really excited about the progression of this idea in the future.

What inspired you?

I guess my inspiration would be wanting everyone to have

an equal opportunity to do whatever they want to regardless of anything that might be holding them back, whether that be a disability or otherwise. I’ve often struggled with the fear that I’m never going to have a ‘normal’ life or be a ‘normal’ student, but I now realise that what you’re going through in a medical sense is insignificant if you have enough confidence and strength.

What did you have to do to succeed?

To get where I’ve ended up, I firstly submitted a ‘Bright Idea’ to the Student Union website just describing what I wanted (two strobefree club nights a term) and got a considerable amount of upvotes which I think was mainly down to my incredibly supportive friends. Unfortunately, my idea didn’t get passed and it looked like I wasn’t going to get anywhere, so I just decided to give up. About a month later I was lying in bed and I just thought “What the hell are you doing?”. So there I am at 1 am drafting this incredibly long and passive aggressive email to the SU and well, what do you know? A few days later, I was emailed about coming to a meeting! There is great power in an eloquent and strongly worded email.

After quite a few meetings, I’m now exactly where a few

Splainism?

CASSANDRA LAU

As more and more of what we do is being categorised and boxed up for analysis, so has the art of explaining.

According to Dictionary.com,

‘-splain’ means “to explain or comment on something in a condescending, overconfident and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner, from the perspective of

live in today, “Do we really need to be that conscious of everything we say?” or, “Not everything should be taken that seriously.” The debate months ago I never thought has begun and will continue I’d be – the proud owner of a till who knows when, but one thing for sure is that we passed idea. live in a world of Splainism.

What is the purpose of your Are you a splainer?

Bright idea?

The purpose of my Bright First, it seems relatively Idea was, admittedly a little straight forward that if the selfishly, to be able to do all person you are in dialogue the things my friends were with did not ask for you to doing! I really wanted to go explain something, and you out with them and was sick did, then you are a splainer.

More secondary signs of staying in the entirety of that you are a splainer are: Freshers. I came up with the idea after thinking about how easy it would be for these • If you do not nights to be done, as if you have relevant or enough can turn on a light you must knowledge or experience to explain something. be able to turn it off!

• If you have the same relevant knowledge In your opinion, what or experience of something should people know about as the person you are in photosensitive epilepsy?

I think people should know dialogue with.

If you are uncertain that it can be triggered by • whether the person you are flashing, flickering or high in dialogue with understands frequency lights (like strobe lighting) just so they know something, and you assume to make sure they don’t get he/she does not. their photosensitive epileptic Problem with friends into any dangerous The situations. It’s also important Splainism that people know it’s not “What’s the problem about the only type of epilepsy, confirming the obvious?” because I think popular – Well, the problem is that culture assumes there is at the root of it all, there is only one type and that being a degree of stereotyping, photosensitive epilepsy. and profiling. It is most Epilepsy in a general sense is certainly not a crime to be very common, with 1 in 100 overconfident and arrogant, people having the condition, but one must admit that there but because you can’t see it is something disturbing and it’s often overlooked, which fundamentally wrong about I think I’ve proved through discriminating and belittling how strobe-free club nights which is what splaining is.

Firstly, the rising haven’t really been a thing occurrence of splainism here until now. points out how the sharing and exchange of personal experience and knowledge has not travelled far enough.

Secondly, as a form of indirect discrimination, it can have negative and lasting the group one identifies impacts on those on the with.” From mansplaining, receiving end. Last but not whitesplaining to least, it suggests that there is bordersplaining, the something wrong in the way categories are ever growing. we are taught to absorb and Some say it is the fault of the analyse information. oversensitive society that we My first recollection

of splainism was back in Sydney, 2002 – I was playing handball during recess with some other kids, when one explained to me why I was not allowed to be Chinese. He said, “You aren’t Chinese because you don’t have Adrian’s (the new Japanese student) eyes” whilst stretching the corner of his eyes. As a kid, you absorb things like a sponge, so naturally I thought that in order to become more Chinese, I had to do daily exercises of holding the corner of my eyes. It sounds stupid and inappropriate now, but it made perfect sense to mini me back then.

Not only did this act of splainism make me doubt myself, but it also gave me an incorrect understanding of identity. As an adult, splainism can just be plain annoying, but for children, it could be really impactful and affect the way someone learns to absorb and circulate information in the long run.

So in a way, yes we do need to be conscious of what we say, not because it is the new social norm, but because it has lots of negative potential, and could either mislead or upset someone.

I would be splaining if this were the obvious, but looking at the extraordinary number of hashtags on social media about such behaviour, it seems that it just isn’t obvious enough.

Whether it be a ‘joke’, an ‘explanation’ or just a ‘personal opinion’, it is important that people take responsibility for the things they say and understand the potential affects their words may bring about.

8 LIFESTYLE

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Why You Should Feel Free To Ignore The "New Year, New Me!" January Cliché

Photo credit freestock.org KYRIE ROXBY

Happy 2019! Here it is, a new year, a new start: that chance at the beginning of your year to figure out what you want the rest of it to turn out like.

January can be seen as the perfect time to pull your life together: fresh opportunities and new experiences present themselves for the next year of your life to help further and define the rest. Let’s be honest, though. Nobody expects every aspect of their personality will change for the better just as a result of the time of year. The continual expectation for things in your life to drastically change or improve suddenly based on newfound motivation from a new year never realistically lasts. Here’s why you should

feel free to ignore the ‘New Year, New Me!’ January pressure.

To start with, we all know New Year’s resolutions never last. The whole New Year ideology of suddenly remodelling and improving every part of your life, and yourself, through simply writing a list of resolutions immediately sets up unrealistic expectations that only start the year off with you probably feeling worse if they don’t last.

Especially because of the January blues, January is the worst month of the year, we can all admit it. All the fun holiday festivities are done, and it’s time to get back to work and those deadlines.

Beating the ‘winter blues’ is especially hard in January,

once you have an entire year to plan out and work towards. These hardly help with contributing to all those new year’s resolutions you never end up getting around to in the long-run.

Making New Years resolutions can come from a place of positivity, such as changing up your winterised routine and beating the January blues by getting outside instead of going straight for Netflix. You could encourage yourself to go on more mini adventures, try new foods or take up that hobby or skill you always came up with an excuse not to try. However, you can barely keep up the New Years motivation through the rest of the year, if the month, and nobody blames

you. It’s become an expected resignation that you almost immediately give up on or lost interest in. This is probably based on past years when you made resolutions (super eager about it), and they never lasted, so probably never will. We can feel pressured to change ourselves in less positive ways, rather than resolving to add to our lives, we point out what’s wrong in them.

The logic behind the whole New Year motivation for change is fundamentally flawed. If you wanted to change in any proper way, you could make the effort any time. Doing it in January is just for the sake of the ‘new year, new me’ hype. While making a list of resolutions for the year and following

them is certainly admirable (and will probably surprise everyone around you that you stuck to it), setting realistic goals for your whole year will definitely make you feel better long-term for the outcome. It should be about planning out your year to spend it however you’d like, not completely about bettering yourself in lots of minor ways that we know probably won’t stick.

We should be making goals, not because of the time of year, but because you really want to do something or commit to some sort of change and have for a while, why not start now?

LIFESTYLE 9

THE FOUNDER January 2019

5 Tips For Surviving Hall Life

ABIGAIL NAPIER

Living in halls can feel like being a small fish in a big pond. Sometimes it’s just about keeping your head above water amongst the preeing, laundry, cooking for yourself, noisy flatmates and weirdness of living in a little Surrey village that appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Here are 10 survival tips to help you cope with your first year living in halls.

1. Have enough tupperware.

Batch cooking will be your best friend, and meals like spaghetti bolognaise, stir frys and pasta with vegetables are surprisingly useful. After a long day of lectures, seminars and workshops, reheating dinner in the microwave is ideal.

2. Invest in some earplugs.

Walls are thin, and your flatmates are likely up at all hours of the night (and morning). Sleep is integral to everything you do at uni, as sometimes it feels like you never stop moving even coffee isn’t enough.

Wax earplugs are best.

3. Decorate your room.

It’s crucial to make your new room feel homely, as it is essentially your new home for the best part of a year, so get some fairy lights, fake plants, cushions, blankets and bunting.

4.

Don’t feel you have to do everything, all at once.

There will always be that one person on Facebook who appears to go to every event the uni offers, but it’s impossible - and unhealthy - to cover it all. Pick niche events and societies you are interested in. And equally, don’t compare yourself to everyone on social media.

Hall life can be hard, and if you don’t bond with your flatmates right away it’s okay - you’ll make other friends. Remember social media is a highlight reel, and no one will be posting a photo of them on Instagram homesick and crying in the bathroom. It’s okay to have bad days, and sometimes a pick-me-up is just what you need, whether that’s ordering a takeaway or getting a lift home for a night. Hall life can be amazing and sociable, but it can also be emotionally draining.

5. If you haven’t clicked with your flatmates, look further afield.

Join a few societies, and make sure to stay behind after lectures to talk to people on your course. There’s always options for making new friends, and you’ll never exhaust all avenues.

It’s important to not come home too much. You may really miss your family and/ or dogs and cats, but coming home too often means you miss out on integral parts of flat life, and clubbing nights are a great way to bond with your flatmates.

Why Living Off Campus Has More Benefits Than You Think!

Photo credit Lukas Hartmann REBECCA WILLIAMS

Living on campus is most certainly the easy option – no bills to pay and pretty much everything is on your doorstep. Not to mention the cleaners. Waking up five minutes before a lecture begins does not even stop you from going. The convenience levels of living on campus are through the roof, but its accessibility to lectures and seminars may be its downfall. Living off campus, comes with its challenges: bills, landlords and worst of all the earlier alarms, let alone the trek to campus. It is this trek, however, that makes living off campus the most beneficial for students. Say you live a fifteen-minute walk to campus. That is fifteen minutes there and fifteen minutes back. Maybe you go home to get some lunch before your afternoon lectures, which means you can add on another thirty minutes walking for the day. That is an hours-worth

of exercise without even thinking about putting on joggers or going to the gym.

