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The Isis

Cover of the Hilary 2020 issue ofThe Isis
Type	Termlymagazine at theUniversity of Oxford
Owner(s)	Oxford Student Publications Limited
Editor	Alice Robey-Cave and Violet Aitchison[1]
Founded	1892
Language	English
Headquarters	Folly Bridge,Oxford
Circulation	c. 4,500
Website	isismagazine.org.uk

TheIsis is a student publication at theUniversity of Oxford, where the magazine was established in 1892. Traditionally a rival to the student newspaperCherwell,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.

TheIsis was founded byMostyn Turtle Piggott, the first of the student editors, on 27 April 1892.^[2] In his first editorial he wrote:

"We have no politics and fewer principles, and should we last until theGeneral 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 MrAlbert Chevalier says) without being vulgar."

In its early days, theIsis was owned and published by theHolywell 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. TheIsis was an accurate recorder of proceedings in theOxford 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 ofOUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society) seemed to guarantee an appearance in print. Some of the Idols featured pre-1939 wereLord David Cecil andT. E. Lawrence; it was not until 1935 that the editors judged a woman worthy of being featured as an Idol – Lady Katharine Cairns^[who?] being the first.^[why?]

After the beginning ofWorld War I, theIsis ceased publication for four years, until it was resurrected in 1919 byBeverley Nichols, who produced the opening issue entirely by himself:

"the great fact remains thatOxford is still here, a little dazed and unsteady perhaps, but Oxford all the same, and it is to sing of Oxford thatThe 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 betweenThe Isis and the freshly establishedCherwell by writing for both. TheIsis was disparagingly referred to in theCherwell as "The Was-Was".

The 1930s were times of much political turmoil inEurope, yet serene in theIsis - but then, so were they in the rest of the British press. A couple of articles more flippant than political in tone resulted in theIsis being banned inGermany in 1935. Only a year later, the magazine had again to suspend its operations until 1945, to re-emerge with new strength.

TheH-bomb was a significant topic for debate in 1958, and the magazine published a whole issue on the subject consisting of unsigned articles. Two of the undergraduate contributors, William Miller and Paul Thompson, were both ex-national service, and wrote aboutBritishIntelligence operations on the borders of the Soviet Union.^[4] The two men were prosecuted under section 2 of theOfficial Secrets Act 1911, and sentenced to three months imprisonment. As result, the proprietors at Holywell Press saw the need to step in, with the objection that the staff was now "definitely left-wing and will almost inevitably remain so."

The definite article dropped from its title, in the 1960s theIsis turned its guns on Oxford. In Michaelmas Term 1961 under EditorPaul Foot, the magazine began publishing reviews of university lectures. Of themselves the reviews attracted little interest outside the university. However, the decision of the university's Proctors to ban them triggered a national outcry. Three years later, under editor Chris Meakin,Isis had a second attempt. This time it succeeded and theProctors, despite a fierce intellectual battle with the Editor using their Proctorial Summonses, at length found it simpler to back down under the spotlight of national newspaper interest. The debate revolved around the disagreement: who was doing more to "bring the name of the university into disrepute"? > > the reviews by exposing in public the worth of university lecturers > > or the Proctors by banning the reviews? Isis won. The Reviews then lasted for several terms until less-connected editors lost interest. Exceptionally the Editor also undertook the role of leadOxford Union critic himself, as noted above a position of considerable influence around Oxford University from the magazine's earliest days.

For theIsis Idol in his term, Meakin prophetically chose the (much later) novelistJeffrey Archer, who showed no literary flair whatever at Oxford and never wrote for theIsis. The magazine did not only criticise Oxford. One issue during that same term was mainly devoted to an on-the-spot examination of acontroversial parliamentary election in theBirmingham-areaconstituency of Smethwick, where the widely criticised Conservative candidatePeter Griffiths was considered to have fought aracist campaign. To produce that particular issue,Isis took a coachload of undergraduate journalists to Birmingham for the day. The result was an edition of the magazine which was widely admired and which Paul Foot hailed as "one of the best thingsIsis has ever done." Following his editorship, Meakin produced a weekly satirical column "The Fifth Column", a title that has been borrowed numerous times since; it then took him about fifty years to produce his first novelThe Chinese Ocean published in June 2015. It was probably a record delay for editors of the magazine; he followed this in 2017 with his non-fiction "The Origin of Economies."

Meantime the first of several attempted rescues came from businessman,Robert Maxwell, and hisPergamon Press on Headington Hill, Oxford. In a risky business move, a national student publication was created -Isis National, which began distribution in Spring 1964. The editor, Peter Gillman, mixed the customary Oxford news with subjects of broad appeal in cinema, the arts and elsewhere. One notable issue was devoted to the movie The Servant, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Dirk Bogarde, who were interviewed along with other cast members and technical crew. Gillman felt the editorial mix was appropriate but Maxwell's typically grandiose plan failed because he did not arrange a viable method of distribution. Maxwell departed in 1970, making theIsis an entirely independent and student-run company. The "University" tag was scrapped, and theIsis was also distributed at the Oxford Polytechnic in Headington (nowOxford Brookes University). Quite soon, the absence of solid financial backing caused the frequency of publication to be cut by half,^{[citation needed]} and theIsis 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 andRichard Burton"^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, after a series of growing financial crises, "Isis Publications Ltd" was created. Today theIsis is a termly magazine owned and published byOxford Student Publications Ltd and is an anthology of poetry, investigations and art. TheIsis also runs events for students in Oxford.

TheIsis has been the springboard for careers in literature, the theatre and television, with specific influences inPrivate Eye andWestminster politics.Isis alumni includeHilaire Belloc,Evelyn Waugh,Harold Acton,Graham Greene,John Betjeman,Michael Foot,Jo Grimond,Sylvia Plath,Sue Lloyd-Roberts, playwrightDennis Potter,Adrian Mitchell,Charles Graves,Robert Robinson (the BBC broadcaster),Richard Ingrams (former editor ofPrivate Eye),David Dimbleby (BBCQuestion Time), Paul Foot (former deputy editor ofPrivate Eye),Ian Bradley (BBC and The Times),Alastair Macdonald (deputyPermanent Secretary at theDepartment for Trade and Industry),Derek Parfit (All Souls philosopher),Christopher Meakin (journalist, economist, banker},Peter Gillman (writer and journalist),Mary Kaldor (Professor at LSE),Sally Laird (writer, translator and editor),^[5]Gyles Brandreth (MP and entertainer) andTerry Jones (actor). Then in the "only four issues a term" era:George Osborne,Nigella Lawson,Jo Johnson andBen Goldacre.^[6]

• The Isis website
• Billen, Andrew and Skipworth, Mark.Oxford Type. Robson Books, 1984.

• The Isis website
• Oxford Student Publications Ltd

• Magazines established in 1892
• Mass media in Oxford
• Publications associated with the University of Oxford
• Student magazines published in the United Kingdom

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