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7 07, 2015

Amazing public art in Oxford

By Sylvia Vetta|July 7th, 2015|Categories: China, Art & History, Oxford Castaways|0 Comments

It looks like Weimin He's insightful depictions of the development of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter will  remain on display for 3 or 4 years. Take the  newly created short cut between Walton Street and Woodstock Road  and  you will see his

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7 07, 2015

The power of love is at the heart of the story of Icolyn Smith

By Sylvia Vetta|July 7th, 2015|Categories: Oxford Castaways|1 Comment

Often the people who are the most generous  are not  wealthy in terms of money. Icolyn is one of those.  Born to a subsistence farmer  in rural  Jamaica  she came to Oxford in 1965. Empathy  was all she had when she started

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29 06, 2015

Art CONNECTS Oxford and China Centenary Exhibition of work by Fang Zhaoling and Sylvia’s review of Xu Bing@The Ashmolean

By Sylvia Vetta|June 29th, 2015|Categories: Art, China, Art & History|0 Comments

  Yi Chen is Christensen fellow at the Ashmolean (  I first met Weimin He when he held that post. ) She and Shelagh Vainker curated this delightful exhibition. I can recommend it if you need to slow down, relax and enjoy a

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28 06, 2015

My July 2015 castaway celebrates 100 years of the WI.

By Sylvia Vetta|June 28th, 2015|Categories: The Oxford Times|0 Comments

Pauline Goddard is the Chairman of the Oxfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes in this special year for the organisation.  Oxfordshire has 142 branches. I assumed the WI was quintessentially English but I was wrong:  it was a Canadian invention. The

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10 06, 2015

Whose arrived on Oxtopia in 2015? Legs Larry Smith, Lady Carnarvon, Georgina Ferry and Aidan Meller are joined by Katie Read

By Sylvia Vetta|June 10th, 2015|Categories: Oxford Castaways|0 Comments

Tim Metcalfe’s apt title for this month’s castaway feature (June 2015) is ‘What Katie Did Next.’ The Katie in question is director and publicist Katie Read. At only 37 she already has  a string of achievements in the theatre. Now

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8 06, 2015

The launch of Stealing Dylan from Woodstock.

By Sylvia Vetta|June 8th, 2015|Categories: Oxford Castaways|0 Comments

 Artist and castaway, Weimin He's on the spot sketch of the launch of Stealing Dylan from Woodstock. Ray and Caroline Foulk asked me to compere their book launch on June 9 in Blackwell at 7-8pm. When I cast Ray away

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7 06, 2015

Reflections on radicalisation

By Sylvia Vetta|June 7th, 2015|Categories: Letters to the press|0 Comments

Published in The Oxford Times on Thursday March 3 2016 Alison Boulton, in her feature Radical Approach to Terror, interviewed Professor Roger Griffin of Oxford Brookes University ahead of his lecture on March 16. Researching the background to my novel

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5 04, 2015

The launch of ‘I Love You All’

By Sylvia Vetta|April 5th, 2015|Categories: Events, Kennington|0 Comments

Tim Metcalfe, before his tenure as editor of Oxfordshire Limited Edition came to an end, agreed to send Trevor Cowlett to Oxtopia . My April 2015 Castaway was not famous like castaways  Sir Roger Bannister or  Peggy Seeger  but is the director of a

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9 03, 2015

Georgina opens the door to Science and to the inspirational Dorothy Hodgkin

By Sylvia Vetta|March 9th, 2015|Categories: Oxford Castaways|1 Comment

Our March 2015 castaway is the author,broadcaster and journalist Georgina Ferry. Georgina is brilliant at communicating science and telling stories about scientists to non scientists. She is the biographer of Dorothy Hodgkin of whom she said, “She was the least

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21 02, 2015

How Ray Foulk stole Dylan from Woodstock

By Sylvia Vetta|February 21st, 2015|Categories: History|1 Comment

I feel privileged. My thirty first castaway, Ray Foulk, was the man responsible for stealing Bob Dylan from Woodstock (NY) and luring him to the Isle of Wight. For a few days in 1969 the eyes of the world were

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About the Author

As a writer Sylvia Vetta is best known in the Oxfordshire area for the 18 years she was a freelance writer on The Oxford Times and other magazines,  especially for her popular ‘Oxford Castaways’ series which gave her the opportunity to write the lives of  120 inspirational people from five continents. Her novels cross cultures but have impressive endorsements for their authenticity. ‘Brushstrokes in Time’ set in China and California wouldn’t have been possible without the three years she spent researching and interviewing Qu Leilei, a founder of the Stars Art Movement (Beijing 1979) who saved the life of the first leader of the Democracy Movement. It has been endorsed by China experts from Oxford, Harvard and Frankfurt and the poet Jenny Lewis says it is “Utterly mesmerising and unforgettable and among my top ten historical novels.”

‘Sculpting the Elephant’ set in Oxford and India, is close to her own life experience. Her Indian born partner Atam Vetta’s PhD was in Quantitative Genetics. She learned from him that each one of us is unique. Life has taught her that when you see your fellow human being as just that – a unique human being – and refrain from attaching labels you react with empathy. That is why she and one of her Oxford castaways, Nancy Mudenyo Hunt, have been able to co-author the novel ‘Not so Black and White’.

Recent Posts

  • Reptiles- scarily up to the minute!
  • Anglo Indians : Prejudice and my own experience of it .
  •  The Rise and Rise of Oxford Indie Book Fair. Why? Is it tapping into a need? 
  • Come Together – Flow Together: the only way to solve the world’s problems.
  • I’m impressed: is this really my book?

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