Walking is, of course, not the most strenuous activity. And all the fitness nutters may think the walk does you no good at all in comparison to a run or a bike ride. The benefits are, of course, not as great, but every little bit of exercise will do the world of good for anyone. In a busy schedule, when everyone seems to always be behind on readings and deadlines, it is an opportunity to exercise without sacrificing any extra time in your day.

As mentioned, there are endless benefits to living on campus but when comparing it to living off campus it just falls short in the activity category.

The physical benefits to exercise such as walking are known to almost everyone. Weight management probably being the go-to positive for most people. Aside from physical benefits,

however, walking twenty to thirty minutes a day also has many mental benefits. Physical activity is a well-known way to improve mental health, and with high profile charities such as Heads Together fronted by the young the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as well as the Duke of Sussex, this benefit one that could not be passed over. The stress levels that modern day university students have to deal with are higher than ever before, so taking twenty minutes out of your day to be able to think and not worry that you are not studying at that very moment is a such a crucial factor in why living off of campus is a fantastic way to improve your overall health.

It can be a struggle to have to wake up earlier and rush out the door to make sure you are not walking into the lecture theatre ten minutes late with the eyes of everyone in your year on you. When this is put aside, the benefits of having to walk to campus are endless and will only do good for a student, both physically and mentally.

10 ARTS & CULTURE

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Have You Met: William Wegman The Hamilton Hype

Hamilton poster MOLLY WILLIAMS

William Wegman NOËLLE SPILLMANN

There are plenty of people who claim to love their dogs and there is a high probability that many of them are right. However, it is highly unlikely anyone loves their dogs as much as American artist, writer and photographer William Wegman. Whilst Wegman initially went to art school to become a painter, has a BFA and a MFA and still paints today, he is best known for his animal photography which features his Weimaraner dogs. What started with a simple candid shot (akin to all those Instagram posts of cats and dogs people make with the #socute) of his first dog Man Ray, named after the surrealist artist, quickly spiraled into over 40 years of animal portraits and videos with over 14 different Weimaraners – all of which belonged to him.

Since then Wegman’s dogs have become celebrities appearing on Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street as well as being featured in the French edition of Vogue magazine

modelling clothes (picture a human body with a dog’s head). Wegman only has two dogs now – Flo and Topper – but they are just as adorable and graceful as their predecessors and Wegman spends most of his day with them either shooting more pictures or just doing what other dog owners do: playing, walking, feeding. Wegman has also written bestselling children’s books about his dogs.

Wegman’s photographs look like intricate photoshop projects, however, all of the pictures actually involve hours of posing the dogs and filling clothing with plastic and foam to create a construction that makes it look like the dogs are wearing the clothes all while an assistant sits behind the dog and provides the human hands.

In the earlier years, it was not even possible for Wegman to make any alteration to the photos: working with a polaroid camera about the size of a refrigerator (of which there were only 5 worldwide) the photos were printed immediately. This raises the question: if there is no editing how did Wegman manage to create most of his

pictures? Any dog owner knows, getting your dog (or any pet for that matter) to do whatever you want can be a task on par in difficulty with cracking the DaVinci Code. The answer is simple: patience and trust. There is a strong bond between Wegman and his dogs which allows him to maneuver them and means the dogs listen to his word, although little tricks like throwing things to make their eyes follow them (it is a miracle the dogs do not decide to play fetch) and the fact that Weimaraners are pointers (genetically bred to stay still and point at prey) help.

Wegman published a book titled Being Human showcasing a grand collection of his photographs in 2017.

Managing the amazing feat of impressing pet lovers and individuals in the art world alike make Wegman an artist for the ages. Most importantly, however, is that his photographs will make you marvel and smile at the same time.

What do we really know about the ‘Founding Fathers’?

In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical production of Hamilton, inspired by Ron Chernow’s book Alexander Hamilton, American history takes centre stage on the West End’s Victoria Palace Theatre. It’s not just ‘the story of tonight’ that gets told in this remarkable portrayal; we see the founding father struggle through a childhood of abandonment, travel to New York, join the military and be appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental forces by George Washington, and we see him grow through his relentlessness to do so.

The ‘rags to riches’ life of Hamilton unravels upon the stage through the unexpected genre of hip-hop: ‘That’s hiphop. It’s writing about your struggle, and writing about it so well that you transcend your struggle’ – Lin-Manuel Miranda. With respect to the historical context of the musical, the transcendence of the contemporary genre to portray the groundworks of 18th century American history is remarkable.

Miranda’s ability to merge the modern-day American with the arrival of a new America at the onset of the U.S. constitution, is a triumph not overlooked by the audience.

The true standout performance was Sifiso Mazibuko’s portrayal as Aaron Burr. The intimacy of his vocals in ‘Dear Theodosia’

had everyone in the theatre stop. It was more than just not being able to hear a pin drop; no one breathed out. Where coughing had been intermittent across the theatre throughout the show until that point (‘tis the season, after all), there was no stray spluttering.

Mazibuko started singing for the hopes Aaron Burr had had for his daughter’s future and, all of a sudden, people were cured of their illnesses.

During the song, soft blue/ purple lights lit Mazibuko as he sang to Theodosia.

Burr’s indisputable love for his daughter further crafts a narrative of human purpose beyond war: ‘You will come of age with our young nation, we’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you. If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it onto you, we’ll give the world to you and you’ll blow us all away. Someday, someday.’. When Aaron Burr sings for his daughter, he sings for the world he has helped make for her. It makes everything feel like it has come full-circle, as if crafted for a perfect ending.

Hamilton has extended its run until April 29th 2019 on the West End. If you can’t squeeze in a trip before then, add the soundtrack to your listening rotation. Whilst the performance lifts the music into a new dimension, it’s the hip-hop tracks and intimate lyrics that make Hamilton: The Musical worth every bit of hype it has collected over recent years.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

ARTS & CULTURE 11

The New Era Of Burberry

Why Are People of Colour Still Underrepresented in Art Galleries?

ISABELLA HAIGH

Burberry fashion TIA HUDSON

For the past 165 years, the British luxury fashion house Burberry has been a driving force in fashion, and has an excellent way of representing the chic, relaxed, and sophisticated style associated with Great Britain. Now, the brand is headed in a new direction.

Under the influence of the new chief creative director Riccardo Tisci, Burberry has abandoned its traditional chequered patterns, and transitioned to a demographic more relatable to both the young, and mature adults. This season is arguably the brand’s most anticipated season yet, which has been nothing but a success to themselves and their consumers.

Riccardo Tisci is an Italian fashion designer with a large following on social media. He is best known for previously being the creative designer of the French fashion house Givenchy, and designing the wedding

dress of reality mogul Kim Kardashian-West. It was announced in March 2018 that Tisci would succeed Burberry’s former director Christopher Bailey, and was chosen in the belief that his “creative vision would reinforce the ambitions we have for Burberry and position the brand firmly in luxury” according to Marco Gobetti, the brand’s chief executive.

The debut of the new collection was an unexpected surprise for all spectators. Tisci, who is stereotypically known for designing more dark and gothic pieces, surprised the world of fashion by complimenting his pieces with light tones of beige and a refined elegance. The line was collaborated with the likes of Peter Saville who added an element of punk along with Vivienne Westwood, who Tisci states was “one of the first designers who made [him] dream of becoming a designer”.

Other

inspirations include British Heritage as a whole, along with ‘The Queen, punk, the Victorians, and the freaks”.

The collection has proven to be a huge success in pop culture. Celebrities such as Rihanna and Madonna have both been spotted wearing the beige trench coat debuted in the show during London Fashion Week. Additionally, Julia Roberts has also been spotted in an oversized blazer and pleated skirt from the line. The collection has been reviewed by Vogue House, who defined the pieces as “Refined” “Relaxed” and “Evening” which is nonetheless a remarkable and unforgettable review to be presented with.

Tsici’s Burberry debut can be described as nothing short of a victory, and as we move into 2019, I’m sure the fashion world look forward to all the new concepts and ideas incorporated into their next season.

The UK is known for its culturally diversity, yet why are PoC (people of colour) are still put on the backbench in the art world?

The increasing ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’ within art institutions is discussed constantly, but the truth remains the same: PoC artists are underrepresented.

White male artists make up the majority of artwork displayed in galleries. According to the Freeland’s Foundation survey published in 2016, women make up only 29% of artists in London’s major art institutions. Smaller still is the number of women from black and other ethnic backgrounds. If there is a lack of PoC artists’ work on display, fewer people of other ethnic backgrounds desire to come to the galleries. One of the reasons is that people want to identify and empathise with the artwork. Because of the scarcity of PoC artists, both the artist and the viewer feel alienated from what is otherwise an elitist art culture. Rabia (19), who is British-Pakistani told me, ‘Even though I haven’t personally experienced any racism, I would like to see more art that I can relate to on a cultural level.’

Considering that art galleries are at the epicentre of social and political change, it appears that this attention to ‘diversity’ only stretches as far as the annual reports from organisations such as the Arts Council and Museum Association.

While the Tate Modern has improved the diversity of its staff by setting up a BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) Network, more needs to be done to put more PoC artists on their walls.

Standalone exhibitions, that might invite PoC to exhibit their work for a while before being taken down, are not enough.

A survey done by the Art Council shows that another reason why fewer people of PoC visit galleries is linked to concerns about feeling uncomfortable or out of place, showing that more needs to be done to make our art galleries inclusive and approachable. Inu (20), says she personally does not feel excluded from art galleries.

However, as a black woman, when discussing fashion photography and the way that some people of colour are represented, she mentions her initial reaction: ‘It does make me feel a bit uncomfortable in terms that they are looking for people who are different from the “standard”.’ What we as a society see as the “standard” can lead to a cultural bias to a European ideal. Channelling this ideal through the art represented on our gallery walls can have a very negative effect.

