Virginia Woolf’s novel, Night and Day, was a study of a young Edwardian girl who was more interested in maths and astronomy than finding a husband. Tina Gharavi’s film takes this obsession further, making the ambitious Katharine apply to Cambridge to further her career.

But here the film seems to find it necessary to exaggerate the prejudice against women studying, by staging a mock interview with three male physicists, who would never be interviewing her anyway! The facts are that Katharine would have been applying to a college, not a faculty. And in 1910 Newnham College actually had more than 10 women studying physics, using the Cavendish Laboratory. Admittedly, these women could not be awarded degrees until 1948, but to exaggerate the difficulty of entry through this fake interview scene (apparently located in the cloisters, for some reason) actually reduces the credibility of the situation.

The extent of astronomical knowledge is more accurately portrayed: surprisingly in 1910, when Halley’s comet appeared across the sky, physicists still thought the universe was finite, and confined to the Milky Way. It was only when Hubble’s telescope extended their visual range in the 1920s that scientists realised the unlimited extent of the galaxies. Though we are led to believe that Katharine was already aware of this possibility in 1910 with her tiny home-made telescope!

Other distortions of the novel to make the film producer’s point include the introduction of a gay relationship: the character of Cyril in the novel has two children with the woman he is living with, but not married to, which would be radical enough in those times. But Gharavi takes his status further, making him the gay cousin of Katharine, with a black lover who pours out his heart to her after Cyril dies dramatically and unexpectedly, just beyond the ha-ha of the country house they are visiting.

So we already have three strong themes from Edwardian times, of women’s suffrage, higher education and unorthodox living situations; but do audiences really need those realities to be pulled out of shape to make a modern point? Go back to the truth of the novel and be amazed, with a rather softer soundtrack too…

Brenda Stones/3 July 26

Oxford Independent Authors (OxIA)

St Mary’s Church and the Methodist Church in Wallingford.

The festival is supported by Wallingford Bookshop and Wallingford Town Councillors.

The festival will have stallholder space across both venues with children’s workshops planned at St. Mary’s and adult-focused talks at the Methodist Church. To register an interest in having a stand in the book fair (£20 for the day) you are invited to email LitFests@oxia.org.uk.

The organisers are also seeking nominations for talk slots. If you are interested in giving a talk, please contact OxIA no later than the 24th June 2026.

https://www.oxia.org.uk/events.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1ZYuK-Yd8&list=PLxCcZw1m4oIUQwUMlmLkmyTJ73ceagYLt

Maeve says: “Accident of Birth came from my reflecting on the role of chance in one’s birth and life chances. And it concludes with the reflection that, notwithstanding these many differences, more unites us than divides us.”

To read more about Maeve, see her article in the August 2025 issue of The Oxford Writer, entitled ‘Rocking in my 70s’.

You can find this in the Newsletter pages of this website.

Fot the individual videos:

Picasso Postcards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ihxdUP6DoQ&pp=ygUMbWFldmVhbmRwZXRl0gcJCdoKAYcqIYzv

The Conversation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1ZYuK-Yd8&pp=ygUMbWFldmVhbmRwZXRl

Accident Of Birth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vr_c4UchEg&pp=ygUMbWFldmVhbmRwZXRl

Sisterly relationships feature prominently in some of our best-loved
classic literature. From Jane and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice
to Hasina and Nazneen in Brick Lane, they have provided inspiration for
novelists over the centuries.

Sisters can be best friends, mother figures, rivals, heroes, sounding
boards or partners in crime, depending on literary genre, era, or the
demands of plot. They can bring into focus the changing roles of
women in society, especially in literature that predates the twentieth
century, such as Middlemarch, The Woman in White and The Old Wives’
Tale. Their bonds with younger or older siblings, like those of Meg, Jo,
Beth and Amy in Little Women, are often complex and nuanced, and
occasionally devastating.

Covering childhood, adventure, affairs of the heart and mental health,
this book explores the role of sisters in twenty individual entries, each
one providing a synopsis and analysis of the work in question. Including
writers as diverse as Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, J.D. Salinger, Toni
Morrison and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, it makes the perfect read for
book-loving sisters whatever their connection.

Available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Janet+Phillips+Literary+sisters&i=stripbooks&crid=120Q0745RU4Y2&sprefix=janet+phillips+literary+sisters%2Cstripbooks%2C100&ref=nb_sb_noss

JANET PHILLIPS is the author of Great Literary Friendships (Bodleian
Library Publishing, 2022).

11.30am-5pm every day except Mondays and 24-27 June, until 5 July

Free exhibition

13 examples of modern figurative sculpture, from all over the world, including a Gormley and a Frink, disposed exquisitely around Worcester’s beautiful gardens.

Alumni and University card-holders may visit at any time; everyone else must book.

Full details and free ticket applications here: https://www.worc.ox.ac.uk/college-life/art/sculpture-in-the-garden

Image: Anderson Borba/Fisher Studios

Thursday, July 2  •  6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

The workshop will help independent authors with how to market and brand themselves and their books, with lots of practical tips to take away.

Tickets £10 at:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/marketing-and-branding-for-independent-authors-tickets-1987309988673

Cowley Library, Temple Road, OX4 2EZ

WiO member Alison Baxter launches her new historical novel, A Fatal Choice, with free refreshments.

Open event, but register here: A literary evening with Alison Baxter Tickets, Wednesday, July 1  •  5:15 PM – 6:45 PM | Eventbrite

Wednesday 1 July, 7pm

St Barnabas Church, Cardigan St, Jericho OX2 6BG

Sylvia Vetta will be discussing with Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick the long tradition of writers on Jericho, from John Betjeman and P.D. James through to Jake and Annabel’s newest novel, Diagnosis or Death. Tickets £5 from

https://www.universe.com/events/my-jericho-literary-jericho-tickets-TFP7MX