
The latest edition of QE’s creative magazine, The Arabella, includes a look at the eponymous Lady Arabella Stuart, exploring her tragic life but also her lively intellect and talent for writing.
Year 12 pupil Keon Robert’s profile thus demonstrates how apt it is that the magazine carries the name of this claimant to the throne (pictured here), who died in the Tower of London in 1615 at the age of just 39.
Her connection to the School is that she stayed for some months in Barnet in the house of Thomas Conyers, a QE Governor, after falling ill en route to Durham, while Rev Matthias Milward, also a Governor and subsequently Master of the School, attended to her spiritual needs.
Keon’s piece is among some 50 items to grace the pages of the richly illustrated magazine, which has as its overall theme, Legacy. Those with access to the School’s eQE may access The Arabella here.
The student editorial team were assisted by staff including Library Services Assistant Corinna Illingworth, who said: “We are grateful to writers and artists from all years to give us their interpretation of Legacy, from looking into influences from the past to investigating movements that will guide our duty for the future.”
The magazine includes colourful artworks supplied by the Art department, as well as poetry and articles on Politics, Science, Classics and Modern Foreign Languages. The Languages section includes boys’ entries to the national Anthea Bell Translation Competition.
Head Editor Timi Banjo, of Year 12, wrote in his foreword: “In this 13th edition of The Arabella, we celebrate the imagination and critical engagement of our students across a broad landscape of thought…Each page of this magazine is a tribute to Arabella Stuart’s defiance and brilliance, and the remarkable voices of our students who, like her, challenge the world through the written word.”
Timi leads a 12-strong team drawn from the senior year groups.
Here are just a few examples of the varied content:
What will be left of the Conservatives? Poem by Ishaan Uplanchi, Year 7
- A villanelle on villainy. Poem by Adyansh Sahai, Year 9
- The Legacy of the British Rule over South Yemen. Politics section. Kabir Chadha, Year 7
- Portrait of Immortality: Legacy of Oscar Wilde. Politics section. Hari Rathakrishnan. Year 11
- How the Romans’ section impacted Britain. Classics section. Anirvinn Lakshmipuruam Sudarsan. Year 7
- Birth of German Nationalism – The Thirty Year War of 1618-1648. History section. Agam Chaudhary, Year 11
- The Evolution of Medicine Through History. Science section. Tanay Shetty, Year 9
- The Unsung Hero – Martin Cooper. Science section. Anish Bhattacharyya
- Country and Character: The Patriotic Yearnings of Joachim du Bellay’s ‘Les Regrets’. Modern Foreign Languages section. Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen, Year 11.
- Translations of an excerpt from coming-of-age book, ‘Wie der Wahnsinn mir die Welt erklärte’ by Dita Zipfel. Anthea Bell Translation Competition entries by Parth Jain, of Year 10, and Akshaj Vyas, of Year 11.
The 63 pages of the online magazine are interspersed with artworks in a wide variety of styles by pupils drawn from year groups throughout the School.
Shown here, top to bottom, are pieces by: Vineet Raaj, of Year 7 (which is used on the front cover of the magazine); Arin Gupta, of Year 9 (after the portrait of Arabella Stuart); Neel Sinha, of Year 9; and Yashinth Sivananthan, of Year 11.