Art is a feeling, an emotion that demands progress and change. If only one racial group’s feelings are represented in Britain’s art galleries, art will only stagnate, making it no longer a movement. The art world is moving – but not quick enough.

12 ARTS & CULTURE

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Royal Holloway to exhibit the rediscovered works of Christiana Herringham

Life study: woman turned away from viewer with raised arms, c.1900 Opening January 14 2019, Royal Holloway, University of London, will be celebrating the life and work of artist and Women’s Suffrage campaigner, Christiana Herringham.

Christiana Herringham: artist, campaigner, collector will showcase an extensive collection of the artist’s works, as well as a number of works from her own private collection.

This free exhibition, open until 8 March 2019, includes many pictures never seen in public before and is the first exhibition dedicated to Herringham since the 1950’s.

Her works were divided between this university and Newnham College by her

Madonna and Child (after Cosmè Tura), c.1896-1908

husband following her death in 1929, making this exhibition the first time the two parts of the collections have been reunited.

Although now relatively unknown, Christiana Herringham was an influential figure in the Edwardian art world and the Women’s Suffrage movement in the UK. Independently wealthy, Herringham was one of the founders of the National Art Collection Fund, now known as Art Fund, in order to retain works that would have otherwise been sold overseas. Christiana Herringham: artist, campaigner, collector has

been made possible with Art Fund support.

Herringham also used her money to improve the lives of women, and her close friendship with Millicent Fawcett and her sisters saw Herringham heavily involved in the fight for women’s right to vote. She donated money to found scholarships for women’s education, and was one of the founding directors of the Ladies’ Residential Chambers & Co., which built housing for ‘educated working women.’

Widely respected by her contemporaries including Roger Fry and Walter Sickert, Herringham’s work

The Combat of Love and Chastity, exh.

1901

took her across the globe, where she travelled to India to make copies of Buddhist cave paintings in order to help promote Indian Art in the UK. It has been suggested that Herringham’s experience in India may have inspired the character of Mrs Moore in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India.

Speaking of the exhibition, Dr Laura MacCulloch, College Curator at Royal Holloway said: “We’re delighted to be showcasing the works of such a significant female artist and campaigner.

As with the case of many women artists her reputation has been overshadowed by the men of her time, this has

not been helped by that fact that late in life she suffered from mental health issues and ended her days in an asylum.

“We’re hopeful that this exhibition will give Lady Herringham the recognition that she deserves. As a warrior for Women’s Suffrage and education, it seems only fitting that this exhibition will be held at Royal Holloway – an institute founded for the education of women.”

For more information, please contact emily. edwards@royalholloway. ac.uk or call 01784 443967.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

LITERARY REVIEW 13

Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk Manifestations of Exile – SASHA SMITH

I have loved Chuck Palahniuk’s work since reading his debut novel Fight Club two years ago and have continued to ravenously work my way through his books, feeling like each of his stories had some sort of powerful impact on me. Adjustment Day, in a way, had the powerful impact I have come to expect – unfortunately, the impact it had was one of confusion and boredom.

The premise of Adjustment Day hits close to home – an alt-right bible leads to an uprising of millennials carrying out Adjustment Day, a day of violence much like that seen in The Purge, that rids the country of its most hated academics and politicians. The United States is then divided into three areas - Caucasia, Blacktopia and Gaysia – where people are segregated based on race and sexuality. While I believe that something like this could

happen in America in the future, the execution of such a possibility in this novel was… well, boring. The division is the pivotal moment in the story, and yet it doesn’t take place until halfway through the narrative. Everything that happens before this point feels somehow irrelevant.

The book does contain the usual trademark graphic violence that Palahniuk features in his work but lacks the intelligence present elsewhere. The absence of a shock factor leaves the reader feeling desensitised rather than bewildered.

The novel also changes its narrative point of view after every couple of chapters or so. While this alternation is useful in representing the different perspectives of people living in the different areas of the ‘Disunited States of America’, it also makes for a difficult read: none of the characters really make much of an impression on you, and those in Blacktopia get given

Madeline Miller's Circe

GRACE BARBER

Circe is Madeline Miller’s, author of the bestselling Song of Achilles, second novel. It tells the story of Circe, the goddess of magic in Greek mythology, best known for her part in Homer’s Odyssey.

However, Miller chooses to focus on Circe’s own interpretations of events and her own deeply personal tale.

Miller does an excellent job of making the reader empathise with Circe, particularly at the beginning of the story, when she is belittled by the other deities.

It is therefore extremely rewarding, as readers continue to follow her journey to becoming the witch of Aeaea - a mythological island that becomes the permanent home of the goddesses-witch - to see Circe try to gain a scrap of vengeance for herself.

As much as Circe is a fantasy novel, it is also a

coming of age story. Miller expertly captures the feeling of first falling in love and the intensity of emotion that we feel when we are young: ‘[t]hat is one thing gods and mortals share: when we are young, we think ourselves the first to have each feeling in the world’.

However, Miller also presents some of the darker moments of life, including heartbreak, pain, and the struggles of single motherhood. Yet as Circe herself exclaims - ‘[y]ou threw me to the crows, but it turns out I prefer them to you’ - this is ultimately a story of survival and finding your own place in the world.

This novel is an excellent read, whether you are new to Greek mythology or you are already a fan of the classics.

Miller plays with multiple Greek myths in the novel, including the Minotaur and the labyrinth and Icarus's wings of wax. Miller puts her own spin

very little real narrative. The only real voice coming from Blacktopia is an elderly racist who disguises herself in blackface so that she can stay in her home. The young characters in the book feel like they have been based on the stereotype of a millennial and that Palahniuk has never actually met one in person.

Each one seems to use the word ‘rape’ unnecessarily, such as referring to a loud noise as ‘ear rape’.

Ultimately, this choice felt incredibly offensive.

Adjustment Day is simply too ambitious for its own good. Palahniuk goes into great detail about the currency of the new system and the politics and the society, but it is hard to keep up with such details when the novel lacks consistent narrative. This novel had the potential to be so much more than it is, but, in reality, it is just as confusing and messy as the political climate of today. on the events portraying the experience through the eyes of a female character who has never before been given agency and personal motivations. Despite being an immortal, a goddess, and sorceress, Circe, at her core, is a woman fed up of being walked on by powerful, greedy men. During the course of the narrative, she ultimately finds a way to defy this patriarchal rhetoric that women are weak and need to be protected: ‘[i]t is a common saying that women are delicate creatures— flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.’

I’d highly recommend reading this book as every line lends itself to be quoted. It is a great read for anybody, especially if you are interested in stories about Greek mythology, monsters and magic.

Mahmoud Darwish’s Almond Blossoms and Beyond

Poet Mahmoud Darwish REENA BAKIR

Comprised of the final poems Mahmoud Darwish left to the world, Almond Blossoms and Beyond is an account of the journey of a Palestinian exile, lacing together the subtle beauties of the world with the reality of punitive pains of an occupied motherland.

The words of Darwish’s sweet lyric poems carry the heartbreak of the Palestinian people on their back, along with introspective personal endeavor as the poet muses on life.

As a result of his existence as an exile, Darwish’s quest for self-identity is directly related to the struggles and turmoil of occupation and loss of homeland. The collection opens with a foreword by the translator Mohammad Shaheen, containing a testimony

by Darwish detailing the disorder of his upbringing as a Palestinian fleeing to and from his occupied land.

From there, the theme of exile manifests itself as central to the rest of the works, with poems such as “Now, In Exile,” a sorrowful scrutiny of his late life as an exile, and the struggle of finding meaning in this title that he has carried with him throughout his life.

In a succession of

remembrance and untangling of recollections, the poet details weddings, funerals, and the slow passing of time through the indisputable voice of a fragmented lost spirit attempting to find solace among his thoughts.

The poet transfers the readers between tangible places, such as the neighborhood wedding in “A Wedding Over There”, and places within his own psyche, as in “These Are the Words”. The poet therefore constructs a journey of the physical as well as the internal, full of fragile contemplations on life.

The later sections of the book, each titled Exile 1, 2, 3, and 4, bring the cycle of exile to an indefinite close, with each section holding a single long poem. These poems, such as “Tuesday, a Bright Day” act as stories and monologues of Darwish constructing his journey through both his mind and the outside world, sharing his questions and anxieties in a soulful series of thoughts.

As one of the most celebrated Palestinian poets, Darwish has carved a place among the great contemporary writers as a poet of protest, but most importantly as a poet of truth.

14 LITERARY REVIEW The Future of Print Books SVILENA IOTKOVSKA

Ever since the appearance of eBooks, there has been ongoing debate that divides readers into two categories: the print book lovers and the eBook enthusiasts. In our day and age, one is either one or the other and can seldom be both.

The birth of the eBook raised questions about the future of print books and whether their end is fast-approaching.

It is not difficult to see that eBooks have numerous advantages over print books: Portability: Print books which can often be heavy and large, but the eBook is easily transportable regardless of the number of pages.

Easy to store: Most avid readers know the struggle of having too many books but not enough space on our bookshelves; the eBook eliminates this problem altogether.

Read in the dark: If you like reading at night when you can’t seem to fall asleep, but you know that means turning on the lights and waking up your roommate/partner at 3am, then an eBooks are an end to your worries.

Cheaper and environmentally friendly: Print books require high costs of production from labour to natural resources, while eBooks often cost a great deal less than paper books. Not only would you be saving money, but you’d be saving the planet too!

Yet, it cannot be denied that print books possess numerous characteristics that technology cannot reproduce: Smell and Feel: All book lovers will agree that an eBook could never replicate the way a book feels when you flip its pages, nor could it ever elicit

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Albert Camus: Nobel Prize for Literature 1957

the smell of a newly bought paperback novel!

