It was 3 am, that most oppressive and black time of night. Stillness enveloped my room, the shutters drawn, a pile of books on my desk, a jacket over the back of my chair. Small, familiar things: the quiet comforts of unthinking life. But darkness hung over me heavily, the silence taut and brittle. There was something airless about the scene. It was all too delicate, too fragile — as though preserved in a vacuum, under a scientist’s bell jar.

“God is dead''. Nietzsche’s brutal cry still rings with an apocalyptic tenor when stamped in black ink on the page; and whilst I am no longer an existentially-angst ridden teenager, I nevertheless find myself in agreement with him here. God is dead — and we are responsible...

At the venerable age of 22, in my final year of university, my future lies before me. Unlike my female forebears, this horizon of mine is a glittering and precious thing — it glimmers with freedoms they could never have dreamed of. The choice between career and family is no longer dichotomous: I don’t have to choose, I am told, because these days we women “can have it all”...

At a recent dinner party, I made the mistake of casually letting slip that I hail from Lancaster, in the north west of England. A shiver passed through the room, accompanied by horrified gasps from round the table. One brave soul broke the stunned silence: “gosh, you don’t seem northern”...

Not for the first time in his life, Russell Brand has seen his name and image plastered across newspapers in recent weeks. A host of allegations are levelled against him, pertaining to sexual assault, rape, harassment, and stalking. The accusations are serious and, if true — which Brand denies — the victims undoubtedly deserve justice. The question, however, is what that justice looks like...

After briefly shaking our heads, expressing quiet sighs of dismay and commenting that ‘something really must be done’, most of us move on after hearing such staggering statistics. Mr Fernando Morales de la Cruz –– a human rights activist, journalist, and social entrepreneur, who spoke last Saturday at a TEDx event in St Andrews ––– however, is an exception. For the past seven years, he has been fighting to eradicate child labour and exploitation in global supply chains. FaceTiming me from the Eu...

Last spring I set out from St Jean Pied de Port, a sleepy hamlet in the dewy foothills of the Pyrenees, to walk nine hundred kilometres across Spain. Somewhat unnervingly, I managed to reduce my life to just five kilograms worth of belongings. I was armed with my rucksack, 2000s-style Nokia brick, digital camera, and no comprehension of Spanish whatsoever. Possessing something of an inclination towards the Romantic, I left my iPhone at home...