University of Oxford Student Season: Hilary Term 2026

By Charlotte Ward

In the Kentish village of Lower Hempstead, June 1942, residents crowd into the communal air-raid shelter as bombers thunder overhead. With little to do but wait, the villagers throw themselves into the nearest distraction: meddling in Louise’s love life. Add an intrusive pigeon, an over-eager Home Guard recruit, and the worrying possibility of an unexploded bomb upstairs, and chaos quickly follows.

This piece of new student writing offers a warm, witty take on community, romance, and resilience in wartime Britain.