Press Reports and Media Packs

 

The Cheeky Guide to Oxford
by David Bramwell
Second Edition, published in 2003, price £5.95

"Comprehensive and highly entertaining" says the blurb on the bottom of the cover. This is the unvarnished truth, and very little further reviewing is needed.
Besides, I suspect that any attempt to illustrate the Guide's comprehensiveness is doomed to be quite dull. You don't want to hear that travel and shopping and eating and drinking and dancing and town and gown and this and that and the other have all been thoroughly addressed.

So instead, I'll just give you a number of examples of the Guide's surreal, subversive humour and then call it a day. In anywhere but Oxford such snippets would stand out as obviously exuberant disinformation, but Oxford has so much peculiar tradition that I occasionally found myself wondering.

Try for yourself, true or false :

"Barges, steamboats, canoes and catamarans regularly bring the more adventurous travellers to the city, although parking is becoming an increasing problem and canoe theft is rife."

"Students still have to take an oath that they won't take sheep inside the Bodleian Library, and statistics suggest that each book in the library is read once every sixteen years."

"The Bridge of Sighs…. was built in the late 19th Century to connect Hertford College Old Quad with the New Quad and to give its students ease of access between the two. After a survey .. revealed that of all the students in Oxford, Hertford's were "the most portly", it was blocked up as part of the college's efforts to ensure its students got more exercise."

"At the beginning of every century, tradition decrees that after dinner on All Souls Day, Fellows and Masters grab sticks and torches and go wandering around the college grounds and rooftops, pretending to search for the ghost of a mallard duck."

At least one of the above is true, to my knowledge.

I should perhaps reassure readers that essential information is presented in a breezy and straightforward style, such that they will not be led astray. And that's it. This, like other Cheeky Guides, of which I've browsed a couple, comes highly recommended. Unless you're a pompous old sod, of course.

Ian Threadgill 4/8/03

Download Media Advanced Information sheet for Student Life Here

The Cheeky Guide to Student Life - ISBN: 09536110 35 - 384 Pages
The Cheeky Guide to Student Life is the essential item that no student can afford to be without. The book offers a tongue in cheek insight into all aspects of student life with useful tips, anecdotes, games and advice (most of which is legal). It is a humorous but highly informative whistle-stop tour of everything the modern-day student needs to know for squeezing the best out of their time at university.

Along with chapters on accommodation, food, housing, finance and politics, the book also includes some Cheeky trademarks including a photo-love story, the weirdest places to study in the UK, how to plagiarise essays, the best male-to-female ratios for each college, stories about infamous students and lecturers, advice on how to ditch your childhood sweetheart, and what to do at the end of it all should you find yourself with a 2:2 in Philosophy and completely unemployable.

Large front cover image download here
Small front cover image download here

From the Daily Telegraph September 12th 2002

Question:
Our son is off to university soon and is secretly anxious about it. Could you recommend a guide that will smooth his path as well as lift his spirits?

Answer:
I have greatly enjoyed The Cheeky Guide to Student Life. It conceals a wealth of useful information and sound advice behind a mildly anarchic facade. Your son will quickly come to recognise its wicked caricatures of campus life, and he will also learn things you probably cannot tell him. "No degree, no matter how esoteric," the guide concludes, encouragingly, "is entirely worthless." It is published by Cheekyguides Ltd (www.cheekyguides.com) and costs £8.95

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Book of the month - New Insight Magazine
The Cheeky Guide to Student Life
by David Bramwell et al
Cheeky Guides pbk £8.95

Brighton's Cheeky organisation (some of whom, let's be up front about this, have occasionally been known to grace these pages) continue their march towards world domination by turning the spotlight on the undeniably tricky business of surviving life as a student. And as ever, they take what is surely a unique approach to the dispensation of wisdom: start with the comedy and kind of bolt the advice on afterwards.

True, all the stuff that needs to be tackled properly (sexual health, depression, drugs) is handled accurately and well. But it's when the subject matter gets light that the authors really get serious, with in-depth analyses of such perennial topics as hang-overs, penis size, dealing with floaters, and traffic cone abuse. Really, The Cheeky Guide To Student Life is nothing so much as a catering-sized dollop of recognition gags and state of the art scatology.

And it works brilliantly well. Open this book at random and the odds are you'll find gags that are laugh-out-loud funny - as well as advice that ís subtly useful in a way that more strait-laced guides might not manage. (See, for example, the cruelly-observed 'Dumping Your Childhood Sweetheart' section.) The result, paradoxically, is a guide to life as a student that's at least as appealing to graduates as it is to teen-agers about to take the educational plunge. Much more of this quality from the CG gang, and and we could find ourselves standing on the verge of a Cheeky millennium.

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Part of the fabulous Cheeky Guide series, this is a hilarious read for past, present and future students.
Prepare for 'laugh-out-loud' moments! - Kickstart life.co.uk

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“Hip, entertaining and in-depth.”
Jody Thompson (NME)

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The Cheeky Guide to Brighton (Third Edition) - ISBN: 0 9536110 6x - 288 Pages

Brighton's best-selling guidebook five-years in a row.

As featured in The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, Travel and Leisure Magazine,
Radio 4's The News Quiz, BBC1's The Holiday Programme…

The Cheeky Guide to Brighton will take you on a factual but comic journey to the many corners of this celebrated town, detailing its famous nightlife, unique shops, restaurants, music scene and gay culture, as well as exploring such singular attractions as the Dolphin Derby, llama trekking, local séances and 'massage' parlours.

Peppered with cartoons and illustrations by local artists, this book offers a wealth of expertise and first-hand knowledge on where best to eat and sleep, it points out famous movie landmarks, gives advice on how to spot your favourite celebrity, and even suggests how to make a tasty casserole from the hind leg of a Brighton traffic warden.

Witty, candid and refreshingly honest, The Cheeky Guide to Brighton really does give an insider's perspective on the town, and, while promoting the cream of Brighton's culture and attractions, is not afraid of
lampooning its tackier side, hence all the jokes about Brighton Marina.

This third edition comes entirely updated with over 500 new entries, fashion tips from a top Brighton celebrity and, after much pestering from our billions of readers, special new chapters for kids, vegetarians and even occultists.

Whether you are staying in Brighton for 3 days, 3 years or a lifetime, this book is a must!

****

“Brighton is the cheekiest town in Britain and if you wish to dive into its cheeky heart.
this guide book will help you do it with a triple somersault and a twist”
Actor / Comedian Mark Little

'A quirky celebration deserving credit for erring
off the beaten track.'
Daily Express

“Comical Trio catch the spirit of our city” Mike Dunford (Brighton Leader)
Extremely informative, and the perfect accompaniment to all that is irreverent,
fun, left-of-centre, amusing, hyperbolic, and wild in this town.”
Jeff Hemmings (editor of The Latest magazine)

“Informative, fun and anecdotal, the best guide around to Brighton & Hove...”
Nigel Berman (editor of New Insight magazine)

“Indispensable”
Surf FM