This afternoon, Mark and I had the real pleasure of joining around a thousand people at Oxford Town Hall for the 2026 Lunar New Year Celebration, organised by Oxfordshire Chinese Community & Advice Centre. Lunar New Year is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar. It is about family, tradition, food, colour, music and…
I genuinely thought pantomime season had packed up its wigs, foam swords and improbable plotlines for another year. Apparently not. Last night, Mark and I were at The Cooper School in Bicester for this year’s production from the Launton Village Players – and what a gloriously unexpected evening it was. The title was Treasure Island….
It was a genuine privilege to support the Mayor of Bicester at her Civic Charity Dinner this week – an evening full of warmth, pride and just the right amount of joyful chaos. Councillor Alisa Russell, elected in May 2025 as the Liberal Democrat Mayor of Bicester for 2025–2026, is based at The Garth. She…
There are few things more joyful, more life-affirming, than a Scout and Guide Gang Show done well. Tonight I had the enormous pleasure of attending the Oxfordshire Gang Show at ’s theatre – and what a show it was. For those who may not know, the Gang Show tradition began in 1932, when brought together…
Tonight I had the pleasure of speaking to the Bicester Local History Society at the Clifton Centre, kindly invited by my good friend and fellow villager, Bob Hessian. It was a wet February evening – the sort that would have given everyone a perfectly respectable excuse to stay at home – yet the room was…
There are some weekends that remind you exactly why community matters. Today was one of them. I had the great pleasure of opening the One World Family Festival 2026, a vibrant celebration of the many communities and faiths that call Oxfordshire home. This year’s theme was Nature – a wonderfully unifying choice. After all, whatever…
This evening I was the guest of the Mayor of at a reception to thank the voluntary organisations of the town. It was one of those quietly uplifting evenings that reset one’s understanding of what really keeps a community functioning. Throughout this year as High Sheriff, I have been repeatedly surprised by organisations I had…
I have written recently about a carol service at HMP Huntercombe that will stay with me for a very long time. Today’s visit belongs in the same category. Over the past year I have been inside Huntercombe on a number of occasions – for worship, for conversation, for meetings with staff and prisoners. Each time…
A small but important clarification at the outset: it’s St John, not St John’s. They’re every bit as precise about that as the Scouts are about not being called “Boy Scouts”. And quite right too. I was delighted to spend the evening in Banbury with St John Ambulance, hosted by a superb local leadership team….
Last night’s Annual Dinner of the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps was one of those occasions that manages to feel both timeless and thoroughly contemporary. Held in the magnificent surroundings of Balliol College, the dinner brought together more than one hundred officer cadets and their guests, filling the hall with that distinctive mix of ceremonial…