Easy to jot down notes: While it is true that eBooks allow readers to highlight and make notes, it takes more time to do so than to scribble directly onto the page. In fact, many students even prefer printing readings from Moodle to better interact with the text!

Sentimental value: There are several things that give print books sentimental value. Print books are a meaningful present to gift someone and you can always jot down wishes on the inside and address it to that special someone. Not to mention the possibility of getting your book signed by its author!

Author Albert Camus Easy to borrow and lend: Admittedly, eBooks is deceptively simplistic might be cheaper than a print JOSHUA RICE in its prose. It has many book, but you could never Albert Camus wrote novels layers that may be missed borrow or lend it to friends! and plays which examined in a first reading. It follows this world, as well as the story of Meursault, Bookstores and whose mother has recently Publishing Houses: If print exploring the core questions of life itself.

Growing up in passed away following a books were to disappear, it French Algeria, Camus was in stint at a retirement home. would not only bring an end a unique position to observe His mother, who is never to big, beautiful bookstores named, found peace in her that evoke such feelings of colonial power systems first hand and these experiences situation and took on a new peace and serenity, but it infiltrate his works.

Camus male companion to fill the would also mean the loss of wrote treatises on both the void that life had created for many jobs. question of murder and her. Meursault reluctantly suicide, and his novels attends her funeral and then Beautiful collections: were filled with metaphors we follow him through his Undoubtedly, every book relating to his philosophical monotonous day-to-day lover’s collection is routines. The first half of immense, beautiful and will worldview which he termed ‘The Outsider’ climaxes last for generations to come. absurdism. The absurd can be summarised as mankind’s with Meursault shooting, attempt to find a meaning to and killing, a stranger with Granted, eBooks have whom his friend Raymond numerous features that set life after it becomes evident that life has no inherent had become entangled in them apart from print books meaning. an argument. Meursault is and are advantageous for Arguably Camus’s subsequently arrested and readers; however, it will be charged with the murder. many, many years before an most famous work is the philosophical novella Meursault finds the eBook can force print books ‘L’Etranger’, translated justice system to be absurd. out of the markets and out of into English from the He is judged not particularly the hearts of readers as there on the crime itself, but is a great deal technology original French four times, most recently by Sandra rather his character. He is cannot replicate.

Smith as ‘The Outsider’ accused of not crying at in 2012. ‘The Outsider’ his mother’s funeral and is

scrutinised by a priest for not accepting God into his life. Eventually, Mersault is sentenced to the guillotine, a judgement he finds too final to accept. He is to be murdered, for murdering. Is being sentenced to death not the most pre-meditated of all murders?

Meursault sits in his cell awaiting a certain death, much like his mother who awaited a certain death in the retirement home at the beginning of the novel. So, like his mother before him, Meursault makes the decision to accept the absurdity of his situation, accept that death is inevitable, and that life has no inherent meaning, but this does not mean you cannot find a purpose. For his mother, purpose meant finding a companion and reliving memories of youth.

For Meursault, this meant being executed in front of a large crowd filled with hatred for him. Each to their own.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

LITERARY REVIEW 15

How is Technology Changing The Forge Collective’s ‘Never Swim Alone’ our Reading Habits?

JACK WRIGHT

Photo credit freestocks.org KATIE PHILIPPOU

We have spent our whole lives reading them. They comfort us, educate us, entertain us and sometimes shock us into seeing the world differently.

They are a constant in our lives, however the way we use them has changed in the last decade.

Many of us have shifted from the simple printed book to the more advanced technology of digital books to satisfy our craving for a good read. The stress from overwork increases the demand for reading that accommodates the need to slip into that precious time, in which we transport ourselves elsewhere.

Audiobooks assume that role perfectly.

Their popularity is evidenced by the 67 million people who listen to at least one audiobook a year. (Audio Publishers Association.)

The advancement of technology and the spread of the internet to more areas of the world has increased access to these new ways of reading. Of course, a greater accessibility to books is fantastic, but the book printing industry has inevitably suffered.

Some have grieved the decline of the printed book,

but may have invested an e-reader or an audiobook app. I say invest because it is an investment. With such a device you can download thousands of books and carry them with you.

Digital books are ideal for the travelling bookworm and a saviour for those who find reading challenging or require a hands-free reading experience.

E-readers also offer something for the learning reader: the opportunity to instantly look up the definition of any word.

The sales of e-readers peaked at 23.2 million in 2011. (Statista.) In the aftermath of this craze the book scene is changing again. The use of audiobooks continues to rise steadily, whereas the e-book sales from the first three months of 2018 showed a 3.8% decrease from the sales from the same months of 2017.

The paperback book sales hinted at a comeback, as the sales increased by 1.4% in the same time period.

(Association of American Publishers.)

Perhaps the reading population is starting to realise the cost of turning down the old-fashioned paperback. It is the cost of an experience: meandering

down the local high street, entering the warm and welcoming bookshop and taking a look at the latest releases.

Perhaps then wandering deeper to browse the well-loved collection of classics. Then dipping into the genre sections to see if you fancy a sci-fi this week, or a romance.

Or maybe trust in the shop assistant’s recommendation and daringly pick up a book you would never have considered before. You also lose the ability to pass on the experience by lending your favourite books to others.

Yes, you can gain a lot from an e-reader and enjoy an easy read with an audiobook, but the experience you lose is a special, personal one that should be valued above an online bargain. h t t p s : / / p e r s p e c t i v e s o n re a d i n g . com/the-statistics-behindaudiobooks-continuedgrowth/ h t t p s : / / w w w. s t a t i s t a . com/statistics/272740/ global-shipments-of-e-bookreaders/ http://newsroom. p u b l i s h e r s . o rg / b o o k s for-adults-up-122-inapril-2018/

On Sunday the 2nd of December, above the Oxford Arms pub on Camden High Street, I sat down in the Etcetera Theatre and watched a play I had been waiting to see for the last two years.

When interacting with drama students last year I heard a lot of talk of a play called ‘Never Swim Alone’.

Originally performed at Royal Holloway at the end of October 2016, the performance sold out quickly and was very well-received by those in attendance.

Bill (Azan Ahmed) and Frank (Jack Dillon) compete for the attention of a young woman (Tabatha GreggAllured), who plays the role of referee. The opening rounds are preceded by a beach scene in which the two boys watch the girl from a distance; a distance which, as told to us by the girl, has decreased over the length of an entire summer. Now, only a few metres from each other, the girl challenges the boys: ‘Race you to the point!’

Back in the present, the two men, dressed in suits, battle to outdo each other in a variety of categories, including best-dressed, friendliest advice and (ahem) most generously endowed.

The uneasy tension, apparent from the beginning, is akin to that of two work colleagues trying to outsell one another.

As the intensity increases, the two unsympathetically encouraged by the referee, the play climaxes in a summit of straining paranoia and unease.

The two male leads are each fantastic in their roles. Their differences in personality, held within Daniel MacIvor’s brilliantly written script, are presented on the stage with emotive body language and great shifts in tone. The dialogue

between the two, particularly when overlapping, united through a few wellchoreographed synchronised speeches, was really quite something.

Ahmed, in particular, demonstrated the ease with which he settled into the role, addressing a late-comer with an offthe-cuff ‘Glad you could join us’. Dillon, too, gave a performance with flair, featuring strong emotional sequences juxtaposed with well-delivered lines tinged with biting wit.

The referee’s performance is perhaps a touch subtler than the brash and fiery Bill and Frank, and I found myself watching for the subtle changes in Gregg-Allured’s facial expression amongst the chaos of each round of the competition. Each man, despite their willingness to outdo the other, seemed limited and controlled by this woman whom encapsulated voluptuousness and innocence simultaneously.

A dramatic flashback serves as the highlight of the play, wherein the audience learns something of what happened at the end of the summer. The rhythmic chanting of the two men coupled with the choreographed swimming movements was captivating, helped by lighting absent from the original performance at Royal Holloway.

I would strongly recommend trying to catch a performance of ‘Never Swim Alone’ if we are fortunate enough to see the play run again sometime in the future. If the play sounds like something you would’ve enjoyed, then you can follow @CollectiveForge on Twitter to keep up to date with the collective’s new developments.

16 ARTS: FILM

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Mary Poppins TF; DR (AKA, Returns: The Too Foreign, Triumphant Impossible Sequel Didn't Read) GRACIELA MAE CHICO

Hollywood’s unstoppable mission of producing remakes and spin-offs for every beloved classic continues with a sequel to Disney’s Mary Poppins.

While the number of fanservice moments borderlines sickeningly sweet, the film’s fantastical adventures will go down well for audiences old and new.

Fifty-four years since the original, Mary Poppins returns to take care of the Cherry Tree Lane residing Banks’ children. This time, their own kids as well. In the Emily Blunt led sequel, the world’s most iconic nanny accompanies Annabel, John, and Georgie (Michael Banks’ own children) for most parts of the film. But, like the original, we learn that she’s been looking after the grown-ups the whole time.

In Rob Marshall’s (Into the Woods, Chicago) sequel, Michael (Ben Whishaw), now a father of three, struggles to make ends meet during the great economic slump. Michael resorts to borrowing money from the bank. Entangled with the recent death of his wife, the struggling artist falls behind their payments, leaving the family with a possible house repossession if they do not provide the money by the end of the working week.

Despite the help of his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) and housekeeper Ellen (Julie Walters), a much-needed help arrives after a change in the wind. Mary Poppins, with some help from lamplighter Jack (Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel

Miranda), accompany the children, and the adults, through the expected life and perspective-altering adventures; anchored by wondrous dance routines and catchy songs. Like in Into the Woods, Marshall succeeds in seamlessly harmonising the character’s realities with their musical numbers.

It is infamously known that P.L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins book series, was not pleased with the original Mary Poppins film starring Julie Andrews — citing it as “all fantasy and no magic”. While beloved by many, Blunt persevered in making the character her own rather than producing a mere caricature of Andrews’ interpretation of the character, telling interviewers that, instead of rewatching the 1964 film, she resorted to re-reading the books. As a result, we get a Poppins that’s much vainer, yet keeping her odd beguiling charm at hand.

