The Isis Magazine
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Circulation c. 4,500 | | |
Website | isismagazine.org.uk |
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The Isis is a student publication at the University of Oxford, where the magazine was established in 1892. Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, Isis was finally acquired by the latter's publishing house, Oxford Student Publications Limited, in the late 1990s. It now operates as a termly magazine and website, providing an outlet for features journalism, although for most of its life it appeared weekly. The two publications are named after the two rivers in Oxford, "Isis" being the local name for the River Thames.
History
The Isis was founded by
"We have no politics and fewer principles, and should we last until the General Election we shall use our influence for neither side. We shall endeavour to be humorous without being ill-humoured, critical without being captious, militant without being malevolent, independent without being impertinent, and funny (as Mr Albert Chevalier says) without being vulgar."
In its early days, the Isis was owned and published by the Holywell Press. Students were given complete independence, as long as the paper they produced was profitable and within good taste. Oxford welcomed the addition to its scene wholeheartedly, and was more than prepared to pay the weekly sixpence. The Isis was an accurate recorder of proceedings in the Oxford Union - enough of a function to maintain sales. The same price (2.5p in modern money) lasted into the 1960s.
One of the features of the magazine that survives today is the "Icons" section (then known as "Idols"). In the 1890s, being President of
After the beginning of World War I, the Isis ceased publication for four years, until it was resurrected in 1919 by Beverley Nichols, who produced the opening issue entirely by himself:
"the great fact remains that Oxford is still here, a little dazed and unsteady perhaps, but Oxford all the same, and it is to sing of Oxford that The Isis appears once more, to reflect its every tendency, to echo its laughter and – well, to do the other thing."[3]
Evelyn Waugh contributed to the magazine regularly. Waugh was also the first to participate in the rivalry between The Isis and the freshly established Cherwell by writing for both. The Isis was disparagingly referred to in the Cherwell as "The Was-Was".
The 1930s were times of much political turmoil in Europe, yet serene in the Isis - but then, so were they in the rest of the British press. A couple of articles more flippant than political in tone resulted in the Isis being banned in Germany in 1935. Only a year later, the magazine had again to suspend its operations until 1945, to re-emerge with new strength.
The
The definite article dropped from its title, in the 1960s the Isis turned its guns on Oxford. In Michaelmas Term 1961 under Editor
For the Isis Idol in his term, Meakin prophetically chose the (much later) novelist
Meantime the first of several attempted rescues came from businessman, Robert Maxwell, and his Pergamon Press on Headington Hill, Oxford. In a risky business move, a national student publication was created - Isis National, which began distribution in Spring 1964, without success. He departed in 1970, making the Isis an entirely independent and student-run company. The "University" tag was scrapped, and the Isis was also distributed at the Oxford Polytechnic in Headington (now Oxford Brookes University). Quite soon, the absence of solid financial backing caused the frequency of publication to be cut by half,[citation needed] and the Isis began to appear fortnightly. The following decades were interspersed with financial crises, the worst of which was a £1,000 printing bill in 1972 - and no cash to cover it with.[citation needed] Again, a rescue squad appeared from an unlikely, but illustrious source, in the form of this telegram:
- "Read of your financial troubles in The Times STOP One thousand pounds will be en route as soon as you cable us name and address of printers at the Granotel Rome - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton"[citation needed]
In 1998, after a series of growing financial crises, "Isis Publications Ltd" was created. Today the Isis is a termly magazine owned and published by Oxford Student Publications Ltd and is an anthology of poetry, investigations and art. The Isis also runs events for students in Oxford.
Alumni
The Isis has been the springboard for careers in literature, the theatre and television, with specific influences in
Editors-in-Chief 2000-Present
Year | Michaelmas | Hilary | Trinity |
---|---|---|---|
2000-2001 | Benjamin Secher
Gowan Tervo |
Jude Bunting | Ben Hewitt
Nell Freeman |
2001-2002 | Melissa Bradshaw
Leander Deeney |
Adrian Cornell du Houx | Phil Oltermann
Ally Carnwath |
2002-2003 | Sean Gray
Emma Farge |
Mel Bradshaw
Rodrigo Davies |
N/A |
2003-2004 | N/A | Oliver Brown | Julia Buckley |
2004-2005 | Tess Andrews
Torsten Henricson-Bell |
Laura-Jane Foley
Alice Jones |
Mike Wakeman
Noor Kadhim |
2005-2006 | Tom Pursey | Christopher Schuller | Georgina Warren |
2006-2007 | Alec Garton Ash | Ruth Lewy | Solvej Krause |
2007-2008 | Pippa Lamb | Adam White | Martyn Evans
Lindsey Ford |
2008-2009 | Oskar Cox Jensen | James Kennard
Maximilian Krahé |
Jo Livingstone
Rebecca Davis |
2009-2010 | Nick Coxon
Jack Orlik |
Ben Glazer | Tom Lazenby |
2010-2011 | Memphis Barker
Joseph Charlton |
Izzie Fraser | Alex Dymoke
Alex Macpherson |
2011-2012 | Jane Saldanha | Alex Hacillo | Douglas Sloan
Sean Ayer |
2012-2013 | Rosie Ball
Tom Gardner |
Polina Ivanova
William Granger |
Philip Bell
Rebecca Chong Wilkins |
2013-2014 | Violet Brand
Daisy Fletcher |
Aaron Payne
Charlotte Sykes |
Matt Broomfield
Peter Endicott |
2014-2015 | Sadie Levy Gale
Olivia Yallop |
Raphael Hogarth
Daniella Shreir |
Huw Spencer
Miranda Hall |
2015-2016 | Thea Slotover
James Waddell |
Alexander Hartley
Ione Wells |
Christian Hill
Fintan Calpin |
2016-2017 | Eleanor Biggs
Jacob Lee |
Rosie Coleman Collier
Samuel Dunnett |
TJ Jordan
Lily Begg |
2017-2018 | Flo Ward
Lael Hines |
Joe Higton Durrant
Tobi Thomas |
Emily Lawford
Jiaqi Kang |
2018-2019 | Katie Meynell
Lev Crofts |
Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf
Leela Jadhav |
Antonio Perricone
Leo Gadaski |
2019-2020 | Léa Gayer de Mena
Zahra Munir |
Annabelle Fuller
Neil Natarajan |
Chung Kiu Kwok
Ivana Cholakova |
2020-2021 | Alexander Haveron-Jones
Barnaby Pite |
Mukahang Limbu
Rita Kimijima-Dennemeyer |
Nat Cheung
Kalli Dockrill |
2021-2022 | Anya Li Taira
Natalie Perman |
Joseph Dobbyn
Grace Lawrence |
Ananya Basu
Kiana Rezakhanlou |
2022-2023 | Susie Castledine
Dowon Jung |
Shao Yi Wong
Mia Wu |
Clemmie Read
Antara Singh |
2023-2024 | Isaaq Tomkins
Zoe Davies |
Flavius Covaci
Caitlin Morgan |
Helen Edwards
Clara Hartley |
References
- ^ "The Isis Magazine". The Isis Est. 1892. 27 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ISBN 0-86051-213-4.
- ^ Beverley Nichols in his opening editorial, 1919
- ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). That Was Satire That Was: The Satire Boom of the Sixties. London: Victor Gollancz. p. 13.
- ^ Kellaway, Kate (10 August 2010). "Sally Laird obituary: Writer and translator of Russian literature". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
- ^ "The ISIS". The ISIS. Oxford Student Publications Ltd. 21 February 2011. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
Sources
- The Isis website
- Billen, Andrew and Skipworth, Mark. Oxford Type. Robson Books, 1984.