Events & Competitions

Stanley Steadman Essay Prize

Congratulations to Lara Foster who won the 2022 prize for her beautiful appreciation of The Sea by John Banville and to runners up Jonathan Ambler and Charlie Davies. The judges were astounded by the extraordinarily high quality of essay submissions this year, which had a record 58 entries. The final stage of the judging was a viva voce in which Lara showed an excellent understanding of the text, and was able to convey her emotional response with great passion and eloquence.

Commem 2022: Nineteen EightyFour

We celebrated George Orwell’s dystopian classic at the Percival Library AKA the Ministry of Truth in the totalitarian state of Oceania. Thanks to everyone who ventured over to sip a Victory Gin(ger Beer), indulge in a weekly 20g chocolate ration and try out the memory hole incinerator challenge. Well done to our winner, Dong Ha Hoang, who did Winston Smith proud and won a classic Orwell collection.

Lauren Walker, Leah Shaw & Charlotte Withey

Percival Librarians

Jay Greengrass (HLH) won the 2022 Flash Fiction short story competition. Her story was inspired by a line from Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull”. The competition was judged by Amy Beashel, author of The Sky is Mine and We Are All Constellations. The Flash Fiction winner receives a literary poster of their choice plus publication in this very magazine.