Emily Blunt’s casting as Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way — it is hard to imagine this sequel starring any other actress.

The 2018 revisiting of the world of Mary Poppin’s might seem repetitive — after all, how many nods to the original can be made before a film loses its own individual entity? But Mary Poppins Returns’ core of reminding us to rekindle with our child-like wonder, in a world currently submerged in such inescapable negativity and cynicism, is perhaps just the medicine we need.

LUKE HETHERINGTON

This past December, Santa brought the gift of translation to English-speaking western audiences who would watch those acclaimed pieces of Euro-Art, if it weren’t for that pesky reading. Joining the recently announced Will Ferrell remake of Force Majeure in the recycled pit of foreign films are The Guilty and Woman at War. The former will star Jake Gyllenhaal as an emergency operator racing against time to save a kidnapped woman. The Danish original is tightly constructed, set in one location and centred almost entirely on Jakob Cedergren’s face, which begs the question: what more can they do with such a premise aside from inserting a more recognisable face and the English language?

Gyllenhaal has a lovely face, but this seems to be yet another example of America’s attitude towards foreign films.

With one cheek firmly slapped with announced remakes, award season has also started, slapping the other cheek with a lack of recognition. Alfonso Cuaron snagged a well-deserved Best Director Golden Globe for his semi-autobiographical masterpiece Roma. However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - ironically - exclude foreign films in the Best Drama category.

Instead, Bohemian ‘Hey at least Rami Malek was good’ Rhapsody reigned supreme whilst Roma was excluded

to the Foreign Language category. This month will see the Oscar nominations coming out, where Roma will be eligible for Best Picture.

While it will almost certainly be given a nod, it would still only be the 11th foreign film nominated out of a possible 546. When you consider how Chocolat was nominated ahead of In the Mood for Love (the BBC poll’s second best film since 2000), you realise how futile it would be going back through every nominee and highlighting every Seven Samurai, Cache or Das Boot that was snubbed in favour of an adequate US release that was released by a major studio under the false flag of a smaller indie subsidiary.

However, the saddest bias this year comes from the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Without SAG accreditation, Yalitza Aparicio was ineligible for her devastating turn in Roma; rather than nurture talent, SAG opted to shun Aparicio with the small print.

It would be churlish to deny the United Kingdom is much better, especially with so many British actors being favoured in terms of awards. At the very least, the BAFTAs have a respectable enough history, making the UK, the US and foreign films compete in ‘Best Film from any Source’ until 1962, and nominating 16 since for ‘Best Film’. Even then, that is a small figure. Conversely, a few successful British films are poached for typically poor and pointless US remakes.

Americanising The Wicker Man or Get Carter is about

as worthwhile as picking out belly-button lint, moulding it into a tiny Tom Hanks and recreating The Ladykillers when you have a perfectly good blu-ray copy of the Alec Guinness original you could watch. A few US remakes do successfully bring something new to something old. Solaris (2002) takes a more faithful approach to the source novel than Tarkovsky’s impressionistic Russian version, but the best examples of usually Westerns based on Kurosawa samurai films. Although, the latter examples (Magnificent Seven, Fistful of Dollars) simply transpose the setting and succeed based purely on their technical merits.

Jack Nicholson may no longer be attached to the remake of Toni Erdmann, Hanks may still be starring as an American Man called Ove and the Bryan Cranston version of Intouchables may be dead on arrival this month. No matter what happens, Hollywood will always remake films from those people that talk funny and snub their namesakes during ‘Give Pretty Good Studio Dramas Gold’ season.

The only explanation would be some kind of deep-seated xenophobia at the heart of the UK and the USA, but that would be an easy cop-out to blame a genuine disease plaguing both countries for a tiny symptom that affects one industry and doesn’t result in major hate-crimes. Maybe Hollywood will drink a few liberal Lemsips and then the sniffle will be gone.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

ARTS: FILM 17

Disobedience: Not the Anticipated Story of Forbidden Love

Photo credit Bleeker Street Media GRACIELA MAE CHICO

Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, and Alessandro Nivola give powerhouse performances in Sebastián Lelio’s English-language debut. While the film is sold as a tale of forbidden love, it instead offers a fascinating exploration into identity and disobedience; in all of its unexpected forms.

Set in North London’s Orthodox Jewish community, Disobedience is an adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s 2006 novel of the same name.

While seemingly different from the Academy Awardwinning director’s prior films, including the much acclaimed A Fantastic Woman (2017), the feeling of seclusion that Lelio explores in his prior work permeates this modernday fable of forbidden love.

Rachel Weisz’s character, Ronit, is left shaken after learning that her estranged father — a Rabbi —collapsed and died while delivering a sermon. The devastating news

results in Ronit flying back to North London, leaving the picture-perfect life she’s established for herself as photographer ‘Ronnie Curtis’ in New York.

Reunited with the lacklustre, grey skies of London, Ronit also arrives to unwelcoming stares from some members of the community she had previously abandoned.

Her father’s funeral also catalyses an unplanned reunion with her childhood friend, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola). Nivola and Weisz perfectly capture the dynamic between friends who desperately try to rekindle a once deeply rooted friendship, but are hindered by lost time and diverging lifestyles.

While her presence at her own father’s funeral is seemingly unwelcome, both sides of the family try to manoeuvre around each other’s presence; the cold tension matching the palette of dreary London.

One of the film’s most

crucial scenes sees the three main characters having dinner alongside elders in the family. Ronit, during a bubbling argument over women’s roles and marriage, proclaims one of the most memorable lines in the film, “is it the way it should be?

Or is it just institutionalised o b l i g a t i o n ? ” .

Disobedience’s exploration into the lives of the concealed community is thoughtprovoking, especially with the recently revived national discussion on antisemitism.

Ronit’s navigation of grief, in a milieu wherein her presence is quite an intrusion, is then entangled with the rekindling of her teenage romance with Esti (Rachel McAdams).

Now Dovid’s wife, their refuelled romance risks and questions the future of all three characters; Ronit and Esti’s much-discussed love-making scene provides a delicately passionate crescendo in a film often deafening with stillness.

Lelio explores the three

characters in such depth that the selling of the film solely as a love story is somewhat questionable.

While Weisz and McAdams undoubtedly deliver incredible performances as estranged lovers — feelings of longing and entrapment exchanged through furtive glances — Nivola’s performance as Dovid should not be understated. Dovid’s examination of his identity, as the expected successor of Ronit’s late father, and declarations of self-sacrifice is truly moving. Nivola paints the trio as a triangle of protagonist, rather than the expected ‘love triangle’.

Despite the undeniable chemistry between the two female leads, Disobedience does not leave viewers with a romantic happily ever after. Rather, it highlights three characters who undergo complex changes in a short amount of time — largely provoked by their reconvening. Lelio, during a post-screening Q&A, tells the audience to note the small,

yet vastly meaningful, changes in the characters’ costumes by the end of the film. Despite echoes of century-old fairytales, the two women act as stepping stones for each other’s next chapter, rather than being each other’s true love.

As Esti bids goodbye to Ronit, McAdams delivers the line ‘may you live a long life’ in such a way that, while highlighting pain, also resonates hope.

Disobedience is not just a story of forbidden love, it’s also a love letter to going against the grain of who you’re pushed to be; examining the complexities of the decisions we make against who we want to become.

Disobedience is still playing in select cinemas and is streaming online on Curzon Home Cinema.

18 ARTS: FILM

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Green Book - A Remarkable True Story The Enigmatic Family of Friendship, Acceptance, and Taking Thriller and How It's the First Step Towards Change.

Changing the Game on a very simplistic level. I wasn’t out to cure racism; I’m just saying this is what happened to these two men and it shows the baby steps toward people coming together. I wanted people to see that and feel good about it.”

Photo credit Universal Pictures SAM MCLOUGHLIN

In Peter Farrelly’s Green Book, we follow Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) a working-class New Yorker who is employed as a driver by an African-American pianist (Mahershala Ali).

Together they plunge into the bowels of the 1960s American south, confronting the region’s intolerances as well as Tony’s own. This film is almost novelesque in its piecing together of subtle (and sometimes not so) human experiences into a coherent physical and personal journey. Peter Farrelly does not merely strike a balance between moments of poignancy and humour. Rather, he weaves the well-timed laughs into the narrative so that they do not distract from the film’s messages of tolerance and humanity. Instead, they serve not only to unite the two lead characters but each member of the audience along with them.

Viggo Mortensen has always been an actor known to pick his roles somewhat carefully: a tendency that has paid off brilliantly in the last few years. The lead dishes up his best performance since, well, his last appearance in Captain Fantastic and is awfully convincing as the Italian-American bouncer/ family man. His charismatic matter-of-factness bounces perfectly off of Mahershala

Ali’s stoically refined Dr Don Shirley. Ali himself also gives us no less than what we have come to expect from him in the past few years: he received his first ever Golden Globe win for his role as the emotionally complicated pianist earlier on this month. With the help of an excellent script, which incidentally also won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay along with the film itself for Best Motion picture in the Musical or Comedy category, the two leading men express the evolution of their character’s improbable relationship perfectly, completely convincing the audience that these two extraordinary people and the bond they shared were far from fiction.

Nevertheless, the attention that Green Book has recently received has not all been positive. Many viewers have criticised the film for adhering to the trope of a ‘white saviour’, especially a scene in which Tony introduces his employer to the, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘food of his people’: fried chicken.

Nick Vallelonga, son of Mortenson’s character and one of the film’s screenwriters, addressed these criticisms in an interview with Deadline: “What I tried to do was show, through these two people, how we’re all the same, and can come together

In addition to this, Shirley’s family have also spoken out against the film’s authenticity. In a letter sent to various media outlets including Black Enterprise, Shirley’s brother Maurice states that his sibling ‘never considered Tony to be his friend.’ A subject which Vallelonga also addressed, taking the defence that he included only what Shirley, who died of heart disease in 2013, wished him to: “Dr Shirley said, ‘I don’t want anything else about me in there.’...‘Don’t contact anyone about me.

