Greener, brighter, better

Keeping the Aularian community connected

Throughout the pandemic the Hall has worked hard to keep Aularians connected with the College and with each other.

We have offered networking opportunities and careers advice to alumni and students through the launch of Aularian Connect. With over 1,200 members signing up since its launch in August 2020, the networking site has facilitated interactions between 130 Aularians.

We have engaged with alumni through The Aularian, The Magazine, and the E-Aularian, as well as many other emails! Teddy Hall’s alumni e-newsletter not only provided updates about how the Hall has coped through the pandemic but also shared our successes. Our top read stories included student musicians performing in isolation, refurbishment of the Old Dining Hall and a report on the Hall’s first successful virtual Open Day.

As well as moving Teddy Talks online, we have launched a series of virtual events, including our Aularian Author series and Fellowship Lunchtime Lectures. Highlights have included talks from Al Murray (1987, Modern History) and the inaugural Pontigny Lecture with Lord Mark Sedwill (1987, Economics). The St Edmund Hall Association AGM was held online via Zoom for the first time in its history and over 150 alumni joined to hear from the Principal and the Association. These online events have proved very popular and have given us the chance to connect with Aularians who would not normally have the opportunity to frequent in-person events.

We hope to be able to welcome you all back to the Hall soon, but what we have learnt during the pandemic is just how important digital communications and events are. We look forward to a larger mix of online and in-person events and initiatives in the future.

Al Murray during his Zoom conversation with Richard Kilgarriff

2,000

Over 2,000 members of the Aularian Community have joined one of the Hall’s live talks since lockdown began.

6,149

In the past year there have been 6,149 click-throughs from the alumni e-newsletter to the Hall’s website (www.seh.ox.ac.uk).

150

Over 150 alumni joined the St Edmund Hall Association’s first online AGM to hear updates from the Principal, the Association and the JCR and MCR Presidents.

12

12 Fellows have given lectures on their research between Michaelmas term 2020 and Trinity term 2021.

1,813

1,813 Aularians have listened to the St Edmund Hall’s Association recently launched podcast Spirit of the Hall. Read more about this on page 14.

Fellowship Lunchtime Lectures

From Michaelmas term 2020 to Trinity 2021, St Edmund Hall ran a new online lunchtime lecture series which aimed to highlight the incredible depth and breadth of research across the Teddy Hall Fellowship. These talks have been very popular as students, Fellows, lecturers, staff and alumni have tuned in each week.

All these talks are available to watch on the Hall’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/stedmundhall.

Aularian Authors

During lockdown we launched a new online alumni event series, Aularian Authors, and heard from Linda Davies, Nicholas Evans, Catriona Ward and Jessica-Hatcher Moore. Below is a review of Catriona Ward’s new book The Last House on Needless Street. If you’d like to hear more from Catriona or any of our other speakers, their talks are available on the Hall’s Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/stedmundhall.

Catriona Ward (1999, English) The Last House on Needless Street

A missing girl, a suspicious loner and a woman in search of some answers. So far so usual in the world of the psychological thriller but while the ingredients of Catriona Ward’s The Last House On Needless Street may be familiar, the end result is anything but.

The book is set at the edge of the ‘wild Washington woods’. Since her little sister Lulu disappeared on a family day out, Dee has spent years looking for the person who tore her family apart. Now her search has brought her back to Needless Street and the eponymous ‘last house’ where reclusive Ted Bannerman lives with his cat, Olivia, and daughter, Lauren. The house is neglected, the windows boarded up, and Ted is exactly the sort of misfit to attract suspicion. Though the police ruled him out as a suspect at the time of Lulu’s disappearance, Dee is sure she has her man.

The story unfolds from four perspectives: Ted’s, Lauren’s, Dee’s and the cat’s. Yes, the cat has a voice here and it’s a compelling one. As Ward explains, “Initially, this book sprang from my fascination with the relationship between serial killers and their pets. Dennis Nilsen had a dog called Bleep – the only being he had any kind of functional relationship with. Bleep was the only thing he worried about after being arrested.”

It’s hard to describe The Last House On Needless Street without giving it all away. Suffice to say Stephen King describes it as “a true nerveshredder that keeps its mindblowing secrets to the very end.” But it isn’t just a page-turner in the King tradition. It’s also an affecting account of the creation of a monster, with echoes of To Kill A Mockingbird’s Boo Radley. The compassion with which Ward approaches the real subject of her story, which will have to remain a surprise, is evident in every line. The book’s conclusion will leave you heartbroken but perhaps a tiny bit hopeful too.

Review by Chris Manby (1990, Experimental Psychology)