JosephClark

I grew up in South East London — it's a wonderful city. I have many fond memories going to all the galleries and museums with my mum, and it's amazing how accessible many of these institutions are. It does seem like such a boundless city, there's always more to discover, and of course its history is unparalleled.

I'm from Ngāti Ruanui in Taranaki. Whilst I wasn't able to spend much time there in my adolescence, my whakapapa has been the centre of many school and artistic projects I've undertaken. It's always been a source of pride and something I can fall back on.

From one of the school projects Joseph mentions above.

I originally wanted to study economics, but I didn't take A Level Maths, so not many courses in the UK would take me. As I read up on philosophy and politics too, I thought I might as well pick PPE — and now, retrospectively, I'm sure I'll prefer it much more than if I'd taken economics alone. From there it was simply that Oxford was known for having the best PPE programme. I thought there was no point in being under-ambitious.

I took the day off from school because I felt certain I wasn't going to get the offer and didn't want to be surrounded by my peers when I received it. I was pretty shocked when I read the letter, as you can probably imagine, and I got in touch with both my parents and went out to dinner to celebrate.

Yes, I suppose there's a feeling that you should represent your culture in such a prodigious institution, but on the whole I'm pretty relaxed about it. I'd be pretty stoked to see any other Kiwis there, but there's no point in being too prescriptive. I'm lucky enough for my offer to have a brief residential period before term actually starts, so any pressures or anxieties will likely dissipate thanks to this head start.

I'd always read somewhat regularly since I was about 14, but at some point I grew rather dissatisfied with how much I was reading, so I set myself a challenge of reading 100 books in 2025. The TikTok was originally just a way for me to keep track of the books I was reading and my thoughts — but over time, positive feedback and support from the people around me and the community led me to pursue sharing good books in the way I do now.

Especially in the UK, it's surprisingly hard to find people my age doing my kind of content, and I do discuss a wide range of books, which lets me cater to a wider audience. I try to set a welcoming atmosphere and regularly respond to and converse with members of my community, and I hope my passion comes through in my videos.

I try not to set favourites, but one that has definitely changed the way I approach the medium is Tlooth by Harry Mathews — an incredibly experimental book charting the narrator's leaving of prison and his travels around the world. It's lucid and operates almost on its own fevered dream logic that challenges the reader and confronts the art form itself.

I'm trying to keep it pretty open. Its versatility is a really useful facet of the degree — I haven't put my foot down on any definite career at the moment, but I'm hopeful for the opportunities university will give me.

Whilst London is a beautiful city, I'm definitely looking forward to living elsewhere for a change — but primarily I'm just excited to meet new people who share similar passions to mine, and hopefully expand the kind of content I'm doing with my book reviews.

Take that leap. Without spending months making videos to little viewership, I wouldn't have cultivated the community I have now — something that would have seemed absolutely unachievable to myself setting out. Without applying, although I originally had pretty poor grades and didn't feel like someone "Oxford bound," I wouldn't have gotten to this point with my offer.