What I’ll tell you will be enough. No one was there but me and your father, so no one can even give you any information about what happened in that car.’”

Despite the controversy and however clichèd the forging of an unlikely friendship on a road trip across the country may be, this car provides the perfect microcosm in which Farrelly explores and subverts racial stereotypes as well as the prejudices that come along with them. Yes, it is a tad over-sentimentalised at times, with the ending approaching on a level of cheesiness a sit-com series finale would be proud of.

But there sure is no doubt this director and his cast know how to make their audience feel something.

ERIN LEONARD

The Family Thriller hit 2018 with a new sense of vigour, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place opened the door to a fresh genre which has been proving itself in the box office. The film is regarded as an innovative piece – the first to pair aspects of horror, with more heart-warming facets of family interactions.

The star-spangled cast of Emily Blunt and John Krasinski certainly got the film the initial attention it needed to get off the ground, with many media outlets having earmarked it for the Academy Awards.

It certainly proved itself in the box office, grossing $340 million; taking into consideration the small production budget, the film can be regarded as nothing short of success.

Bird Box was released in the final days of the year and again managed to prove itself. 45 million views in the first week – a record in its own right – and already questions are being raised as to whether there will be a sequel. Sandra Bullock heads the cast as mother-figure, supported by big names like John Malkovich and Sarah Paulson. It really exhibits the sort of casting that companies are able to get for these films. To see such a highquality production coming out a streaming service like Netflix really shows the way that the market is shifting in favour of such companies.

So, the two films differ in many aspects, but the foundations remain the same: mother-figure, fatherfigure, two young children, an unknown threat to their safety. What is it that makes this such a popular set-up?

The dichotomy between the fast-paced, heart-pumping

scenes of horror, and the warm, fulfilling scenes of character interaction seems to be the perfect blend. Both movies showcase the threat of relying on one’s own senses, and how abandoning those instincts becomes essential to the survival of the characters. Films such as these have a target audience like no other, they are aimed at families yet not in the traditional sense. This isn’t something that one sits down to watch with their eightyear-old, and yet it holds the potential to bring a whole house into one room for a couple of hours.

Other films in this vein are quickly being taken up by production companies – Greta has signed on Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert to portray a pseudo-maternal relationship, Us has signed on Lupita Nyong’o to work with the magnificent Jordan Peele, and the confirmation of a sequel to A Quiet Place is on everybody’s minds. There are numerous factors that will be the rise or the fall of a movie of this breed, it cannot rely on its action sequences to overshadow poor performance nor can it rely on great acting to hide plot irrelevancies. These films require far more dedication from their production team than others, they are entirely dependent upon audience satisfaction. Bird Box has not done well with critics, it is abounding with clichés and inconsistencies, but to an audience, it is everything they want. The question is whether this genre will progress, where will it be taken. Will the big names of Hollywood attempt to tackle this beast that could be the making or the breaking of them?

ARTS: MUSIC 19

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Album Review: My Album of the Year 2018: Hinds – ‘I Don’t Run’ Joji - Ballads 1 their boyfriends being friends at the time) Ade Martin back-up vocals) With the topic of love (bass, and Amber Grumbergen stomping its feet throughout every song on Hinds second (drums). The album kicks album ‘I Don’t Run’ (2018), off with the song ‘The Club’, it is hard not to be charmed a perfect choice to introduce and memorised by their their altered direction. It is sloppy guitars and vocals, loud, drone-y and fun. But and, the imperfect English in songs like ‘Soberland’ are what really make the album. their lyrics.

Hinds (meaning female The melodies make you feel deer) formed in 2011 in like your hula-hooping down Madrid and released their the food isles on a holiday first album ‘Leave Me Alone’ in Italy. The song ‘Linda’ in 2016. With messy guitar is where Hinds strip back, riffs and unrefined vocals, it without abandoning their feels like their sound should very distorted guitar riffs. A be a car crash, but its quite lot of people say that Hinds the opposite. Their new can’t sing, but I believe this album still embodies the laid song proves that they really back, hazy, raw sound; but can. And having a lo-fi indie this time they experiment a sound, not being the best lot more with pace. Making vocalists is kind of the point their songs more dynamic, to of it.

Their song ‘Tester’ is the point where you become where they really shake up intrigued in what the song is the narrative of the album. actually all about.

They leave behind their Hinds music is mostly classed as lo-fi indie and is typical structure of their similar to a 1960s pop group songs and build up in sounds. sound. The band consists of They experiment with a Ann Perrote (vocals, guitar), more bass filled sound, Carlotta Cosials (vocals, which I hope they do more guitar) (who met through of on their inevitable next album. Their songs from TAMSIN FATODU

SAM PALMER

It would be unfair to define Joji’s premier album by his arguably more well-known alter-ego Filthy Frank. The two ‘personalities’ should be kept separate. Filthy Frank is an offensive, overexaggerated character poking fun at people from all walks of life, whereas Joji is an intensely emotional musician, bringing up romantic relationships, toxic friendships, and other deeply personal topics.

Ballads 1 is Joji’s first full-length album, and it is a powerful opening. While he has been making music for several years, he has typically stuck with the same minimalist style: low volume beats and chord progressions with mumble singing over the top. However, this album shows the experimental side of Joji’s music making.

The songs vary from easylistening and upbeat all the way to grungy and distorted.

This variation can occur even within a track, such as Attention, the opening song of the album. The track starts as a quiet, sad song of a gentle piano beat and melancholy vocals, until about halfway through, when the bass kicks in and the whole track becomes a loud, messy blur with the same melody, but a totally different feel. This kind of experimentation is what makes this album so interesting. Not every song on the album may appeal to everyone, as some songs stand out as being particularly unique (such as Can’t Get Over You, I’ll See You In 40) and thus might be somewhat off-putting to some listeners. This said, it is definitely worth listening to the whole album to experience the full range of

emotions, and the variation would suggest there is something for everyone.

Despite how different it is as an album, it’s refreshing to hear Joji using the full extent of his vocals and singing rather than simply using his mumblestyle he has relied on in the past. That’s not to say he’s completely rejected his roots as a musician, as he has still incorporated this vocal technique where appropriate, just has not leaned heavily on it. The range in vocal styles in this album makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, as it gives each song its own identity and makes them easily distinguishable from one another, while allowing them to keep the same theme of sadness and deep emotions throughout.

The album is perfect for both background listening and active listening, due to the fact it has a gentle enough feel to be appropriate when not focusing but has emotional enough themes and lyrics that when concentrating on the music itself can stir up as much a mixture of emotions as any piece of music might hope to.

Joji has done a remarkable job at executing a rather experimental first album, and this album promises for more interesting styles and techniques used in future work. He is definitely an artist to follow and hopefully will bring more content that stands up to this album.

Ballads 1 has set the bar high, but with any luck his music will only improve as time goes on.

here onwards on the album, such as ‘Finally Floating’ and ‘To the Morning Light’, become sloppier and messier. It almost sounds like the guitarist and bassist are sitting on a sofa, and with each track they are slouching further and further down, but in a way that only adds to the chilled-out and summery vibe.

I’m unsure if the band do this on purpose or not, but their incorrect use of the English language only adds to the ramshackle sound of their music such as “I want to be ready for your smell.”

Their lyrics discuss the annoyance and stubbornness that comes with love, and when the members sing in chorus, it almost sounds like their all shouting at the same douche-bag guy.

With their tongue in cheek image, this is the perfect album to listen to right now, to mourn about how far away summer 2019 is, coupled with some wise words about the annoyance of being in a relationship with THAT guy.

James Blake – Assume Form Review BEN JACQUIN

James Blake stays true to form with his newest offering Assume Form.

Blake, fresh off some successful mainstream collaborations with artists such as Kendrick Lamar on his album Damn and the song “King’s Dead” from the Black Panther OST, has stayed true to his minimalist style with subtle trap-inflected beats over melancholy piano and synth loops. Blake brings in some top talent into the project, in the form of trap superstar Travis Scott and a-list producer Metro Boomin,

who both appear on the track “Mile High”. Blake also uses his respected persona in the hip hop world to entice legendary rapper Andre 3000 to perform on the track “Where’s the Catch?”. Blake also shines a light on up and coming foreign talent, taking advantage of Spanish singer Rosalía’s melancholic, flamenco vocal chops on the ballad “Barefoot in the Park”.

Assume Form prides itself on its minimalist production, creating an atmosphere that is quintessentially James Blake. Using hi-hats and claps and low rumbling

808-esque basslines, mixed with honest and vulnerable lyrics, Blake merges together influences from trap, hip hop, folk, and lo-fi music that come together in a way that creates its own sound, something completely unique to Blake’s world and vision. Based off of this new offering, it’s no wonder that James Blake is one of the music industry’s most in demand producers at the moment, as everyone wants a window into the unique creative mind of James Blake.

20 ARTS: MUSIC Live Review: Ben Howard – Noonday Dream Tour – Brixton Academy Wednesday 16th Jan CHARLIE CATMULL

Before I get into this review, as editor I wanted to welcome back all our readers for 2019 and thank you all getting involved with the music section. We’ve had some great articles so far and I want to keep them coming.

If you’re a devout music fan or even just a generally opinionated and passionate person we’d love to make more people’s voices heard on the subject of music, whether its album reviews, live reviews or opinion pieces, GET INVOLVED. Drop me an email or join our Facebook group.

Now, with that out of the way, let me sink my teeth into my first review of the year, and, one that might split opinion, but bear with me on this. Last Wednesday I saw an artist I’d been intrigued to see live for years, a nearenigma of a songwriter who, despite having chart topping hits that almost everyone of a certain age knows, has remained relatively in the shadows since his breakthrough with 2011’s ‘Every Kingdom’.

I’m talking about Ben Howard, a singer-songwriter/once acoustic-sweetheart of the nation who was set to be the next Ed Sheeran, only with a lot more talent and a troubled soul, seemingly healed only by time on the beach and camping in the woods. But his rise to the top of radio-

friendly commercial ballads seemingly stopped as quickly as it began.

Instead the Cornish troubadour set down a path that moved away from sunny beaches and festivals to a much darker, sombre path in music, first heard in glimpses on earlier tracks such as ‘Black Flies’ and the 8-minute cryfest ‘Burgh Island’. I’m a sucker for the occasional sad song, but with Ben Howard I found an artist who I became captivated with due to this sudden break away from what was expected of him, admiring how he so sure-firedly stuck to his guns and his own “artistic integrity”, instead of bowing under the pressure of stardom.

The result of his inherent desire to explore and experiment with this darker more developed and layered sound, found Ben Howard producing two sprawling, sonically varied and lushly arranged albums in the form of 2014’s ‘I Forget Where We Were’ and recently, 2018’s ‘Noonday Dream’.

Two albums which are packed to the brim with 3-minute intros, non-existent choruses and electronic trickery where acoustic guitars once strummed repetitively. The albums are brilliant, making repetitive listens easy, indulging in the listeners discovery of new sounds or snippets of voice.

But this is where my unexpected gripe with seeing Ben Howard live for the first time lies, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that the

show just wasn’t very, well, exciting. Playing the entirety of his latest album ‘Noonday Dream’, a record that I’ve listened to regularly and enjoyed thoroughly, I was left with the sense that all of the sonic experimentation and the captivating warping and mixing of electronics I found whilst listening to the album were lost in the translation to live performance. The intimacy felt when hearing the songs and lyrics via headphones or in a room was lost and ultimately the crowd too showed signs of unease. The expanded intros and instrumental passages disappeared from the stage nearly into thin air, whilst the artist himself, stood on stage hidden amongst the instruments, absorbed wholly into his musicianship, the lyrics muttered to the masses. The set left me at a crossroads; would I have enjoyed the gig more if he’d played more of the older songs, the ones I often skip when listening alone, but songs people could at least sing to? Or does this notion just defeat the very integrity that drew me into Ben Howard as a darker, more “serious” artist? Sometimes albums just don’t fit into being seen live, would I see Ben Howard at such a huge venue again?

Probably Not. Would I keep listening to anything he puts out? Absolutely.

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Artists to look our for in 2019

things for the young indieAnd so, with 2019 finally upon punks. us, the question on absolutely everybody’s lips is: what Fontaines D.C. bands and artists are we at If you always wondered what The Founder tipping for great legendary The Fall frontman things in 2019? Well, fear Mark E. Smith would sound not – your question is finally like if he was an Irish twentyanswered. Without any further something in 2019 – well, ado, here’s some of the bands you’re in luck. Dublin’s and artists that we think are Fontaines D.C. have recently going to have one hell of a stormed onto the scene with a slew of gritty, rip-roaring year. punk singles, and with rumours of an album on the Sports Team West-London-Via-Cambridge way – as well as a sold-out band Sports Team at first London headline gig planned glance don’t exactly look like for April – they’re poised to they’re capable of causing do some very, very big things chaos wherever they go, but this year.

PHOEBE HAGAN

boy, can looks be deceiving.

It’s hard to put into words the sheer chaotic energy that they exude at every single gig, whipping up the crowd into a frenzy with their own, honed brand of not-quite-indie but not-quite-rock guitar music.

King Nun One of the most recent singings to indie power house label Dirty Hit (they currently look after The 1975, Pale Waves, and The Japanese House, amongst others), King Nun released their debut EP to huge acclaim from fans and critics alike in 2018, with the coming year inevitably holding huge

flirting.

East London’s flirting. are, I imagine what My Bloody Valentine would be doing if they too were twentysomethings living in London in 2019 – and, simply put, it’s brilliant. As much a group therapy project as they are one of the finest shoegaze, dreampop-y bands around, flirting. released an absolute cracker of an EP, This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening to Anyone But Me last year, and have firmly cemented themselves in the London music scene as anxiety-pop masters.

My album of the year: Daughters - ‘You Won’t Get What You Want’ IGGY IWERSEN

Late October 2018: There I am, lamenting the dearth of dedicated Halloween music vis-à-vis its saccharine, inauthentic Yuletide counterpart. Back then I was poised to bemoan the fact in this very publication, eagerly anticipating Halloween at the SU, singularly focussed on sampling the dancefloor with

only one intention: to retreat to the writing room and slag it off. It turned out, on that fateful Wednesday night, that the Student Union knew how to pull off a spooky evening.

Thunder cracks, cobwebs and a campy atmosphere brought me to epiphany: the musical macabre is to the club as horror cinema is to a well-lit room. It is in You Won’t Get

What You Want, American alternative rock group Daughter’s 4th studio album and first in 7 years, that I discovered what I longed for. Unsettling, heavy, and claustrophobic – Daughters’ latest release lends itself well to the intimate evenings these dark months provide.

Headphones on, walking home, this is a record that

compels me to look over my shoulder – I love it. Resting on the simmer of bass-heavy percussion that occasionally boils over into distorted madness, the album’s tracks feature an in-depth exploration of the limits of the guitar’s timbre and maintain a forward momentum that drags the listener to its gravest depths. My sincerest

recommendation, to those curious, comes in the form of what is perhaps the most commercial track in the package; Less Sex, despite navigating an uneasy placidity, makes no compromises on the intensity consistent throughout You Won’t Get What You Want.

Give it a listen, just don’t look behind you.

SPORTS 21

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Sport in 2018: How Simple Games Reunited a Nation

Photo via autosport.com FRANKIE CHRISTOU

With the continuation of bemoaning Brexit politics, the death of Stephen Hawking and the anti-climactic return of the Arctic Monkeys, 2018 is definitely a year that will be put on the bottom of the remembrance pile.

However, it could be commemorated as a year that united a divided nation after the incredibly fortunate year Britain had in sport, as before the summer had ended individuals with opposing views, were celebrating the success of Britain’s athletes harmoniously together and usually covered in each other’s beverage.

A question that many people asked themselves, was it actually real? A sense of surrealness immersed England during the World Cup as the side swept away any pre-tournament predictions by waltzing their way to their first World Cup semi-final since 1990.

Gareth Southgate and his youthful squad had the nation on strings, as Harry Kane’s flukey goals, Jordan Pickford’s ecstatic celebrations and Harry Maguire’s slab head all had a part to play in forcing a nation, that was so divided by the ridicules of Brexit to reunite and fall back in love with the game it created all those centuries ago.

Club football also made the news, as Pep Guardiola made Manchester City into centurions by winning the Premier League with a record of 100 points. The elegance in which they achieved this record will leave many footballing fans looking back on this peak of excellence in many years to come.

Jurgen Kloop’s Liverpool were a whisker away from winning their first European title since 2005, with the whisker being a terrible goalkeeping performance by Loris Karius and a brilliant bicycle kick from Gareth

Bale.

After 22 years in charge, Arsene Wenger bid farewell to Arsenal after his conquering memories of the early 2000s were swallowed up by the black hole of incompetent 4th placed finishes and a few FA Cups.

When he took up his last day in the dugout, it felt as if he was taking a huge piece of Premier League history away with him.

Other than football, other British athletes made it a year to remember in all other sports.

Alister Cook’s career ending century at the Oval, marked the end of an era as his departure cleaned the slate for Joe Root’s team washed away the early memories of Ben Stokes criminal trial by thrashing India 4-1 in the Test Series.

The fighting fans reading this must be thinking what about the strides Britain made in boxing? Do not worry, they will never be

forgotten.

Anthony Joshua’s title defenses against Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin will be the pinafore of 2018, but there is more to boxing than Britain’s golden boy. Tyson Fury’s ability to pick himself up off the canvas like the Undertaker against Deontay Wilder became the summit of his redemption back from mental health issues, twitter is still running riot over the thwarting judges that robbed him of a deserved victory.

Lewis Hamilton rounded off the year by cementing his place in the Formula 1 hall of fame after racing his way to a fifth world title, putting himself two away from equaling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven.

However, British sport also took strides together as a nation when the highs of 2018 were summed up by the devasting helicopter crash that claimed the life of

Leicester City owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. In the weeks that followed, fans and athletes from all sports paid their respects by travelling to the King Power Stadium to lay flowers or posting a heart-felt message on social media.

The reaction epitomised what sport means to British values because everyone recognised that a man who had an integral role in Leicester defeating the odds to win the Premier League in 2016, had just lost his life.

The thing is, sport has never just been about balls, goals, points and finish lines.

Sport is a representation of our culture and an expression of our values. It sometimes can separate us through rivalries and the actions of a few stupid individuals, but more times than not it has the ability to unite us, and 2018 has proved to be a milestone that shows that it will continue to do so.

22 SPORTS

THE FOUNDER January 2019

Royal Holloway Club Reviews Royal Holloway Hockey, breaking records for club membership, tearing up 3 leagues alongside a packed calendar of socials and charity events. Our teams have been putting up fights in their matches, with our Ladies 1st and 2nd and Mens 1st teams top of their BUCS tables! Both our Mens and Ladies 1st are also going strong in their cups. We’ve been smashing fundraising targets with our charity events this year, from tournaments, to our Men’s 2nd team smashing Photo credit Royal Holloway Sport Movember and raising almost £300! It hasn’t been FRANKIE CHRISTOU During first term we had a staggering £3,800 for a quiet term to say the least! many socials including ice the Movember Foundation Wednesday’s at Royal skating, a movie night and which researches Men’s Women’s Football Holloway hold a subdued a Christmas meal and have prostate and testicular cancer, This term we ran a mental atmosphere as the majority of attended three competitions along with men’s mental health awareness campaign students are down the Sports with more members than ever health. At Christmas we got by interviewing students Centre either competing in before. Our competitions involved in volunteering from RHUL and LSE or supporting BUCS and included; a friendly against with the SU by sending out about their perspectives LUSL fixtures. With record Surrey (where we received 3 cards to the elderly and also on it. We also made encouraging breaking participation gold and two silver medals), donated food to the local posters women's empowerment numbers this term, here is as well as two SUTL Runnymede food bank in with a "Women in Sports" how each club reviewed competitions at Bristol and cooperation with Waitrose. panel, our year-long Bath.

We’ve also undertaken their first term…. #FemaleisFierce campaign a range of fundraising, Netball such as a Christmas jumper Netball are having a great and our "This Girl Can" Mixed Martial Arts We raised This term we have training session and a season all round. With a campaign. over £1400 for Cancer scrunchie sale to raise money record number of girls at achieved one of our highest UK doing memberships in years. for ‘Motivation’. We plan trials in September, we have Research PudRun and collaborated We’ve maintained high to hold further scrunchie 4 strong squads playing in numbers at all four weekly sales where there will be a BUCS and LUSL. I have with other female clubs in training sessions, enjoyed wider spectrum of colours, relaunched our social league a charity match in which some great social events like including purple for Varsity! this season as part of RHUL we collected menstrual Sport’s ‘Active’ initiative, products for Bloody Good CIYK, and we were all able and we had a successful ‘Big Period. Also, our 1s team to celebrate together with our Men’s Football Men’s football focused largely Sleep-out’ fundraiser for made it to the quarter finals Christmas dinner. Our new on spreading awareness Trinity, a charity supporting in LUSL and BUCS. MMA session on Fridays is a great way to round off the surrounding mental health. the homeless. The 1st team week too, as we combine With a phenomena that can are really proving to be an Lacrosse techniques learnt in the other affect anyone, especially at asset to the club, currently We started this first term classes (Boxing, Muay Thai, universities, we launched they are 2nd in BUCS and strongly, recruiting 100 and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). an #ItsOk2Cry campaign they have only one loss. Our members for the club. Our This term we’ll be demoing which saw members of the 3rd team have had successful women’s firsts and mixed various techniques alongside club go blindfolded, offering start so far this season, firsts knew that they would other martial arts clubs at “free hugs” around campus. especially in both the LUSL be facing a challenging ‘A Night at the Dojo’, and We had a successful cake and BUCS Cup, in which year with our legacy of several of our members will sale where we helped raise they have an upcoming winning the mixed treble and our women’s firsts be competing in the ever- £300 for Mind Charity. We semi-final match this term. moving up a league. They also was involved in the popular Fight Night. have risen to the challenge community sports day and Hockey during November, we raised What a term it has been for and quickly developed as Trampolining

teams and as individuals. Our mixed seconds and women’s seconds have both done fantastically well in training new players and securing some solid wins. Our teams are planning to continue working hard for the upcoming games and hopefully securing some titles, all whilst celebrating in socials.

Swimming Last term, the swim team achieved more than we could have ever imagined! With a new and improved BUCS team, both personal and club records were smashed, which we hope to improve on this term in BUCS and Varsity.

The development squad is also thriving and we cannot wait to see what next term has in store. Our pledge of 300 hours of volunteering is underway, and we have continued to work with the local charity SportsAble every week.

Additionally, all are welcome to show us some support in our annual swimathon in aid of SportsAble which will take place on 9th March!

Women’s Rugby Royal Holloway women’s rugby have had a phenomenal first term. We finished the Autumn term ranked 3rd in the 1A BUCS South Eastern League. We had some tough battles against teams of a very high standard. Due to a combination of commitment, passion, resilience and hard work, we were able to win many games. Through our charity fundraising we raised £1135.49 for the charity Crisis, which tackles homelessness in the UK. This money was raised through bag packing at Tesco, a charity rugby match and a pub quiz. We also baked for the Contact the Elderly Tea Party, which takes place every month on the university campus.

SPORTS 23

THE FOUNDER January 2019

New Year; New You? JACK WRIGHT

Each of us make our resolutions as January rolls around. Some of the most common include promising to eat better, to exercise more, and to lose weight. Of the many resolutions that are made each year, a significant portion of people struggle to maintain their promise to themselves.

With a sport and fitnessspecific focus, here are some top tips to help you stick to your New Year’s resolution for the foreseeable future.

The main thing to consider with regards to a New Year’s resolution is to be realistic. I can’t overstate just how important this is. An unrealistic or unachievable resolution is not a good idea, as you may become disheartened if you are unable to achieve it. This is through no fault of your own.

You may be able to achieve the goal that you have set for yourself, but it will take time. Often, when people are eager to achieve a goal, they overextend are subsequently left disappointed.

Given the hectic life of a student, unforeseen distractions in life, and tiredness, it isn’t very likely that you will be able to maintain a resolution of going to the gym every single day. This is especially true if you have not been to the gym in a long time, or ever.

You need to be patient with yourself and your body, and work towards a realistic goal, particularly when related to the gym. Rest is hugely important. When starting to exercise at the gym, I would recommend attending two to three times a week, and allowing your body to adapt the inevitable soreness that

comes with hard work.

If weight loss if your goal, then focus on cardio as a priority. Utilise the bikes, treadmills and crosstrainers within the gym in order to achieve a diverse range of cardio. Many of these machines feature an indicator that displays how many calories you have burnt during exercise.

The same concept of a realistic goal applies to diet, too. A particularly healthy diet, such as veganism, is also challenging. Cutting out dairy, eggs, and meat simultaneously is difficult if you have grown up accepting these products as the norm.

If trying to achieve a healthy diet, like veganism, I would recommend taking things in stages.

Try experimenting with vegetarianism, or perhaps ‘flexitarianism’, before attempting veganism straight away.

The same can be said for smaller changes. If, like me, you’re guilty of having two sugars in your tea or coffee, and would like to cut down on sugar consumption, then gradually scale back. Try one and a half, then one, before cutting sugar out completely. You do not have to deny yourself luxuries in order to achieve your goal.

Rather, work gradually towards a healthier lifestyle, instead of sacrificing what makes you happy.

More than anything else, don’t be hard on yourself.

It’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to have a slip up or two. A resolution is only broken when you commit to not achieving your goal. In the meantime, keep working, and you’ll meet that resolution sooner or later.

Women in Sport: Benefits and Barriers

Photo credit Royal Holloway Sport JACK WRIGHT

On the 29th of November, I had the pleasure of attending a discussion centred on women’s involvement in sport at Royal Holloway.

Chaired by Sophie Bury, president of Royal Holloway Feminism Society, a panel of several sporting individuals addressed questions regarding the multifaceted benefits of sport, ways to enable younger women to maintain interest in sport, and the connections between sport and mental health. Namely, the panel members were Charlotte Serage (Football President), Susannah Lower (Netball President), Megan Beddoe (SU Sports Coordinator), Sophie Harrison (SU Student Opportunities Manager) and Eedi Karjalainen (Rugby President). Football Charity Secretary Kate Roberts also played a large role in the organisation and promotion of the event.

A number of key topics related to women’s sport were discussed by the panel, each of whom were equally

vocal in their opinions and more than willing to follow up ideas from one another.

There was a real sense of solidarity amongst the women in the room, as each of the lead members on the panel spoke eloquently on behalf of their respective clubs and disciplines. Despite the differences in their sport, kit, team size, and background, each panel member found a united ground in exploring the significance of being a woman in sport.

This mutual respect across the variety of clubs helped to form a number of interesting discussion points.

The first question explored the benefits of sport to women, highlighting the mental wellbeing side of sport, as well as the physicality. A very interesting point raised was regarding the benefits of sport when considering employability. Transferable skills, including networking, communication, team skills, and fundraising, are developed within sports club training, highlighting the depth and diversity offered by the clubs on campus. On the physical side of things, rugby President Eedi explained

how participating in a more physical sport like rugby offered “new standards for your body”.

Discussions on physique were also relevant when, leading on from an audience question, the panel addressed the potential concerns of exercise leading to physical changes. Compared to male sport, where more muscular physiques are often the norm, muscular female athletes are still perceived in a negative light by a malecentric society. There was an agreement that, regardless of the physical differences between athletes, becoming comfortable in the translation of one’s individual form of femininity is important. The differences between women can be a great thing, and football President Charlotte made some excellent points on muscular legs in a sport such as football, which can ultimately provide the sportsperson with an advantage over her opponents.

Other discussion points, as well as more wide-scale topics including media coverage and sporting stereotypes, addressed encouraging women to play sport at university, and again the solidarity in the room was apparent. Each club demonstrated a keenness to help one another and make an active effort to support each other on game days.

As the only male attendee in the room, I was offered a great insight into the inner workings of women’s sport, and a new perspective on the challenges faced by female members; the sort of things that I would often take for granted. Thank you to the panel members and for those in attendance who helped to make the event feel so inclusive.

Good luck for 2019!

We hope that the new year has started well for you all!

As a business developing accommodation for students, including for many students at RHUL, over a thousand students have chosen to stay in accommodation developed by us. Key to delivering excellent accommodation is to be constantly improving the experience for the students living in our developments.

We’d like to hear from you! And with a chance to win a £100 Nando’s Gift Card, tell us the best and worst aspect about your current student accommodation, whether you rent a house or flat, or live-in purpose built accommodation. Anything from the must have wifi, to a sense of security or that you have your own warm shower room. We’d also like to know the least liked aspects about your present accommodation... bad heating, buggy wi-fi, or having to clean up after others!

Enter on Twitter or Instagram before 1st March using #danehurstegham and we’ll select two winners at random, one for the best and one for the worst thing about your accommodation. Each winner will be notified by DM before 14th March.

Another quick mention before we go to the fantastic Egham Hollowegians 1st XV who are keeping up their winning streak and still sitting top of the league. Well done! COYEH!

www.danehurst.com